Reading in 3D

So lately I've also been read/rereading some graphic novels or comic collections. I have a love/hate relationship with comics because I devour them so quickly that it doesn't seem worth the price unless they are graphic novel sized. Which is the whole explanation for why even though I am a fan of Japanese culture I never have been a manga fan... though I do still want to read Akira.

Anyway, pulled somethings off of my sister's shelf recently the first being Neverwhere based on the story by the illustrious Neil Gaiman, written by Mike Carey, art by Glenn Fabry. I couldn't remember when I grabbed it if I had read it already and by the end of the second page I remembered the rest of it but reread for the details anyway. I have not read the novel but I can see that there are missing depths. That they are all fully formed characters who are just stopping by for this story. Perhaps it is just the speed I read but the whole story seems kind of rushed. The panels are almost all busy, full of action, full of people. The few glimpses of space are either hallways or darkness. I still liked the story but it lacked a certain conviction.

The next was Pride of Baghdad written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Niko Henrichon. I'd read all of Vaughan's other series Y: The Last Man and remember really liking it but this was my first time to read this one. I really liked the color scheme for this one and the arch of the story was interesting. I liked the twists and turns. The individual character voices seemed a little off to me but I couldn't say why. Maybe something to do with how much personification was going on with the animals. Over all I liked it alot, more for the look and story than for the characters.

The largest one on this pile was Black Hole by Charles Burns. It's a black and white story of teenagers and STDs that show up as mutations of the body. The story tracks over itself some but you can feel the teen angst loud and clear. The insecurities and awkwardness almost makes it hard to enjoy. The one clear voice to me was the girl but then it ends up as another teen boy's obsession. It wasn't a story I would read again but it was definitely worth reading once.

The one I'm really excited about the The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross. I only have the first book which makes me really impatient because there are like six now and I have absolutely no money. Anyway it's about Tomas Taylor who is supposedly the inspiration for his father's beloved novels about a boy wizard but his father has disappeared and he is accused of being a fake son. The most interesting part is some shadowy organization that controls writers over the centuries and Tom's dad is trying to fight them using Tom and his stories. However that's as far as the first book gets me... The storytelling is fun because it uses several media and jumps between perspectives at carefully orchestrated moments and because of the different media and pov's the art gets to be fun as well. Basically I'm languishing till next week when I'll get a little money to read one or two more issues.

Anyways that's that for now, your friend emotional reading-wreak signing off.
Let me know if there's a genre you think I should cover or you have some suggestions or something.

A Page in the Wind

I finished 1Q84 about a month ago. Leading up to the end all you wanted was for it to turn out alright, for the protagonists to make it. Then it ends and they do and it is simple. After so many hundreds of pages it is simple... and you don't know whether to rejoice or regret. But it's over, and that is that.

My sister finally got me to read Shadow and Bone and the sequel Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. The first one was good but the second was better. It's a trilogy but since the second just came out it will be a while till there's more. The story made me think about the common theme of commoners being raised up because of some hidden innate power or ability. It really brings readers/people in because we all want to be told 'of everyone here you are special, you are singular, you are the only one.'

I also reread A Ring of Endless Light and Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle. A ring of endless light is just so spot on. It makes you want to be in that family that discusses philosophy and poetry. It reminds you of the questioning of affections, of life, of love, of death and despair. I have read few books that really convey this depth of feeling, definitely none others with this breadth and elegance. It is a series of waves washing upon the shore, high tide and low but always beautiful. Troubling a star was my favorite of her books for a while but I think the two are equal. I love a mystery and a poem. Who wouldn't want to visit Antarctica? 

I also read a series by this woman I met at my Japanese class, The Biophilia Omnibus by Wena Poon. I really liked it. The first book was so emphatically first person POV that I felt I was missing alot of details that make it feel 3d but the rest of the books made up for it. Sci-fi and futuristic and dystopian and mythical and a female protagonist who kicks ass. Not to mention that all the literature and opera references made me super happy. 

I have felt terrible lately, so I've buried myself in books and netflix and hockey(to an extent). Next is Le Tour de France which is my favorite time of year. Reading Bukowski is a great way to commiserate. Most of the books on my currently reading list are things I have put down and haven't had the interest or energy to pick back up yet. Though I saw a really interesting movie called Upstream Color that made me think about finishing Walden. A ring of endless light has made me feel like writing a bit though and I started doing some painting a couple weeks ago when my sewing slackened off. But the last couple of days have felt the worst and I am eager to find a therapist just to do something about it.

Currently reading:
Love is a Dog From Hell by Charles Bukowski
Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell
Just One Thing by Rick Hanson
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

As the year moves on...

As my recent ambitions have not panned out, I am returning to this idea. Even if I am the only one to ever read it.

Since December I have read:

Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I like the way he finds the underlying thread in so many distinct areas and rationally draws them all together. The later books have a bit more cohesively constructed overall concept than the first one but I liked them all.

I bought myself the fancy penguin published hard backs (as pictured below) of Jane Eyre, which I reread, Pride and Prejudice, which I have yet to reread, and a collection of seven Dickens novels. I have started reading Hard Times but am only a few chapters in and have only picked it up once or twice a week lately.
I also bought a leather-bound copy of The Mill on the Floss but didn't get very far with it because of the writing style. I am determined to finish it at some point but for now it is not of much importance.
I do really enjoy the penguin publisher copies because they make the reading experience a bit more special and helps to put me in a mood to cherish the book itself and my reading time.

I am about half-way through A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and also picked up an Astronomy textbook which I've read a chapter or so of but then got distracted.
I really like Stephen Hawking's tv show on the science channel and it is a bit easier to understand the concepts when they are explained with visuals and such.

I've also recently read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho which is a spiritual fable of sorts. I found it ok in general except I kept thinking how male centric it was and how a woman in that same world would not be allowed to journey after their dream in that way.
I read The Dude and The Zen Master by Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the kind of message I needed at the moment. I would like to delve into some more zen reading but I am not able to buy anything until April so I will have to wait. Maybe that should be part of the practice. I am also 'reading' Just One Thing: developing a buddha brain one simple practice at a time by Rick Hanson which I read a chapter from every couple of days. Its not really a cohesive book in that it has a story or anything but it is more like a list of things to think about during your day or different approaches to the things you confront in your day particularly yourself. 

Anyway currently working on:

Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power and Etiquette in Japan ed. by Laura Miller
Just One Thing: developing a buddha brain one simple practice at a time by Rick Hanson
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (finally in the last third of the book)
Walden by Henry Thoreau (halfway, why is it so long anyway?)
The Origins of the Modern World by Robert Marks (for when I have a history itch to scratch)
Hard Times by Charles Dickens (its green with horses on it)
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (brief but dense)

I guess those are the ones I'm actively (ish) reading at this point. Been doing quite a bit of hand sewing so that has taken up lots of time. Oh and I went to SXSW last week and did nothing else that whole week. It twas fun and a bit exhausting. I also have been watching NHL games cause my sister got me into that so.
Ok that's it.