Boozy Book Club No. 5

With Frankenstorm keeping me from running, last night seemed like a good time to visit the library. Mrs. Viper had never gotten her Akron library card, and it was about time she did so. We have a small branch library in our neighborhood, but she wanted to experience the shock and awe of the four-story main building downtown.

My wife had a book recommendation she was hunting down, while my reading list was already full. However, that didn't stop me from picking up something else to occupy my time. It turns out our library has pretty decent selection of graphic novels and trade paperbacks.

Since I recently began reading the current Swamp Thing series, I've been wanting to go back and read some older stuff, primarily Alan Moore's run in the 1980s. The library has a solid collection of Moore's work.

You may have heard of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which all were turned into movies of varying degrees of quality (or lack thereof). While I haven't read everything of his, everything I've read I've loved.

I happily picked up the first volume of Saga of the Swamp Thing and promptly read half of it. My other reading selections have been a bit slowgoing since last update.

Civil War Reading List
We're at a standstill after making great progress. My book has sat unopened on my nightstand for most of the last couple weeks. Just to say that I did, I read a little bit of Battle Cry last night.

Battle Cry of Freedom
Author: James McPherson
Genre: History
Status: 510 pages in
Notes: Yeah, not much change since last time. I need another long flight.

Battle-Pieces
Author: Herman Melville
Genre: Poetry
Status: 84 pages in
Notes: Still reading on Google Books. Still at Gettysburg.

Comic Book Pull List
Pickups since last update: Amazing Spider-Man (696), Batman: Dark Knight (13), Batman Inc. (4), Dark Horse Presents (17), Mind MGMT (6), Revival (4), Shadow (6).

Tomorrow's pickups: Fashion Beast (3), Fatale (9) and Happy (2). Also probably the Action Comics and Swamp Thing annuals.

Still haven't dropped Dark Knight, as the current arc is decent. I'll likely drop Dark Horse Presents now that Sam Kieth's Aliens story just ended and the book is almost $8. Shadow might be axed too.

Saga of the Swamp Thing
Book One
Writer: Alan Moore
Artists: Stephen Bissette (pencils) and John Totleben (inks)
Notes: Moore took over the Swamp Thing series in 1984 at issue 20. The first chapter wraps up all the loose ends from the previous writer and sets up one wild ride. Moore crafts some great stories.

What have you been reading, teammates? Any good book-beverage pairings? (I was sipping Laphroaig with my reading selections earlier this week.) As always, a live book chat follows in the comments. Cheers!