52 weeks of Reading- 2018 edition!!

[smol Kat]

Having only read the first book in the trilogy, I did like it, but I definitely liked The Hobbit better.

[I am nobody]

And now for something completely different. Kind of.

2. At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft

The mythology is pretty creative, and the decision to present the entire thing as a geologist's report is at least interesting, but it's really not enough to overcome the fact that this is a horror story in which nothing particularly scary happens. It's trying to build a sense of foreboding by describing things from a distance and acting like the protagonist might encounter living monsters, but it ruins that by (a) telling you that he only came to psychological harm in the opening paragraphs and (b) resorting to comical overuse of a handful of "scary" adjectives to convey that you're supposed to be scared.

[Valigarmander]

Read the third volume of Fables. I'm glad I picked this series up again, because I'm really enjoying it. Thanks to @United Nations for recommending it to me.

Books read in 2018 (8/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)

[United Nations]

^ Yay! I'm glad you like it!

[Valigarmander]

Read Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk. This one took some time, but it grew on me. What I really ended up enjoying was the cast of characters and the way they developed and interacted with one another.

Books read in 2018 (9/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)

[Valigarmander]

Read the second volume of I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young. Even more sadistic, visceral fun.

Books read in 2018 (10/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)
10. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2: Fluff My Life by Skottie Young - 3/5 (Feb 10)

[Booyakasha]

Read 'Coraline' whilst waitin for a train, and started in on 'Ready Player One'. Good biz.

[Valigarmander]

Read the third volume of I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young. I'm actually getting kind of invested in the story now. It's a shame the fourth volume won't be out until later this year.

Books read in 2018 (11/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)
10. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2: Fluff My Life by Skottie Young - 3/5 (Feb 10)
11. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 3: Good Girl by Skottie Young - 4/5 (Feb 13)

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Anybody know if all of Agatha Christie's books share a connected universe or are they self-contained stories? From what I've seen it seems at least some are connected to some degree (sharing characters or whatever), so knowing which are connected and how would be cool.

[Booyakasha]

So I bought the manga 'Don't Meddle With My Daughter!' v1 based on its Amazon buzz, because I like a fun deconstruction of superhero stuff. Like, I thought it'd maybe be something like 'Empowered', or 'The Incredibles', here. Certainly wasn't expecting straight-up hentai.

I mean, it isn't a deal-breaker. I'm no prude. But it does make me think twice about buying v2. Hentai just isn't really my bag, man.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Based on the title alone I'd have assumed there was already a 40% chance of ******.

[Booyakasha]

Maybe I'm just too trusting. It didn't sound too terribly sketch, going by the back-text. And so here comes the comic, and it's just tentacles ahoy, twenty pages in. Wuff.

[Valigarmander]

Read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Hard to remember the last time I've gotten emotional reading a novel, but man, this book.

Books read in 2018 (12/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)
10. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2: Fluff My Life by Skottie Young - 3/5 (Feb 10)
11. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 3: Good Girl by Skottie Young - 4/5 (Feb 13)
12. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 5/5 (Feb 18)

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Maybe I'm just too trusting. It didn't sound too terribly sketch, going by the back-text. And so here comes the comic, and it's just tentacles ahoy, twenty pages in. Wuff.

Tentacles and all, huh? At least it's got that, and it wastes no time revealing itself. Could've done worse.

[Booyakasha]

Still stinks.

I mean...I guess it came shrink-wrapped. Should have been a red flag. I don't know.

(EDIT:...don't gotta worry about these sordid shenanigans in 'Girl Genius'. Bad guys in 'Girl Genius' comport themselves like gentlemen, dangit. The Wulffenbachs and their guys are gentlemen. Othar Tryggvassen is a gentleman. Hell, even the Jaegers are gentlemen, and they're a race of orc-like fanged tusked humanoid monsters who eat bugs and worms. They like and protect Agatha specifically because they're genetically engineered to think her family 'smellz verra nize', and even they manage not to be too gross about it.)

[Valigarmander]

Read Comics for Choice, a collection of short stories about abortion, most of them based on personal experiences. This was from a Kickstarter campaign I participated in. There are a lot of different authors/artists involved, and it's very illuminating.

Books read in 2018 (13/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)
10. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2: Fluff My Life by Skottie Young - 3/5 (Feb 10)
11. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 3: Good Girl by Skottie Young - 4/5 (Feb 13)
12. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 5/5 (Feb 18)
13. Comics for Choice by various authors - 4/5 (Feb 23)

[Valigarmander]

Man, I've been shooting through my graphic novel backlog to the point where my collection has almost run out. Guess I need to go buy some more.

[Valigarmander]

Read Doc Bizarre M.D. by Joe Casey and Andy Suriano. It's about the attempts of the titular doctor (not to be confused with Dr. Strange or Dr. Weird) to provide medical care for the supernatural. It was alright; I didn't love it and I didn't hate it.

Books read in 2018 (14/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)
10. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2: Fluff My Life by Skottie Young - 3/5 (Feb 10)
11. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 3: Good Girl by Skottie Young - 4/5 (Feb 13)
12. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 5/5 (Feb 18)
13. Comics for Choice by various authors - 4/5 (Feb 23)
14. Doc Bizarre M.D. by Joe Casey & Andy Suriano - 3/5 (Feb 24)

[Booyakasha]

So I read this book, 'How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History', by Erik Durschmied. It's basically an analysis of some dozen-odd military operations throughout history, ranging from Troy to Desert Storm, like, really getting down into the nitty-gritty, the kitchen details, right. Really well-researched and all. The overall theme is what Durschmied dubs 'the hinge factor'------------essentially, the one huge mistake or unbelievable stroke of luck that turned the tide of battle. Some chapters are more fun than others (needless to say, reading about the Battle of Tannenberg was kind of miserable), but as a whole the book was pretty dang good.

[Valigarmander]

^ I might have to check that out. I dig books like that.

Finished Watchmen yesterday. This was another example of where I'm partially familiar with a work through osmosis, but when I finally get around to reading it it's almost nothing like what I imagined it would be. I liked it a lot; it was an interesting deconstruction of superhero fiction, and raised some perturbing moral questions. I wasn't a huge fan of the exposition-filled supplements at the end of each chapter though. They had some interesting tidbits but for the most part broke up the pace too much.

Books read in 2018 (15/52):

Spoiler.

1. DK Books 5th Edition First Aid Manual - 4/5 (Jan 16)
2. Octopus Pie Vol. 4 by Meredith Gran - 5/5 (Jan 18)
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi - 4/5 (Jan 21)
4. All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen - 5/5 (Jan 24)
5. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar - 4/5 (Jan 24)
6. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Jan 25)
7. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian - 5/5 (Jan 29)
8. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, & Steve Leialoha - 4/5 (Feb 3)
9. Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk - 3/5 (Feb 9)
10. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2: Fluff My Life by Skottie Young - 3/5 (Feb 10)
11. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 3: Good Girl by Skottie Young - 4/5 (Feb 13)
12. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 5/5 (Feb 18)
13. Comics for Choice by various authors - 4/5 (Feb 23)
14. Doc Bizarre M.D. by Joe Casey & Andy Suriano - 3/5 (Feb 24)
15. Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - 4/5 (Mar 7)