“Welcome, booklings, to the bibliographic lair of the Blogbrarian!…

Behold, the Behemoth of books!...

Tremble at his terrible typing…”

Oh dear, oh dear!…I crave your indulgence, Blog-followers, for that was me trying to write in the style of a fantasy novelist – Hmmm: didn’t really cut the mustard, did it?...

Never mind, dear readers, for here’s a novelist who really knows his fantasy onions:

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/

The famous and hugely successful writer George RR Martin is doing the rounds at the moment, and has been in London recently promoting his books: he seems an admirable cove, never seen without a hat, he’s a great proponent of books and reading in all their forms, and is the owner of a rather grandly unkempt beard…

So, dear readers, “why oh why oh why” do I not immediately swoon before him, eh?

Shall I tell you?

It’s because of all those flipping initials, that’s why! What’s with the ‘RR’ bit, eh?

I know very well that lots of great writers and thinkers are best known by their initials…

We’ve HE Bates, DH Lawrence and JR Hartley, of course…

JG Ballard, HG Wells and LL Cool J…

PG Wodehouse, AS Byatt and WG Grace…

There’s DBC Pierre, PD James, EM Forster and Mel B…

All fine, regular and upstanding, chaps, I`m sure…

And not forgetting my own particular favourite, the world’s coolest glove-wearing dude, Mr Will I Am - (although, as a trained cataloguing practitioner, I confess that I`m having the devil of a job devising how to correctly file him alphabetically…”AM, Will I”?...”I am, Will”?...WILL, Am I”?...Oh dear, I think I need a little lie down).

And, obviously, some of our finest fantasy writer chappies have their initials at the beginning, which is eminently sensible – JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and JK Rowling and so forth…

But why oh why oh why do other SF authors also bung initials in the blooming middle? Frankly, dear readers, as my old pal J Lo would have said “It does my crust in!”

There’s Philip K Dick (that’s “kindred”, since you ask), Laurell K Hamilton, Stephen R Donaldson, Iain M Banks, Sheri S Tepper, Robert A Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke..
Why? (Or ‘Y’?)… What is the XXXX point?

Does anyone know?

Grrrrrr!

Apologies, dear readers, but this type of thing drives me into a terrible and fearsome rage… I might need another lie down, simply to calm my nerves...

“And, thus spoke the weary Blogbrarian - for he had toiled much, and raged mightily against the upsurge of middle initials, but to no avail…and hence he slunk away, back into a dark, quiet corner of the library, to ponder, to brood, and to plan his ultimate vengeance against the dark forces of the middle initial”…

BFN