TBR – J

(first post – January 6, 2015)

Aaron pretty much explained this already. We all have books that are To Be Read – TBR – and the goal is to read at least some of them before buying more books. #TBR20 as it were.

Aaron’s listed everything he’s read, going back years. I will not do so. I didn’t keep a list and it would be embarrassingly short if I had. But I will give brief reviews of books on here as I go through them. You could just find and follow me on Goodreads, but here I will use words. There, I only use stars. For now.

Book #1 of my 20 will have to wait until I finish book #0, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston. It’s from the library, so it doesn’t count towards my 20. Aaron recommended it after I told him that my wife and I might be going to Newfoundland this year. So far, it’s good. A nice change of pace from what I normally read. Formal thoughts to come once it’s done.

You will find that my 20 will likely be mostly graphic novels and/or books written (or “written”) by professional wrestlers (or graphic novels written by professional wrestlers?). You probably don’t want to be looking here for recommendations. I’m gonna try to switch it up, though.

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February 2, 2015

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams went back to the library, unfinished. It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying it, but I got distracted by video games and used up a bunch of my reading time. Some people would see this as a failure of character on my part. But I’m just glad I actually finished something, even if those somethings were Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or South Park: The Stick of Truth.

I note that people who title video games really love colons.

As do the people who designed the South Park game, but that’s something entirely different.

Anyway, when I dropped off Unrequited Dreams, I picked up Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday. It’s a true (?) behind-the-scenes look at how you can manipulate the media to generate publicity. One of the Penny Arcade guys went on about this for a while and made it sound compelling. I’m about a third of the way in (I had a good chunk of time in the doctor’s waiting room yesterday) and so far it’s interesting, if a bit repetitive, and I can’t tell if this guy is meant to be confessional or boastful (both, I guess). I suppose I should be more shocked that stuff like this is so easy to do but it really just confirms (and adds some detail to) some long-held suspicions.

I’ll go back to the library and re-check out Unrequited Dreams soon. I suppose I will renumber it from Book #0 to Book #i and Trust Me can be Book #ii.

I am not making any progress on this #TBR20 thing, but I’m making some headway into the 20 that don’t count before the 20 that do.

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March 4, 2015

Finished off Book #ii, Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday. It was okay. It could have been half as long with just as much information, but that dude really enjoyed repeating himself and bragging about confessing all the great terrible things he’d done. Though I basically said as much in my last update, so I guess I’m not one to talk about someone else being repetitive. Now I can finally turn my focus back to Book #1: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston. It has to go back to the library on Tuesday, the 10th, so I’m hoping to finish it off before then. The odds of this happening are somewhere between “unlikely” and “no.” Did I mention I got a new PlayStation 4?

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March 11, 2015

Book iii turned out to be Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Joss Whedon (et. al). I found it at the library the other day while renewing Unrequited Dreams for a record-setting fifth time. Horrible is the reason the library exists. It costs $9.99 and I read it in, like, 15 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it and would have happily paid the $10. But I would also have read it one time and put it on a shelf, never to be looked at again. I would have had good intentions of reading it again. Even now, I’m thinking “I could buy this.” I do greatly enjoy the web series (does three installments constitute a series?) and this comic goes quite nicely with it. But. There is a big ol’ disconnect between what I think I’ll someday do and what I do, you know? If I ever find this for cheaps, I’ll pick it up. I suspect that won’t happen, though.

I did buy the first two issues of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (written by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics) and that issue of Thor that has a story written by CM Punk (not of Dinosaur Comics). Squirrel Girl is funny and charming and delightful, as is pretty much anything North puts out. I haven’t read the Thor story yet. Will likely do so tomorrow.

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