Notes from a DVD Geek

by Jeremy Lassen

DVD’s, as a home video format, are one of the best things since sliced bread.  Not only do they offer incredible sound and picture quality, they can include bonus materials that can greatly enhance your appreciation of your favorite movie,  and/or provide some fascinating background material that puts that odd little movie into a larger cinematic context.  Another thing they offer is alternate cuts of the film.  Sure, the extras are often puff features that were produced to run on E!, and sure the “alternate cut” is sometimes just an extra 15 seconds, so that the marketing people can justify putting “special super secret preferred directors edition” on the cover.  But sometimes. . . sometimes you get the goods.  Sometimes the studios do the DVD’s up right.

January Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1. Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton (UK)
2. The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
3. Olympos by Dan Simmons
4. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
5. Accelerando by Charles Stross
6. Learning the World by Ken Macleod
7. The Night Land and Other Perilous Romances by William Hope Hodgson
8. Liaden Universe Companion by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
9. 9Tail Fox by John Courtenay Grimwood tied with The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett
10. Healthy Dead by Steven Erikson

Paperbacks
1. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
2. Gridlinked by Neal Asher
3. Declare by Tim Powers
4. Family Trade by Charles Stross
5. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
6. The Skinner by Neal Asher
7. Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
8. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
9. The Musashi Flex by Steve Perry
10. Hawkes Harbor by S.E. Hinton.

Trade Paperbacks
1. The Graveyard Game by Kage Baker
2. Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
3. Air by Geoff Ryman
4. The James Tiptree Award Anthology vol. 2, edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy. Debbie Notkin and Jeffrey Smith
5. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks