Posts by Thomas Knowlton

Director Krzysztof Kieslowski, although best known for his Three Colors trilogy (Blue, White, and Red) and the French/Polish production Double Life of Véronique, produced the vast majority of his work in Communist-era Poland.

As a student at Lódz Film School, he was greatly influenced by Ken Loach's Kes, as well as works by fellow alumni Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi.

Werner Herzog's singular, uncompromising career in filmmaking spans over four decades and has included feature films, documentaries, and even two works (Little Dieter Needs to Fly and Rescue Dawn) that offer, respectively, a nonfiction and fictional retelling of the same event.

Regardless of genre, each of his films seems preoccupied with the place of humans within the natural world and the instability of both fiction and reality. Herzog strives for a concept he has termed "ecstatic truth," which is "mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and sylization." (Herzog on Herzog, p. 

If you missed the big news, The New York Public Library now offers free ebooks for your Kindle! To celebrate, I've put together a somewhat exhaustive list of science fiction ebook titles to make it easy to browse them at a glance.

Click to go directly to any author: Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, China Miéville, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Vladimir Sorokin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Need help? Check out this useful step-by-step guide to downloading Kindle ebooks. Many of these titles are also available for the Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony E-reader as well.

Every November, thousands of aspiring authors and literary daredevils from around the world attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days as part of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short.)

The New York Public Library is hosting NaNoWriMo Write-ins all over the city, creating an opportunity for you to meet other participants, work on your novel, and be cheered on to the lexical finish line. Some do it for the digital certificate and sense of achievement, while other NaNoWrimo novelists eventually go on to have their works published. Why you write, what you write, and how you write it, is all up to you!

Thank you for joining us for the June edition of Reader's Den. We hope that you have enjoyed reading (and discussing) Software by Rudy Rucker and that you will return for E.M. Forster's A Room With a View in July!

For our third installment of this month's Reader's Den, let's take a look at what Rudy Rucker's Software has to say about humans, technology, and what it means to exist.

Thanks for tuning in for the second discussion of Reader's Den for June! This month we are discussing the science fiction classic Software by Rudy Rucker, which is the first book in The Ware Tetralogy.

Welcome to the June edition of Reader's Den at The New York Public Library!

This month we will discuss Rudy Rucker's Software (1982), the first book in the Ware Tetralogy science fiction series, which also includes Wetware (1988), Freeware (1997), and Realware (2000). 

To participate, simply request a print copy through the NYPL Catalog or download a free, Creative Commons-licensed ebook (available in Kindle, Nook, and Sony eReader formats). 

Summer Reading is not just for aliens, kids, or cyborgs anymore! Here at Mid-Manhattan Library, we are gearing up for a universe of different events for older teens and adults this summer.

NEW! You can also log all of your summer books, movies, music, and even video games by creating an account at www.summerreading.org.

NEW! Follow us on Tumblr for free sci-fi downloads throughout June, July, & August.

Take a look below to see just some of our upcoming Sci-Fi Summer 2011 programs and keep your eye on this space for even more!

For the first half of this list, see Best Creative Commons Music of 2010, Part 1 featuring recent releases by Pixelord, Girl Talk, Geotic, Kristin Hersh, and Gepel.  As with the initial post, all of the music below is available as a free download under a Creative Commons license.

Also, if you are interested in learning more, sign up for the Friday, March 18 Creative Commons Music class at Mid-Manhattan Library.

All of the music below is available as a free download under a Creative Commons license. To learn more, sign up for the Friday, January 21 Creative Commons class at Mid-Manhattan Library.

Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short?