As long as I'm here . . .

Me again.

I have a favor to ask. I'm approaching the end of my list of books to read. Pretty soon I'll have to just go to the library and start grabbing books off the shelf, which I've never had great luck with.

So I wanted to beg all you lovely relatives for any and all suggestions you could throw out to me. I miss the book reviews we had on here when the blog first started (not that I put any up myself until a few minutes ago - sorry!). It doesn't matter if you don't know what kind of books I like. My only preference in trying new books is that I like each one to be totally different from the last one I read. So anything goes.

Call me, email me, or just toss the title up here on the blog so I (and everyone else) can see it. But please don't let me end up at the library looking aimlessly around the shelves.

Understanding Comics

I know this is random, since it's been a while since anybody posted here, but I want to throw this out for your consideration. I've been reading a few graphic novels lately (that is, books written in comic book form). There are some I've really enjoyed, like Maus, which many of you have probably read. There are others, like Jimmy Corrigan, which I couldn't get into at all. Seriously, I can't figure out why that one is considered to be so wonderful.

Anyway, I started wondering about graphic novels in general, and how they've flown under my radar for so long when there are such good ones out there. So I picked up this book: Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud. It's a comic book written about comic books. It has the information you'd expect if you picked up a textbook on the subject, but the layout and the way McCloud explains things make it fantastic. It's intelligent, thorough, and often quite funny. I kept thinking that if every textbook were written like this, even the school classes I hated would've been okay.

I don't know if any of you are interested in comics or graphic novels, or if you enjoy nonfiction at times, but if you like either one you should pick this one up. I'd never read anything quite like it, and I learned a lot.