I always do better at the beginning of the year than later on, so I’m not going to crow too much about being on track for reading 50 this year, particularly since two are graphic novels that took less than 20 minutes to read. Nevertheless, here’s the round-up:
The first and last books I read this month are The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony by John Scalzi. Continuing on in the Old Man’s War universe, the first is from the perspective (mostly) of Jane Sagan, although not in the first person like OMW. The second is once again from first person perspective of John Perry. While TLC explains more of the politics of the OMW universe, I found TGB to be more interesting reading due to the issues of sentience and self-hood that Scalzi explores in the story. The fourth book, Zoe’s Tale, is on my reading list for this month.
Star Trek: Art of the Film is one that I read and reviewed for Blogcritics. It’s “is part coffee table book and part behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creation of the film.” Most of what I have to say about it, I said in the review, so check that out if you’re interested.
I started reading the new Wonder Woman comic series last year, and I found that I’m missing the context of an incredible amount of backstory, so I picked up copies of the first two trade paperbacks, Who Is Wonder Woman? and Love and Murder. It’s still a bit confusing, since even though they are the start of a new series, there is still an underlying assumption that the reader is familiar with the history of Wonder Woman. Me, I just vaguely remember the TV show. Anyway, I think I’ll continue getting the trade paperbacks instead of the single issues. It’s more cost-effective, and I need the longer story arcs to keep track of what’s happening.
I’m so glad that trade paperback compilations of comic books exist. I liked comics as a kid, but as a grown-up I find reading single issue less than satisfying. I don’t have the patience to wait between publication dates. It is bad enough with book series, but at least I feel like I’ve gotten a full story with each installment.
Same here. I always wait to get the trade pb/compilation of a comic book series. I am not patient enough to be buying the single issue (let alone remember getting it when it comes out). And even when it is an older series, it is new to me anyways. I also read OMW and TGB, but stopped after TGB. I loved OMW, but was not so satisfied with TGB (loved the exploration of the Ghost Brigades itself, but the story only left me lukewarm). We’ll see.
Best, and keep on blogging.