Traveling for work always helps me knock out huge chunks of reading. My flights to and from Calgary provided ample reading time to plow through a couple hundred pages of my book. Since last installment, I discovered a book of poems that pairs nicely with my Civil War reading and pared down my comic book pull list. As always, the comments will be a live discussion on what we're reading.
Civil War Reading List
I finished Red Badge of Courage shortly after posting my last reading update. My goal is to knock out a large chunk of Battle Cry of Freedom before starting the next book on my list, Gone With the Wind. However, I found Herman Melville's Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, which was written during the "war of Northern aggression" and goes nicely with the history book.
Battle Cry of Freedom
Author: James McPherson
Genre: History
Status: 505 pages in
Notes: Good progress since last time. I'm at the end of 1862, and U.S. Grant is starting to climb the ranks.
Battle-Pieces
Author: Herman Melville
Genre: Poetry
Status: 84 pages in
Notes: I'm reading this on Google Books. I got a little ahead of McPherson and stopped at Gettysburg.
Comic Book Pull List
Pick-ups since last update: Action Comics (13); Atomic Robo: The Flying She-Devils of the Pacific (3); Batman Inc. (0); Batman: Dark Knight (0); Daredevil (18); Daredevil: End of Days (1); Dark Horse Presents (16); Dial H (5); Fashion Beast (2); Fatale (8); Godzilla: The Half-Century War (2); Happy (1); Harvest (3); Mind MGMT (5); Revival (3); Shadow (5); Swamp Thing (13); and Wolverine & X-Men (17).
A couple new titles in Daredevil: End of Days, Happy, Mind MGMT and Wolverine & X-Men, the latter of which was a one-time occurrence because Mike Allred, one of my favorites, was guest artist. Dark Knight is getting dropped after this current arc ends.
This week's books are being held by my comic book store after I set up a permanent pull list because of my inability to get to the store early enough to avoid him selling out some of my weirder titles.
Despite reading mostly print comics, the spotlight this week goes to Insufferable, a weekly online comic by current Daredevil writer Mark Waid.
Insufferable
Issue: Week 22
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Peter Krause and Nolan Woodard
Publisher: Thrillbent
Notes: Online comics were my gateway to reentering the printed comics world when I discovered Warren Ellis's FreakAngels, which followed the same format as a printed book. Insufferable is the first online comic I've found that adapts to the computer screen and the inherent storytelling capabilities of clicking through. The story follows the adventures of an estranged father and son super-hero team. The son is an insufferable media whore, hence the title of the comic. Someone is manipulating them to get back together, which could ultimately tear them apart for good. All 22 issues are available for free at the Thrillbent website. Check it out.
Well, teammates, now it's your turn. What's been keeping your reading lamp on? And good book-beverage pairings? I'll meet you in the comments. Cheers!
7 comments:
As you've hit a fast forward patch, I've hit snooze a bit on the reading. Just finished Denisovich and prolonging the next selection process. Heading to the shelf to peruse...
How about something light and fluffy. I hear Proust is a quick read.
One of my fellow soccer parents is a Russian lit prof at the local university and provides me with reading material form his courses. I have way more Russian Lit than anyone would ever want. Or need. But at least he explains everything I missed while watching our lasses play soccer. He's like a walking/talking Cliff Note.
I was wondering about your recent obsession with the Russian writers.
Just more Buffy for me. Finished Season8, Volumes 1 through 5. Amazon just graciously delived 6 through 8. I'm getting what I want out of them - the continuing story. Now that I've learned the pacing of the writing, I can hear the quick and snarky banter of the television series. Light and easy fun. After Season 8, I might take a Buffy break and try out a couple of selections from classic hero comics.
@ David...I love that you are reading Buffy. I need to get all of the season 8 (only have about 10) and the new season.
I'm reading currently (and about to finish) World War Z, a war account of the zombie war. It's fantastic. And it gives you excellent survival tips for the impending zombieapocolypse.
@ David - Glad you're liking the Buffy books. I'm planning on hitting some old classics in the next year, like the first few years of Superman and some 1970s Batman. Lots of good stories available in trade paperback.
@KW - Welcome to the club. I've heard great things about WWZ. In a similar vein, I'm thinking of adding Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer to my Civil War reading list.
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