23 December 2009

Pride and Prejudice ... and Zombies

So today I walked into my local HMV looking out for potential Christmas presents. Didn't find anything that would make good presents for my parents, but I did stumble upon something that picked my curiosity.

I saw a book titled Pride and Prejudice, which I though was pretty weird for HMV to carry. But upon closer inspection, turns out that the full title is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Being a zombie aficionado, I just had to buy this (especially since it was 25% off, so retailing at 15$ including taxes).

Here's the first page:
IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.

     "My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is occupied again?"
     Mr Bennet replied that he head not and went about his morning business of dagger sharpening and musket polishing—for attacks by the unmentionables had grown alarmingly frequent in recent weeks.
     "But it is," returned she.
     Mr Bennet made no answer.
     "Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
     "Woman, I am attending to my musket. Prattle on if you must, but leave me to the defense of my estate!"
     This was invitation enough.
     "Why, my dear, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune; that he escaped London in a chaise and four just as the strange plague broke through the Manchester line."
     "What is his name?"
     "Bingley. A single man of four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"
     "How so? Can he train them in the ways of swordsmanship and musketry?"
     "How can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them."

...


Anyway, I never read the original, but to have a zombie novel taking place in early 19th-century England, with aristocrats as protagonists... Well that's just fucking brilliant.

And so I begin my read of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I'll post another blog after I finish reading it.

05 December 2009

New ''book-class'' released, WikiProject Wikipedia-Books looking for volunteers

Here's something I wrote for this week's issue of The Wikipedia Signpost. I trimmed some technical sections for brevity.

By Headbomb, 30 November 2009

Wikipedia books can be downloaded electronically in PDF or ODT formats, or ordered in print.


On 23 October 2009, WikiProject Wikipedia-Books, PediaPress, and the Version 1.0 Editorial Team discussed the best way to monitor Wikipedia-Books (collections of articles that can be downloaded electronically or ordered in print, not to be confused with Wikibooks; see previous story). As a result, a new WP 1.0 assessment class was created: the book-class.

This book-class would permit individual WikiProjects to monitor the various books that fall in their scope, and thus oversee merges, renaming, deletions, and so on, by tagging the talk page of individual books with the projects banner (with |class=book). WikiProjects that are interested in adopting the book-class can do so by [...] contacting Headbomb.

WikiProject Wikipedia-Books is also looking for volunteers to join the WikiProject and help convert Good topics and Featured topics into books, as well as participate and create discussions about all things related to Wikipedia-Books.

For more about Wikipedia-Books, see Wikipedia:Books and Help:Books. For pages that need to be tagged by WikiProjects, see Category:Wikipedia Books. To create a Wikipedia-Books, click on "create a book" in the print/export box on the left side of your screen [when editing wikipedia as a logged-in user].


References

• Headbomb (30 November 2009). "News and notes: New book-class released, WikiProject Wikipedia-Books looking for volunteers", The Wikipedia Signpost, 5 (48). Accessed 2009-12-05.