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Booking Through Thursday: Category

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Walt

btt buttonOf the books you own, what’s the biggest category/genre? Is this also the category that you actually read the most?

scififantasybookclusterCategorically, I’d say “paperback.” That includes the “mass market” variety as well as graphic novels/comics’ collected editions.

Comics/collected editions/graphic novels certainly have it over prose.

Fiction has it over non-fiction.

Mass market paperback has it over trade paperback.

Fantasy has it over Sci-fi.

In the graphic novels, DC has it over Marvel. As far as hardcover graphic novels, Marvel has it over DC.

Super-heroes have it over non-super-heroes.

And in the non-graphic novels/comics, Sci-Fi/Fantasy would be the dominant genre.

Within that, Dragonlance has it over Magic: The Gathering; Dragonlance and Magic: The Gathering have it over everything else.

I’m thinking right now it’d be really cool to have actual NUMBERS to give based on those categories…but alas, that’s something I do not have. Someday I should attempt to re-create or update some sort of inventory of my collections.

As to reading…I think it’s safe to say that I still read more in the sci-fi/fantasy stuff than anything else. This year, I’ve been through The Last Days of Krypton (sci-fi), Dragons of the Highlord Skies and Dragons of the Hourglass Mage (fantasy) vs. The Summons and The Litigators (Grisham) and The Inner Circle (Meltzer), The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor. Everything else offhand I either have not finished yet (The Overton Window, The Wastelands, Robopocalypse, The Lost Hero) or would be comics/graphic novels.

Filed under: Booking Through Thursday, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Value of a comic

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Walt

In this day and age of rebooting, relaunching, renumbering, and $3.99 comics…I find more and more incentive to quit the new stuff and go back-issue/bargain-bins only. Especially with Marvel comics.

After all, these days $3.99 will get me this:

uncannyxforce014

Or ~$3.99ish will get me these:

lessthan399

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Booking Through Thursday: E-volution

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Walt

btt buttonE-readers like the Kindle and iPad are sweeping the nation … do you have one? Do you like it? Do you find it changes your reading/buying habits? If you don’t have one, do you plan to?

No, I do not have either of those. Also do not have a Nook, and Barnes & Noble is getting dangerously close to me unsubscribing from their emails because I’m so danged tired of them pushing it so forcefully.

I’m pretty much “sold” on the iPad, in that “eventually…when I can actually AFFORD one” sorta way. A friend has one, and seeing it in action, I’m pretty sure that really, get myself a wireless keyboard that’ll sync with the iPad and a portable stand to prop the thing up like a laptop monitor, and I could pretty much go “computer-free” (“computer” = “laptop” or “desktop” machines).

I do have an iPhone, and recently I’ve dabbled with digital comics on it. I bought the classic Superman #75 a couple months back, just for the sheer novelty of having the thing right on-hand (next week marks the 19th anniversary of “The Death of Superman”). I’ve also bought two issues of DC Comics’ new initiative “The New 52.” Trouble is, the iPhone even is so relatively tiny that the reading experience feels like I’m trying to read through some sort of blinders.

As far as long-form reading…no-can-do. The iPhone is such a tiny thing that it’s even awkward to try to situate one’s self to even consider “settling in to read for awhile” with it.

An iPad might change that, but until I actually have one, I won’t be able to say for sure. And I certainly won’t be getting the iPad for the sole purpose of “reading”…the digital books/comics will just be a small part of the picture.

Right now, I don’t see any sort of e-reader changing my reading habits or buying habits. I’m buying one single comic series digitally and a month behind, for the discount…but that novelty is wearing off already, 2 issues in. Depending on pricing, I could see having an iPad having an impact on SOME of my comic buying, especially for the stuff that I just want to read once and be done with.

Once I’d get an iPad, I’d have to “take the plunge” with a book sometime to see how that experience would go…but really, I’d much rather have a $20 hardcover with me that gets lost/dropped/rained on/etc than a $500 tablet/computer device.

Given that I’m “sold” on the iPad, know there are “apps” for the Kindle at least and pretty sure also the Nook and OTHER e-reader formats, I absolutely can NOT see spending $150+ on something that’s arguably “just” going to be used to read e-versions of books. I don’t think I spend that much on new books in an entire YEAR, so it’s a huge up-front cost, BEFORE even getting to buy new books to read.

Even though $10ish is much cheaper than the $20-$30 most new (hardcover) tend to be priced at, it’s still $10 for something pretty much intangible (music I listen to, whatever the source…but if I’ve already paid $150+ for an e-reading device, the device itself isn’t going to get bigger or heavier for addition of a digital file). And I often feel that if I’ve already invested 1/3 to half the cost, why “settle” when I’m already on my way to the full, actual item?

The e-readers are also like computers to me, though: you buy one, and 3 months later, the next/greater version is out, or announced, and then it becomes a case of “well, I’ve waited all these years already…why didn’t I wait X more months?!?”

Of course…this all presupposes that I have to make the purchase myself: given a Kindle or Nook or such as a gift…I’m sure I’d find excuse enough to certainly make use of the device. Without an upfront cost to me investing in the actual device…that would certainly “level the playing field” in terms of books to be bought. And stuff like The Hunger Games or some of these other series–I wouldn’t mind getting those digitally.

Having the potential to have numerous books all contained in one device would certainly feed my “book-A.D.D.” and allow me to start numerous books and gradually work my way through ’em as the mood strikes for a given “book.”

Filed under: Booking Through Thursday, DC, DC Misc., General Mills, Justice League, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

22 Years Later…finally watched ‘An American Tail’

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Walt

americantail1A long time ago, in a life far, far away…well, ok, a little over two decades ago… there was this movie. An American Tail. “Tail” as in mouse-tail, rather than “tale” as in “story.” And it was about this dumb little mouse with a hat. And this whole thing about supposedly “no cats in America,” these mice were celebrating. And I didn’t like it, and though my family had it on–I don’t recall if it was a video rental or just on TV–I didn’t pay it much attention.

Of course, looking back, that “There Are No Cats In America” song stuck with me…never coming up or staying in my mind for very long, but it was there, a part of me and my life, something that would (rarely) be brought to mind.

americantail2And there was that OTHER song, that I didn’t like hearing. It seemed stupid, and somehow just bugged me. Something about someone being out there. And maybe it’s my 30-year-old self analyzing my 10-year-old self, but there was probably some confusion there, between a song being sung between brother and sister, which was then repeated with different singers that was a “love song” or whatever I interpreted back then.

Now, I may remember stuff from years ago, but the more recent past is a bit jumbled in my mind–some details may be slightl off. But I want to say it was just a few weeks ago, I noticed the double-feature DVD of both An American Tail and Fievel Goes West. And it didn’t seem so hokey to me. But I didn’t think much of it, consciously, at the time.

This week, something someone said to me brought that song “Somewhere Out There” to mind, which then spent much of the week on “repeat” in my head…first the obvious, and then after finding the Ingram/Ronstadt version on YouTube, the song as a whole (and I am STILL irked that if I want that via iTunes I have to buy the ENTIRE Ingram album!)

But thanks to that song, I really decided I wanted to actually watch An American Tail. And since it’s not available through Netflix streaming, and I cancelled my subscription to their DVD service…couldn’t just put it on. And so I wound up finding the double-feature at Target, and went ahead and spent the money to buy it.

Friday night I watched An American Tail…and this morning I watched Fievel Goes West.

Continue reading →

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Booking Through Thursday: Harder

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Walt

btt button

All other thing being equal, would you rather read a book that’s hard/challenging/rewarding or light/enjoyable/easy?

bookingthroughthursdayhardMaybe it’s splitting hairs, but I don’t know that it has to be one or the other.  A hard/challenging/rewarding book may still be something enjoyable and light, as far as something I’ve chosen to read and want to read as leisure.

Whatever the phrasing, though…it all depends on my mood at the time, and the specific book and context. There are times when I’d rather read something that could be deemed a hard/challenging read, and there are times I’d rather read something easy.

Comics OR written word, it all varies. Even a light read can be dense with dialogue or other wording which can slow things down and make it harder, while something harder may flow very nicely and be an easy, quick read (or it becomes a quick read when actually retaining the information fails and it’s just the eyes going over the words).

I don’t think I choose my books based on whether they’re hard or light reads. Hard OR easy, they are what they are. I think it’s more about how engaged I am with the material,and how I feel about the material. I might find, say, Comic Book Nation to be a light/enjoyable/easy read…I’m interested in comic books, and so a history of comics from the early 20th century to 2001 (something I’m familiar with but no expert on) will be light/enjoyable/easy, but to someone with zero familiarity or interest in comics, that might be a hard/challenging read that may or may not be rewarding in the end.

Just as–sitcom-joke or otherwise–I’m sure there are people who would find reading a dictionary, encyclopedia, or the equivalent of a science or math textbook to be light reading, while I would consider it hard and (barring coursework) probably highly unrewarding.

What I’m reading:

Right now, I’m reading back through The Walking Dead graphic novel/collections. And with payday tomorrow, I plan to purchase John Grisham‘s new book The Litigators, and dive right into that.

Filed under: Booking Through Thursday, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

A Computer Reboot Analogy

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Walt

This morning, I read this piece on Geek’s Dream Girl and though talking about ongoing games in an RPG with a new rules set, it really put me in mind of DC Comics‘ recent reboot/relaunch.

I also read this piece at Grumpy Old Fan about DC still having a massive history which makes up its entire reprint library at present.

And then I realized I’d closed Windows Live Writer when I rebooted my computer last night, and the word “reboot” stuck in my head…there’s gotta be a lengthy analogy here somewhere.

I hate restarting my computer. The way I use it–constantly multitasking, with at least a half-dozen different things running at once, often a dozen or more tabs in each of often several Firefox/browser windows…it’s highly inconvenient to think of trying to shut the machine down entirely every night.

So, it’ll often be put into standby or whatever, so that the open things stay open, and it’s a matter of but a few seconds to get back to that writing project I started 2 days earlier, to continue reading the whole glob of threads from opening links off a core article, to continue editing that slideshow project, and to keep track of where I left off the ongoing “classic reviews” project that will allow this blog to have daily “new” content for the next 5 weeks minimum.

Whenever I do bring this computer up from a full shutdown, it loads the requisite minimum, the default stuff and background processes, etc. I’ll then bring other programs up specifically, and build from there. Sorta like a publisher setting up the default background stuff, then one by one (or small groups) bringing new titles out. Those build on each other, and eventually there may be a fairly large “universe” of stories (or glump of software running).

And invariably, that’s eventually gonna get outta hand–problems will come up, and it becomes necessary to exit some of those programs–naturally (hey, a series comes to an organic ending for the story) or to terminate some of those processes (cancellation of a series). But even with all that, eventually the computer gets to where it’s just got too much going, that even trying to trim back what’s running isn’t solving the problem.

And there comes a time when I just have to take the time to look at all the stuff that’s open, determine what I’m going to save for the next go-round, what I can dump…and reboot the machine.

The stuff that I saved will come back up (if not right away, then when I remember I was working on it), and the stuff that didn’t really matter…well, it’s not really a loss.

Maybe a dumb analogy, but I’m mildly entertained at it…and it’s just the way my mind works sometimes, seizing on stuff that may or may not generally fit together, but still making the analogy. Sorta like how working at a job with high turnover and realizing that you can’t even remember the name of someone who sat/worked next to you for months can be an analogy for immortality (as can the different “lives” one can live in different stages of a single lifetime).

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Shades of Pricing

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Walt

shadehulkvsdraculaI managed to miss Hulk vs. Dracula #3 this week in my regular visit to my local comic shop. Didn’t notice til I got home, so wasn’t particularly worried about it.

Friday night, out of town, I stopped by another shop to grab the issue. Having all of $1.37 in cash on me, of course I had to use my card. Which, at this store means a $5 minimum. Not a huge deal. Just gotta grab one more comic of at least $1.99, basically. Given those don’t really exist, my next option’s a $2.99 comic. Given I’ve settled with what I’m buying of the New 52 for present, and that I pretty much associate Marvel Comics with $3.99, my choice was pretty simple.

The Shade #1. Yeah, it’s 1 of 12, so a finite thing. And no, I have only read whatever’s contained in the Vol. 1 of The Starman Omnibus by way of Robinson‘s Starman work (oh, and the Blackest Night issue).

Yet another example (to me, myself, at least) of where I’m totally willing to try a new comic, or at least that Marvel has SO trained me to “assume” that any of their new comics are $3.99, that I really don’t even give their books a second glance unless–like the issue I was in this store specifically to buy–I already plan to buy the issue.

No clue if I’ll grab another issue of The Shade or not–if I write reviews this weekend, maybe it’ll be in there. I sort of have to read the thing before I make any decisions.

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Shattered Heroes [Checklist]

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Walt

“The war is over, and the warriors return home, carrying with them scars of battle, both physical and mental. Now the cost will be tallied, the casualties buried and mourned, the rubble swept up and carted away. But the damage to our heroes isn’t easily repaired, the wounds not easily healed. Decisions are made and lives are changed–can shattered heroes find renewed courage to go on?” — Tom Brevoort, SVP Executive Editor

OCTOBER 2011

The Fearless #1
Incredible Hulk #1

NOVEMBER 2011

Fear Itself #7.1
Fear Itself #7.2
Fear Itself #7.3
Battle Scars #1
Avengers #19
Invincible Iron Man #510
Journey Into Mystery #631
Avengers Academy #21
The Mighty Thor #8

DECEMBER 2011

Defenders #1
Captain America #6

 

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Booking Through Thursday: Sequel

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Walt

btt button

If you could get a sequel for any book, what would it be?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Dragons of the Hourglass Mage?

Harry Potter’s the obvious: even though DH was a solid ending and there’s no great need of a sequel–it could be interesting to have stories of the kids’ generation. Either filling in the in-between time from the book to the epilogue, or better just picking up where the epilogue ended.

Or, I’ve long thought it could be very interesting to see the world of Harry Potter continued into comics. Soooo much potential there. Rowling could oversee things, of course, but let other writers and artists play in the sandbox. Granted, there could be the stipulation that the main characters, maybe even Hogwarts, would be off the table. But what about the other schools? Surely other students have had adventures!

Meanwhile–Dragons of the Hourglass Mage was the third in a trilogy of books set between the pages of the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy from the 1980s. It revisited the continuity and characters as they were at the time–almost as if expanding those original books by at least double. I would love to have more stories by Weis & Hickman set during their original Dragonlance run. Maybe during Legends, or short one-offs of The Second Generation. Of course, at the moment I can’t think of much of anything dangling, and I’d want it to be the main characters, not just a story of others set at the time.

But overall, I find that the single-volume books I read, lately mainly Grisham, Meltzer, and King–they’re a solid story, and I’m really NOT itching for a sequel. Or, I get into a property when there’s ALREADY a sequel, and there’s already (again) nothing to leave me itching for a follow-up.

Now, there are book series…do those count? I’m still stuck in The Lost Hero, but been looking forward to the next book in the series as well (which came out last week), so I guess technically that’s a sequel, except I’ve “known” it was planned from the start, and was trying to get through the first book before the 2nd came out.

Magic: The Gathering, Dragonlance, Aliens, Predator, Left Behind….all these series sit on my shelves (Magic and Dragonlance have far more books than I could ever hope to get for a “complete” collection). But right now none of them have anything screaming “sequel!” to me; and chances are that other than Left Behind, any of the books that would deserve a sequel could well have one already, for all I know.

I always mention comics, it seems, so let’s look there: by their nature, comics are typically ongoing periodicals, though the “mini-series” or “limited-series” has become extremely popular. Most individual comics will have a “sequel,” aka “the next issue.” But there are specific overall stories, and some of those tend to get sequels. Infinite Crisis was marked as a sequel of sorts to Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Dark Knight Strikes Again was a sequel to The Dark Knight Returns. JSA: The Kingdom was a sequel to Kingdom Come; so was the mini-“event” simply titled The Kingdom.

But other graphic novels that I own? I can’t really think of any offhand that I’d like to see have a sequel made. Scanning my shelves now as I type, the only things I see where I’m even interested in another volume, it’s stuff that I know already exists. More John Constantine: Hellblazer volumes. Preacher and Transmetropolitan. Original Ultimate Spider-Man. Heroes Reborn; X-Men: Age of Apocalypse; Brightest Day; Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

I suppose ultimately, this is a rather passive topic for me. Sure, if a follow-up comes out, that follows on or builds on or is billed as a direct/specific sequel to something I’ve already read and enjoyed, I’m more likely to go for that than an untried entity. But other than seeing the world of Harry Potter continued or getting even a short Dragonlance story set with old characters in an early part of a huge series…I’m just interested in reading good stories, and look forward moreso to new works by authors I enjoy than to specific sequels of specific books.

Final thought: I’ve found it interesting when I read one book by an author, and it references another. I want to say that the latest Meltzer book took place in the same continuity and referenced events from an earlier book, but was not itself an actual sequel. Ditto some of Grisham and King’s stories.

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The Missing Dead: Why Amazon Wins

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Walt

halloweendisplayofbooksYesterday was the release date for the new hardcover prose novel The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor. I’ve been looking forward to the book for months.

I don’t buy NEW books in hardback often–usually I’m buying stuff from the used-books stores like Half-Price Books or M&P or using a coupon from Borders and picking up something recent-ish but not generally still classified as a new-release. But a few times a year, I’ll buy a brand-new hardback–usually the new Brad Meltzer book, or John Grisham in particular, or something that just really strikes me.

Rise of the Governor was to be one of those books. Go to the store, get the book, start reading, and I figure I’ll dive in right away.

BUT.

Two trips to Walmart–no luck. Target…no luck there, either. Walmart‘s offering it via their website–but I’d have to wait til at LEAST early next week for it to arrive, whether shipped to my apartment or using the Site-to-Store shipping.

Figuring despite my consternation over big retailers like that not having the book where I could expect a ~30% discount off cover price, I knew that surely Barnes & Noble, a dedicated book-seller, would have a new hardback novel based on one of the top cable television shows with a new season debuting in under a week. Surely, a new novel based on a hit comics-and-tv series about survivors in a zombie apocalypse would be available, given it’s October where horror and the like seem to get top billing genre-wise.

Nope.

Oh, you can order it through their website, and while offhand I forget the discount. But I didn’t want to order the book online. I wanted to buy the book in-person, have it already, take it with me upon handing over payment, and start reading the thing.

Even if I’d manage to find some independent bookstore (I don’t know of any near me) it’d likely be a “special order” and highly unlikely the store would be willing (to say nothing of whether or not they’d be “able”) to give me much of a break off the cover price, and I’d still have to wait for the book to come in.

So I was forced online.

Amazon wins. They had the best discount, I’m familiar with their services, and over the past decade they’ve successfully branded themselves as THE place to order new books online (and I’ve even had success with their 3rd-party sellers, but that’s a different post entirely).

Annoyed and frustrated from going to multiple stores, the simple fact no one seemed to stock this book physically, and the fact that I’d already resigned myself earlier to paying full price for the book to get it same-day, I noticed something rather interesting.

For $2 more than cover price, including SHIPPING…I was able to ALSO order The Walking Dead Chronicles, which I’d also been eyeing but was going to hold off on.

This morning I woke to an email saying my Amazon order has shipped, and ought to arrive Monday. The same wait I’d have ordering the book any other way…but here from a familiar brand/service, with another related book, and though I don’t get to read the thing “in preparation” for the new season of the tv show…I get to see the premiere, and on a Walking Dead “high” (assumably), get another “fix” the next day.

And I notice there’s a new Grisham book coming out soon, and a new Stephen King as well. Might as well order through Amazon–and save myself even the potential hassle of stores randomly not stocking it, or just to spite ’em (even if the only one who cares is me).

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