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You are here: Blog / Archives for my reading year

Yearly lists of my favorite books.

MY READING YEAR, 2007

January 12, 2008

10 good books that I read this year:

the roadThe Road
by Cormac McCarthy

My reaction was similar to James Kochalka’s.

 

 

harry potter 7Harry Potter 7
by J.K. Rowling

Always a fan of the movies, this year I let go of my HP snobbery, looked past the clunky prose, and let myself fall into the dream..

 

kunzle.jpgThe Early Comic Strip
by David Kunzle

A long-out-of print collection of ancient precursors to the comic strip that I got my hands on through interlibrary loan.

Posts about the book:

  • KUNZLE’S HISTORY OF THE COMIC STRIP, VOLS. 1 & 2
  • R. CRUMB ON COLLECTING AND DAVID KUNZLE’S THE EARLY COMIC STRIP
  • EXAMPLES FROM KUNZLE’S “THE EARLY COMIC STRIP” 

 

dontgo.jpgDon’t Go Where I Can’t Follow
by Anders Nilsen

Maybe my favorite book last year by my favorite contemporary cartoonist. My “review.”

 

 

political brainThe Political Brain
by Drew Westen

A book that got me interested in politics again.

My mindmap of the book.

 

secret knowledgeSecret Knowledge
by David Hockney

A book about the use of optics in painting from the 1400s on, which changed a lot of my ideas about perspective, realism, comics, and collage.

Related Posts:

  • DAVID HOCKNEY’S SECRET KNOWLEDGE: COLLAGE AND THE RETURN TO AWKWARDNESS
  • WHAT VANISHING POINT? SOME REALLY BRIEF THOUGHTS ON COMICS AND PERSPECTIVE

 

king-cat classixKing-Cat Classix
by John Porcellino

A retrospective collection of Porcellino’s King-Cat mini-comics. I also read his Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man and Perfect Example. Those clean, Zen lines!

 

gospel according to jesusThe Gospel According to Jesus
by Stephen Mitchell

Reminded me how much I love the teachings of Jesus and how much I hate contemporary Christianity. A lovely book.

Related posts:

  • CUTTING AND PASTING THE GOSPELS
  • ON THE CHRISTMAS LEGEND

 

saul steinberg illuminationsSaul Steinberg: Illuminations
by Joel Smith

This was the catalog of a gallery show we saw while we were on our honeymoon, and it kick-started the Year of Steinberg, in which I became obsessed with his work.

Posts about Steinberg from this year:

  • NOTES ON SAUL STEINBERG
  • SAUL STEINBERG’S REFLECTIONS AND SHADOWS
  • AN ARTIST NOT-IN-RESIDENCE
  • A WRITER WHO DRAWS

 

george saunders braindead megaphone

The Braindead Megaphone
by George Saunders

A collection of essays from my favorite living fiction writer. We got to meet Mr. Saunders twice this year: once at Oberlin College and once at the Texas Book Festival.

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MY READING YEAR, 2006

December 12, 2006

10 great books I read, in descending order:

Soccer in Sun and Shadow, New EditionSoccer In Sun and Shadow
by Eduardo Galeano

The ultimate bathroom reading. Short, smart, prose-poem chapters about soccer. Picked it up because Barry Yourgrau (another good bathroom read) recommended it. Became an instant fan.

 

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic NovelsMaking Comics
by Scott McCloud

Not as good as Understanding Comics, but way better than Reinventing Comics. Any McCloud release is an event. Thrilled to see a chapter on world-building in there. Will make a good textbook someday.

 

six memos for the new milleniumSix Memos For The Next Millennium
by Italo Calvino

Intended as lectures, Calvino died before he could give them. The first five, Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, and Multiplicity, were written. The sixth, Consistency, was not. A hell of a collection of last words from a hell of a writer.

 

bks-beautifulevidence.jpgBeautiful Evidence
by Edward Tufte

The fourth of Tufte’s books, contains his devastating pamphlet on Powerpoint, which should be required reading for everyone. Come to think of it, all of his books should be required reading — in the age of pictures and words, they could take the place of freshmam composition…

 

rabbis catThe Rabbi’s Cat
by Joann Sfar

The Rabbi’s cat swallows a parrot and announces his ambition to learn the Torah. Loose, wonderful drawings, a no-nonsense structure, and a great story. Didn’t get to read Sfar’s Vampire Loves, but that looks excellent too.

 

Mother NightMother Night
by Kurt Vonnegut

Gallows humor, anyone? Picked this up because I read that it was Etgar Keret’s favorite Vonnegut. Devoured it in one sitting during a sunny afternoon on our balcony.

 

CursesCurses
by Kevin Huizenga

I haven’t actually put my hands on the Curses collection (it’s on the xmas list), but when I was at Quimby’s in Chicago, I bought every Huizenga comic they had, and after that, ordered everything available through USS Catastrophe (including his great booklet for the Center for Cartoon Studies). Along with the stuff available online, I’ve read a good bit of what’s gonna be in the book. His blog is great, too.

 

166xgeneric.jpgConsider The Lobster
by David Foster Wallace

“I don’t know a whole lot about non-fiction journalism, but the way i think about [it] in terms of what I can do is: I think of it as a service industry. Essays like this are occasions to watch somebody reasonably bright but also reasonably average pay far closer attention and think at far more length about all sorts of different stuff than most of us have a chance to in our daily lifes…”

Brilliant dude, brilliant essays. Still haven’t read a bit of his fiction.

 

Fun Home: A Family TragicomicFun Home
by Alison Bechdel

A story that couldn’t be told in any other form than a comic book. I loved meeting Alison, and her Powerpoint presentation about the “making of” made the book seem even more brilliant. Best book published this year, hands down.

 

CRUDDY: An Illustrated Novel

Cruddy
by Lynda Barry

Next to getting married, meeting Lynda Barry and hearing her read from Cruddy was probably the event of my year. To me, Lynda is the perfect model of a writer and an artist. This book is just too cool for words.

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Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) is a writer and artist living in Austin, Texas. Read more→

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