Here we go again

It's going to be good this time. Everything's a lot better, I really want to do my best and get some good work out, and a lot more of it. I feel I have time to make up.

So far... well mostly I've been reading. I miss reading, so I've been doing a bit more of it.

Books
Life of Pi - Yann Martel - This was a title we could have picked for a project in Part B, but I didnt do it. I finally got to read it though, and it's great! I mean really, it is an excellent book and the imagery is really clear and vivid. It's one of those things where the narrators voice is so unique and individual that you really do see what they're describing.

The Diary of Anne Frank - Again something I've been meaning to read for a while now. It's strange to read the account of a teenage girl, her first crushes, her strops, how no one really understands her, how much she dislikes her mother, while all the time you're watching the dates at the top of each diary entry, feeling less and less pages in your right hand as you reach the end of the book, knowing what will happen to her once it ends. I wonder when it's going to stop, obviously she can't account the Annexe's discovery by the Nazi's, so will it just stop on a normal day? Will Anne be describing doing the washing up, or peeling some potatoes? Will she note what the weather is like outside? Very disconcerting in some ways, but a good thing to read in it's own way.

Why there almost certainly is a God - Keith Ward - A counter-arguement to one of Dawkins conjectures. Fascinating in all it's detail and mind-blowing science, but also pretty understandable. Ward basically sees belief in God as not only reasonable but rational and logical, and he goes about explaining why. Even though I've still not got round to finishing it, this book was a key part of me coming back onto the map at the end of last semester. It's nice to know that insanely clever people believe in God too, especially when a lot of other people seem to think you are daft for doing it, which can be very discouraging on a low day.

The Pressure's Off - Larry Crabb - Has totally challenged the way I see the world, and I'm only on chapter 2!

The Red Canary - Tim Birkhead - A gift from a friend. Who would have thought that the eugenics of canary breeding could be so interesting! No, I'm actually being serious.

The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffeneger - Re-reading it actually. I leant my sister my 3 year old copy when the film came out, and now I'm reading it again. Bizarrely I took it with me on our Part B trip to Chicago, not realising it was set there, and kept being surprised by references in the book to places I'd been that day! It's happening again now I'm watching Prison Break (which is fantastic by the way! Really gripping) which is mostly aet around Chicago for season one. I keep thinking things like "That looks like the waterfront by the Aquarium..." "I've been on that ride at Navy Pier!" and "That looks an awful lot like Wabash Ave."

Comics/Graphic Novels

Alice in Sunderland - Bryan Talbot - Heard good things about it, but honestly I was underwhelmed by it. Some parts were good, and it's a nice approach to your run-of-the-mill guidebook, but I found myself bored a lot of the time, it seemed very long and I resent that he used filtered photographs for the majority of the backgrounds. BAD Photoshop filter.

God Save the Queen - Mike Carey and John Bolton - Liked this one. Nice and weird, although the main character is a tad obnoxious. The art was good, although some of it was clearly filtered photos they were then retraced, worked into or recoloured managing to make me not mind. Quite a nice simple story, in which a teenage girl learns that taking drugs is bad for you, and her mother is secretly kick-ass.

Hellblazer: Empathy is the enemy - Denise Mina - After enjoying the film (seems an odd choice for me but it's not really about religion at all, like how Life of Brian and Dogma aren't really about religion, it's a basic logic-trap plot, and I like those) depsite/because of that oddly loveable wet blanket Keanu Reeves taking everything far to seriously as usual, I wanted to read a Hellblazer. I liked it. Didn't blow my mind with awesome, but it was well done, well drawn and intruguing enough to keep me sticking with it.

Blankets - Craig Thompson - Re-read, for the upteenth time. All hail birthday money from Grandparents that lets me buy these massive things. The story is sweet, thoughtful and melancholy, and something about the economy of line he uses I love. It's so simple, yet elegant which gives me hope for my own drawings. Plus it's good to know that someone else understands the trials of 'Christian camp'!

Skim - Mariko and Jillian Tamaki - (yes they are related). This graphic novel is a bit charming, and deals with the first romance of the half-Japanese overweight emo-wiccan-artist social outcast Kim, known as Skim. Understated, quirky, and great.

...
You know what, I'll save the rest for next time.