John Scalzi is a science fiction author I learned about through my colleague. Scalzi is one of the more widely read bloggers in the realm of Science Fiction and has recently published a series of his more popular blog posts from “Whatever”. The book is  entitled, “Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded” and interestingly enough, he won the Hugo award for “Best Related Book” for 2009 and was awarded the prize at last year’s World-con. This is only interesting because of the books nominated, his seems to be the least-related to science fiction on the list.

I was only peripherally aware of Mr. Scalzi, his writing, and his blog before reading the book, but found him an interesting and quick read. Like me, he is from the Gen-X era, so I could easily relate to many of his cultural and pop references. One my personal favorite pop references in his book includes his comparison of the new muppets to the old- obviously the Muppets have gone downhill since the death of Jim Henson as the new muppets are too “normal”. I will also somewhat sheepishly admit that I was also taken in by  his in-depth look into the underlying assumptions that can be made about the famed “Cereal Mascots”, ie. Trix the Rabbit needs therapy.

A few of his posts do relate specifically to science fiction; there is an interesting article about how to deal with any clones you may have in your home-one worthwhile piece of advice he has is that you should not expect them to mow your lawn for you. In another post, he discusses his sheer and utter disappointment with George Lucas and the entire Star Wars series.

If you are a huge fan of our former President “W”, are opposed to gay marriage, or are terribly offended when someone takes the Lord’s name in vain, you might find yourself contributing to some of his hate mail, which might make the next edition if you’re lucky. On the other hand, if you like a person who can criticize both Democrats and Republicans easily, and who does not mince words when it comes to his criticism of religion and Christianity particular, you may find him to be a kindred spirit of sorts.

As a fellow writer, I was impressed by his depth of knowledge into a large variety of subjects, which give an added and unusual depth to the standard run-of-the-mill bloggers out there. Of course, this is probably why he won the Hugo and why his blog gets 40,000 hits per day.