Editor’s Note: Matt Ruff will be reading from his 2008 PNBA Book Award-winning book Bad Monkeys, freshly released in paperback, at the Ballard Branch Library this Thursday, August 21at 6:30 p.m, in conjunction with Secret Garden Books. (Matt will also be reading at Queen Anne books on Tuesday, and coming up in October he will be reading from a new work at the Richard Hugo House). 
If you haven’t had a chance to read Matt Ruff’s Bad Monkeys yet, do yourself a favor and get it into your To Be Read pile now. It is that wonderful combination of a book that you cannot stand to put down, even though it is actually exploding your head into happy little shards. It is no surprise, then, that Matt has a diversity of interesting reads on his nightstand, and we thank him for offering us a glimpse of what keeps a mind like Matt’s supplied with creative fodder:
In the Red Zone: A Journey into the Soul of Iraq by Steven Vincent – Vincent is a former artcritic turned war journalist who was killed in Basra in 2005. This book, published just months before his death, describes his first trip to post-Saddam Iraq. I’m reading it as part of the research for my next novel.
Watchmen by Alan Moore – A highly praised DC Comics series by the author of V for Vendetta. There’s a movie version due out next year which has been generating lots of Internet buzz, so I decided to pick up the collected edition of the original books and see what the excitement is about.
Forbidden LEGO by Ulrik Pilegaard and Mike Dooley – A book of instructions for building LEGO models that violate LEGO Corporation safety rules. My favorite is the High Velocity Automatic LEGO Plate Dispenser, which gives you fourteen chances to accidentally poke someone’s eye out before you have to stop and reload.
Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand – This one’s been in my to-read pile ever since Liz gave a reading at Hugo House earlier this year. At the reading, John Clute made an intriguing comment that it’s a novel that is best approached without any preconceptions about what kind of story it is. Since I’ve only just started it, I can’t say yet whether I agree, but I’m liking it so far.
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang – Another story that’s been on my to-read list for a while.
House, M.D., Season 4 and Dexter, Season 2 – OK, these are DVDs, not books, but some of the best writing and storytelling around these days is on series TV, so just pretend.
River of Gods by Ian McDonald – Set in India in 2047, it’s got nine major characters, each with a separate subplot. Sounds like my kind of juggling act.
Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen – My wife Lisa and I are both poker fans. This book by Danish poker pro Gus Hansen gives a hand-by-hand description of how he played and won the 2007 Aussie Millions no-limit hold ‘em championship.
Pie in the Sky by Susan G. Purdy – My latest cookbook purchase, this is a guide to baking at high altitude. Since I live less than a hundred feet above sea level it’s of no practical use, but I like collecting weird reference material. Call it more research-somewhere in one of my future stories, there’ll be a character who needs to bake muffins on Everest.
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