Reading List: January 2009

Beginning a new job and starting a new semester have taken up nearly all my time over the past two weeks. Thus, there has been little content here in that time. In fact, I really just haven't felt all that inspired to write. Nothing has seemed compelling enough to make me want to sit here and bang out a few hundred words.

I have resisted posting a collection of links to stories I find interesting; though I find it occasionally fun on another blog, it often just seems like a scheme to cover up for a lack of original content. This may change over the next month, especially as I bookmark pages for my own interests and research. I may start to use this space as a place to respond to things in other forums, whether it be other blogs, newspapers, or books I read for class.

Frankly, I am exhausted. I've only had two days off in the past two and a half weeks, and I am constantly living with sense of dread hanging over me because I never seem to have enough time to get as much research and writing in as I need to. This should balance out a bit over the next few weeks, especially as I knocked out a major project for one of my classes already.

Of particular interest to me over the next six weeks: the effects of film noir on comic book architecture, and vice versa. If you know of examples I could use, I would appreciate the heads up. I'm thinking that I may be able to tie film theory into the graphic adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass; I just haven't done the research yet.

Anyway, as to the point of this post. I never seemed to be without a graphic novel on the nightstand, and as a result I managed to complete 32 books and graphic novels. As always, here is what they were:

• In the Woods by Tana French
• Ex Machina: Power Down by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris
• Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
• InterWorld by Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves
• Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee
• The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
• X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont & Brent Anderson
• Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
• Preacher: Gone to Texas; and Until the End of the World by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
• More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman
• Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult, et al.
• Zeroville by Steve Erickson
• Black Orchid by Gaiman & Dave McKean
• Powers: Anarchy by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming
• This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
• Fables: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham, et al.
• Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
• Marvel 1602 by Gaiman & Andy Kubert
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
• Reading Myself and Others by Philip Roth
• Astro City: Confession by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson
• X-Men: First Class: Tomorrow's Brightest by Jeff Parker & Roger Cruz
• Sky Coyote by Kage Baker
• Heavy Liquid by Paul Pope
• Wonder Woman: The Heketeia by Greg Rucka & J.G. Jones
• Astonishing X-Men: Gifted; Dangerous; Torn; and Unstoppable by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday
• When the Nines Roll Over by David Benioff
• The Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano

Perhaps this next month will see me branch back into nonfiction, something I am missing quite a bit. Not that anyone ever does, but comments and questions are appreciated.