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Carly's Book Challenge
2. Shortcomings - Adrian Tomine
Excellent B&W graphic novel. Notable for its last words. "We all have our reasons."
That wasn't a spoiler, was it?
3. Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1 - Marcel Proust
Far more readable than I expected from the granddaddy of modernist novels. Now I understand why people go on and on about this guy. I checked out Swann's Way and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana after hearing them mentioned in Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. Proust's analogies are so dead on; he describes experiences you've been having all your life without knowing they could be put into words. I read Lydia Davis' translation, which I heard was the most true to the original. Highly recommended. I'm now considering reading Jonah Lehrer's Proust was a Neuroscientist (which isn't just about Proust) since it links my two favorite things: art and science. Really, Proust has more to say on the workings of the inner mind than any psychologist I've ever read. And I'm only on Volume 1.
4. Rabbit, Run - John Updike
Wow. So much going on in this book. I'm still savoring it.
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 - Alan Moore
I heard the movie was awful, but the graphic novel is just fun. Inventive, great art.
6. 300 - Frank Miller
Also, great art. Not quite as stylized as the movie. I think I'm going to read some non-fiction on the Hot Gates battle. Really brings history to life.
7. Omega: The Unknown - Jim Mooney
A cult classic comic book series that only made it 10 issues. There's some depth to it, despite the parade of ridiculous villains Omega has to fight (El Gato the witch-doctor, a madman whose only weapon is a wrench, etc.) I planned on reading Jonathan Lethem's adaptation of the story, so I figured I should read this first.
8. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana - Umberto Eco
Still trying to figure this one out. More philosophy than fiction here. I think there's a Moby-Dick theme going on here; a desire for the intangible, the impossibility of understanding God, etc. Our protagonist, Yambo, has lost his memory and tries to relearn his past by reading the books of his childhood. He learns that he was once obsessed with a girl to whom he never spoke more than a few words. This experience becomes the key to his idenity. He has spent all his life looking for the unattainable woman, not to capture her, but to become a sort of heroic Cyrano, to have her finally appreciate his silent devotion. But when Yambo regains his memory, her face remains a blur.
Maybe we all have unattainable, inexplicable ideals to chase. Do they make our lives worth living or lead to our downfall?
9. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Frank Miller
Good one. They need to make movies about Miller's elderly Batman.
11. The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation - Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
I'd never be able to get through the real 9/11 Commission's report, so this was a good substitute. I'm one of those people who's rather secure in our government's ability to protect and provide for us. It was a wake-up call for me to see how ill-prepared and ill-equipped we were to handle the 9/11 attacks.
12. Sin City, Vol. 1: The Hard Goodbye - Frank Miller
Good stuff. I'll have to read the rest of the series.
13. An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories - Ivan Brunetti, ed.
Found a lot of cartoonists to add to my to-read list. Yay.
14. The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had - Susan Wise Bauer
An interesting approach to self-education. Inspired me to put my books in chronological order (once I get them out of storage).
15. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic - Alison Bechdel
Agh. Best graphic memoir ever. Bechdel writes the way a memoirist should write: self-conscious, yet unafraid, brave enough to inject her own story into the Great Conversation via countless literary references, brave enough to honestly depict her own insecurity.
16. Too Cool To Be Forgotten - Alex Robinson
I read too many comics. This one's good. The scene at the end with the dying father is overly sentimental, but it still got to me.
17. In Hovering Flight - Joyce Hinnefeld
Normally I wouldn't pick up a book with flowers and birds on the cover, but this one managed to deal with death and love with honesty and a minimum of sentimentality.
18. The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite - Gerard Way
Better than I expected. Still the pacing was a bit off and the dialogue occasionally lackluster. Interesting story though, hopefully the next episode is less awkward.
Skipping this one for now: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
I'm half-way through and am getting no enjoyment out of this book. The protagonist is so uninteresting that I can't go on. Supposedly this is one of the best books of the 20th century, but I can't find anything good to say about it. Maybe I'll come back to it and try to figure out what's so great about it. Maybe somebody will produce a translation that doesn't make the characters seem so wooden and empty.
19. The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard - Eddie Campbell
One of the quirkier graphic novels I've enjoyed. The art is very good. & the story makes more sense if you read it as a dream sequence.
20. Sin City, Vol. 2: A Dame to Kill For - Frank Miller
I kinda prefer The Hard Goodbye to this one, but it was pretty good, if lacking in originality story-wise. Fabulous art though.
21. Summer Blonde - Adrian Tomine
Love this guy's stuff. Especially the story about the loner who inadvertently (but gleefully) destroys the happiness of the object of his affection and the two men she's involved with.
23. Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born - Stephen King
This is sort of a graphic novel prequel to the Dark Tower series. The art is excellent, just the way you'd expect a Stephen King novel to be illustrated. The story's actually pretty good as well.
24. What It Is - Lynda Barry
Part collage, part memoir, part self-help book? I don't know, but it works.
25. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
This is one of those books you have to read multiple times. Hopefully I'll have time to reread this one.
27. Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories - Gilbert Hernandez
Loved this book. Kinda wish there'd been a family tree to keep everybody straight.
28. Love & Rockets, Book 1: Music for Mechanics - The Hernandez Brothers
Not as good as Palomar, but it has its moments of brilliance. The story "Somewhere in California" is the best.
29. CRUDDY: An Illustrated Novel - Lynda Barry
I know I've said before that I love Lynda Barry. Why can't more YA books be like this?
30. It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken - Seth
Good art, lots of snowy landscapes. Seth himself is rather endearing.
36. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware
I love Chris Ware's art. This book is really beautiful.
38. Zot!: The Complete Black-and-White Stories: 1987-1991 - Scott McCloud
39. I Can't Tell You Anything And Other Stories - Michael Dougan
40. 2666 - Roberto Bolano
44. The Madame Paul Affair - Julie Doucet
Art = awesome. Story = meh.
45. King-Cat Classix - John Porcellino
Really great stuff. Kinda makes me wish I'd been a teenager in the early 90s, or at least pre-Internet.
So I'm currently working on Don Quixote and Volume 2 of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (or Rememberance of Things Past). I've never really been scared of the classics, but it is encouraging to be reading "the great books" and actually enjoying it. Balancing it out with comic books helps, too.
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Books mentioned in this topic
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (other topics)Shortcomings (other topics)
Swann's Way (other topics)
300 (other topics)
Rabbit, Run (other topics)
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