Summer Reading- book reviews and the like. I usually only get a chance to sit down and do pleasure reading during the breaks off from school. (All the other times, I usually feel to guilty, cuz I'm ALWAYS behind on reading for class. So it's like, I can't do pleasure reading with a clear conscience when I ought to be reading a textbook instead. I've always had a hard time delineating work time and play time. =/) So since school wrapped in May, I've finally had a chance to kick back with some good books.
A lot of the reading was comics, or "graphic novels," to use the term en vogue. I FINALLY finished reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I started reading sometime back in late high school, so I guess it's taken me about 5 years to get around to finishing it. The first two volumes or so of exposition were kinda drab before it picked up, but then it got really good. I liked all the tie-ins of mythology, literature, and history and whatnot. Collectively, the whole series was a very amusing read, though probably hard for most comic noobs to get into. The whole thing altogether is probably a couple thousand pages long, but worth the effort.
(Also finally finished watching the BBC production of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Took me about a year to get around to finishing it due to lack of interest. I mean, the premise of the story's cool and all, but the series was just too freaking British for me. You know, like that series with Rowan Atkinson when he's NOT Mr. Bean? I just didn't get it. Ah well, I've been told the book is better anyways.)
Neil Gaiman's Smoke & Mirrors. This series of short stories was pretty hit or miss. My favorite is still Snow, Glass, Apples that I first read several years back.
Naruto manga. After being a loyal fan of the Naruto anime series for years, I've finally reached the breaking point of not being able to stomach those ghastly filler episodes any more. I put up with them for over a year, when most of my friends had broken after a few months, and I was proud of myself... but no more. Enough was enough- someone deserved to be shot for how bad those filler eps were; "curry of life," omg, I almost keeled over from the nauseating badness. So after years of telling myself "I don't wanna ruin the surprise of the anime by reading the manga," I've finally caved and started reading the manga. I caught up in like a day. It's so satisfying when stuff actually HAPPENS in the plot. Still not as gripping and emotional as the anime could be in its heyday though- I remember I nearly cried when Haku died in the anime.
Craig Thompson's Blankets; it's only the third graphic novel I've ever actually bought. I'd been looking for it at bookstores forever, and I finally happened upon it at a Barnes & Noble way down by Northpark Mall. Anyways, the book tells the story of growing up and first love. I thought the denouement of the love story coulda been fleshed out a little more. But what I really enjoyed the read for was how it portrayed the protagonist's relationship with his brother; I felt it really captured the feeling of what having a brother as a kid was all about, with the imaginative games and the love-hate relationship. There was a lot to relate to. But yea, this would probably be the most girl-friendly graphic novel I've read.
Re-read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Turns out I missed a pretty significant plot point the first time around. Still enjoyed the book upon second reading.
Bridget Jones's Diary. Yeah, yeah, girls' book, I know. It's funny, I remember I got peer pressured into buying it in Vietnam cuz we'd seen it in a store and I revealed later (after many drinks), "yea, I'd never admit it if I was sober, but I secretly kinda wanna read Bridget Jones's Diary!" ...after which, they wouldn't let me live it down, haha. But anyways, it was an enjoyable read; the movie captures the general mood/sentiment, but the book wasn't as Pride & Prejudicey as the movie was. I'd say the book's more about the side-effects of a mother in mid-life crisis. Anyways, I came to the conclusion that single people with low self-esteem, regarless of gender, have quite similar thoughts running through their heads.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga. I read this one before watching X3, mainly just cuz I wanted to know how accurate the movie was to Marvel canon. I still had a vague recollection of the plot from the cartoon series (which I believe is decently faithful to the comics). Long story short, the movie's not faithful at all- the wrong people die, the means of death are different, characters are left out, characters are on the wrong side, etc etc. Not bashing on the movie (it was a fun watch), it just wasn't real "accurate." But hell, I guess it'd confused the hell out of most of the audience if they brought in aliens to resolve things like they're supposed to. Anyways, back to the book(s), I guess it was groundbreaking for its time, with the death of Jean Grey, the moral ambivalence of punishing friends, the greater good, and all that. I dunno if I agree with it being rated one of the best comic story arcs of all time though; maybe I'm just not really into like the old school art style.
Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates. The "Ultimate" line is like a complete rewrite of the Marvel universe that utilizes the same general characters, but changes up their histories and whatnot, and just generally modernized the whole storyline. Sometimes it sticks to the Marvel canon, and other times it doesn't. I really like this line though cuz it tackles more modern issues like terrorism and domestic violence in addition to the usual discrimination and pacifism. Also read House of M - I had no idea the Scarlet Witch was so powerful. And also Marvels- interesting art style, but ultimately not that impressive.
Vampire Loves- Kinda aimless graphic novel about the romantic life of a socially inept vampire. I sympathized with the protagonist in several situations, but overall the story really just doesn't go anywhere. Goodbye Chunky Rice- A sad graphic novel about missing departed friends. Liked it. Spiral Bound- Sort of a Scoobydoo-esque mystery with kid detectives kinda graphic novel, except with animal characters. Didn't care much for this one.
Interview With the Vampire. After playing that vampire computer game a couple months back with no real conclusion, I was hankering for more vampire. So picked up this book, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. And considering the fact that I know I tend to like all things vampire, that's a pretty significant statement. But yea, I like the whole existential theme of the book, and I like the idea that vampires have no more idea than ppl do to "why we're here."
*Movies watched recently, in roughly descending order of my liking:
Shinobi, B13, Science of Sleep, Edward Scissorhands, X3, Lucky Number Slevin, Saved!, The Devil Wears Prada, Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, The Lake House, Talladega Nights, Mission: Impossible 3, My Wife Is a Gangster, American Chai, Cars, The Departed, Corpse Bride, Chungking Express, Versus, Nacho Libre, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Walk the Line, The Perfect Score, Voices of a Distant Star, Elephant, Da Vinci Code, House of Fury, Scanner Darkly, Kung Fu Mahjong
**Anime series watched this summer. I finally finished up Initial D 4th Stage- it was pretty meh. It's not amusing to see them winning on blind luck instead of discovering some new racing skill. And the storyline woulda been a lot more fulfilling if Keisuke woulda just hooked up with that chick. Also watched all of Elfen Lied- was pretty good. It's kinda like Chobits, except that the cute female-ish thing that needs taking care of is a vicious killing machine. A lot of R-rated content like blood & guts and nudity. And the whole incest angle makes you kinda root against one of the characters.
A lot of the reading was comics, or "graphic novels," to use the term en vogue. I FINALLY finished reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I started reading sometime back in late high school, so I guess it's taken me about 5 years to get around to finishing it. The first two volumes or so of exposition were kinda drab before it picked up, but then it got really good. I liked all the tie-ins of mythology, literature, and history and whatnot. Collectively, the whole series was a very amusing read, though probably hard for most comic noobs to get into. The whole thing altogether is probably a couple thousand pages long, but worth the effort.
(Also finally finished watching the BBC production of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Took me about a year to get around to finishing it due to lack of interest. I mean, the premise of the story's cool and all, but the series was just too freaking British for me. You know, like that series with Rowan Atkinson when he's NOT Mr. Bean? I just didn't get it. Ah well, I've been told the book is better anyways.)
Neil Gaiman's Smoke & Mirrors. This series of short stories was pretty hit or miss. My favorite is still Snow, Glass, Apples that I first read several years back.
Naruto manga. After being a loyal fan of the Naruto anime series for years, I've finally reached the breaking point of not being able to stomach those ghastly filler episodes any more. I put up with them for over a year, when most of my friends had broken after a few months, and I was proud of myself... but no more. Enough was enough- someone deserved to be shot for how bad those filler eps were; "curry of life," omg, I almost keeled over from the nauseating badness. So after years of telling myself "I don't wanna ruin the surprise of the anime by reading the manga," I've finally caved and started reading the manga. I caught up in like a day. It's so satisfying when stuff actually HAPPENS in the plot. Still not as gripping and emotional as the anime could be in its heyday though- I remember I nearly cried when Haku died in the anime.
Craig Thompson's Blankets; it's only the third graphic novel I've ever actually bought. I'd been looking for it at bookstores forever, and I finally happened upon it at a Barnes & Noble way down by Northpark Mall. Anyways, the book tells the story of growing up and first love. I thought the denouement of the love story coulda been fleshed out a little more. But what I really enjoyed the read for was how it portrayed the protagonist's relationship with his brother; I felt it really captured the feeling of what having a brother as a kid was all about, with the imaginative games and the love-hate relationship. There was a lot to relate to. But yea, this would probably be the most girl-friendly graphic novel I've read.
Re-read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Turns out I missed a pretty significant plot point the first time around. Still enjoyed the book upon second reading.
Bridget Jones's Diary. Yeah, yeah, girls' book, I know. It's funny, I remember I got peer pressured into buying it in Vietnam cuz we'd seen it in a store and I revealed later (after many drinks), "yea, I'd never admit it if I was sober, but I secretly kinda wanna read Bridget Jones's Diary!" ...after which, they wouldn't let me live it down, haha. But anyways, it was an enjoyable read; the movie captures the general mood/sentiment, but the book wasn't as Pride & Prejudicey as the movie was. I'd say the book's more about the side-effects of a mother in mid-life crisis. Anyways, I came to the conclusion that single people with low self-esteem, regarless of gender, have quite similar thoughts running through their heads.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga. I read this one before watching X3, mainly just cuz I wanted to know how accurate the movie was to Marvel canon. I still had a vague recollection of the plot from the cartoon series (which I believe is decently faithful to the comics). Long story short, the movie's not faithful at all- the wrong people die, the means of death are different, characters are left out, characters are on the wrong side, etc etc. Not bashing on the movie (it was a fun watch), it just wasn't real "accurate." But hell, I guess it'd confused the hell out of most of the audience if they brought in aliens to resolve things like they're supposed to. Anyways, back to the book(s), I guess it was groundbreaking for its time, with the death of Jean Grey, the moral ambivalence of punishing friends, the greater good, and all that. I dunno if I agree with it being rated one of the best comic story arcs of all time though; maybe I'm just not really into like the old school art style.
Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates. The "Ultimate" line is like a complete rewrite of the Marvel universe that utilizes the same general characters, but changes up their histories and whatnot, and just generally modernized the whole storyline. Sometimes it sticks to the Marvel canon, and other times it doesn't. I really like this line though cuz it tackles more modern issues like terrorism and domestic violence in addition to the usual discrimination and pacifism. Also read House of M - I had no idea the Scarlet Witch was so powerful. And also Marvels- interesting art style, but ultimately not that impressive.
Vampire Loves- Kinda aimless graphic novel about the romantic life of a socially inept vampire. I sympathized with the protagonist in several situations, but overall the story really just doesn't go anywhere. Goodbye Chunky Rice- A sad graphic novel about missing departed friends. Liked it. Spiral Bound- Sort of a Scoobydoo-esque mystery with kid detectives kinda graphic novel, except with animal characters. Didn't care much for this one.
Interview With the Vampire. After playing that vampire computer game a couple months back with no real conclusion, I was hankering for more vampire. So picked up this book, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. And considering the fact that I know I tend to like all things vampire, that's a pretty significant statement. But yea, I like the whole existential theme of the book, and I like the idea that vampires have no more idea than ppl do to "why we're here."
*Movies watched recently, in roughly descending order of my liking:
Shinobi, B13, Science of Sleep, Edward Scissorhands, X3, Lucky Number Slevin, Saved!, The Devil Wears Prada, Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, The Lake House, Talladega Nights, Mission: Impossible 3, My Wife Is a Gangster, American Chai, Cars, The Departed, Corpse Bride, Chungking Express, Versus, Nacho Libre, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Walk the Line, The Perfect Score, Voices of a Distant Star, Elephant, Da Vinci Code, House of Fury, Scanner Darkly, Kung Fu Mahjong
**Anime series watched this summer. I finally finished up Initial D 4th Stage- it was pretty meh. It's not amusing to see them winning on blind luck instead of discovering some new racing skill. And the storyline woulda been a lot more fulfilling if Keisuke woulda just hooked up with that chick. Also watched all of Elfen Lied- was pretty good. It's kinda like Chobits, except that the cute female-ish thing that needs taking care of is a vicious killing machine. A lot of R-rated content like blood & guts and nudity. And the whole incest angle makes you kinda root against one of the characters.
posted by Dear Daniel at 9:00 PM
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