READERSVOICE.COM: Generally, what sort of books do you like to read?
JEFF SOTO: I used to read more in college than I do now. It's sad but I never seem to have the time to read a book. When I get home after working I just want to sleep.
When I do have time I like to read fiction. I love the old Sci-Fi writers from the 50's, they had such an interesting view of spaceflight and what we'd encounter in the universe. I get all these old books from my dad who's a big time reader of horror and Sci-fi. I really love The Martian Chronicles.
I used to read 'popular fiction', y'know, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon. The first book over 100 pages I read was Swan Song by McCammon in 6th grade.
I have a huge collection of art books but I usually don't read them, I just check out the pictures. I just read half of a book last night that I'm illustrating the cover for. It's a campy horror tale called Gil's All Fright Diner. It's a story about a werewolf and a vampire that get sucked into a small town's zombie problem. I'm really enjoying it so far, it was nice to just read for hours.
I've also started a book called The Radioactive Boyscout, a true story about a kid who started experimenting with radioactive materials.
My friend Darren just gave me a book by Vonnegut that sounds cool, I just need to find time to read!
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RV: What are some of your favorite magazines or newspapers, or websites?
JS: Magazines- I have subscriptions to Spin, Playboy, Juxtapoz, Jane, plus I get tons of magazines from illustration work.
I like reading Newsweek and National Geographic. Also occasionally I'll pick up random magazines like Men's Health, Tropical Fish hobbyist, Giant Robot, Vice, Tokian, Fine Scale Modeler, Communication Arts, Rolling Stone... I usually get my news at BBC news online
http://news.bbc.co.uk
or CNN.
Some websites I frequent:
http://www.fecalface.com
http://art.blogging.la
http://www.macrumors.com
http://anaheim.angels.mlb.com
http://www.theispot.com/arttalk
http://www.crowndozen.com
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RV: Can you list your five favorite books of all time, whether fiction, biography, art books, anything, and maybe say why you liked them?
JS: Professor Wormbog in Search of the Zipperumpazoo by Mercer Mayer. Still one of my favorites. The art is so perfect for the story with all its subtle details. A real masterpiece.
Mythopoiekon The art of Patrick Woodroffe. An English artist/illustrator, his work was and is inspirational to me.
Battle Circle by Piers Anthony. One of the Soto brothers' favorite reads. Epic in scale.
Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit I read all these before the movie came out and loved them. Tolkien is the man!
Also: 1984, Swan Song, Che, the new Clayton Brothers book, Broken Wrist Project, and the hundreds of art books I collect.
RV: What's your daily routine usually?
JS: Wake up, get ready and head out the door. I try to get into the studio by 9:30 then start looking through email and taking care of office stuff (such as record keeping, organizing, and returning calls). I try to get a few hours of painting in each day. Lately I've been really busy with both illustration work and gallery shows so my routine is all messed up and differs day to day.
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