List Update

And with the conclusion of The Timewaster Letters, the List is now down to 103 books! I know, my last update said I was down to 102 books, and I was hoping to get below 100 during the holidays. But of course, Christmas was included during those holidays, and I got a few new books and a few Chapters giftcards. So inevitably the List was doomed to rise. And with school starting again today, I will have even less time to read List books. I will try to read a few during the year (most likely I'll be able to get the graphic novels out of the way), but most likely the List will stay around 100 books until school is finished in the spring.

The Timewaster Letters

I picked this book up randomly several months ago. The back of the book sounded very funny; it seems that Robin Cooper has been sending letters to stores and different special interest groups for years. The Timewaster Letters collects all of the letters he wrote together with whatever replies (if any) he received.

The first part of the book is utterly hilarious. There was one series of letters where he was trying to sell some scarecrows made of beef. Another series of letters was about a children's book he was going to write.

But after the first several series of letters, the book seemed to grow rather stale. It was just more of the same: Robin Cooper would send an outrageous letter to a random store/special interest group, and if he received a reply his subsequent letters would get more and more outrageous. Yes, some of them are still hilarious. But by about the middle of the book you knew exactly what would happen next: Cooper would push the envelope until the second party would no longer reply.

All in all, I found this book to be exactly what I thought it would be: a timewaster. It wasn't spectacular by any means. But it is worth having in your books to pick up every now and then when you need a break from daily life.

Fragile Things

I'm really not sure why it took me so long to read this book. I've had it for quite some time, probably about a year now. I didn't read it because I wanted to save it. For what, I'm really not sure. So just before Christmas, I decided I was saving it for now.

Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors. I find his work fantastic, be it novels, short stories, poems or comics. Fragile Things was no exception. Most of the stories and poems were fantastc reads (that may have partially accounted for why it took me so long to read this book; I would finish reading a story, and then want to savour it).

I was talking to a friend about Fragile Things, and he said he didn't like it as much as Gaiman's last short story collection, Smoke and Mirrors. I don't exactly agree with that sentiment. They are different books with different feels to them, but they were both great. Both had some wonderful tales in them that are worth savouring. And both had poetry that I absolutely loved (The Day the Saucers Came was a particularly fun read. I'll have to try reading it out loud one day to see Gaiman is right and the poem becomes much funnier).

I also really liked reading both the introduction and the bonus interview with Gaiman that was included at the end of the book. The introduction is neat, as it explains why he wrote what he did, what inspired him, and random other facts that he thought were important (apparently the word yeti means that thing over there. I'l have to look this up later to see if it is true). Gaiman also spontaneously breaks into another story in the middle of his introductions (this was true in Smoke and Mirrors and it is true here as well). The conversation with Gaiman at the end of the book was just an enjoyable read in which Gaiman shared some facts about himself.

Fragile Things is a great read when you want something light, or something that you want a story in its entirety in just a few pages, rather than reading a novel. I thought it was a fantastic read, and I'm glad it didn't take me forever the way my last anthology escapade did.

The Joker's Last Laugh

The Joker's Last Laugh was the last Batman graphic novel that I bought in Toronto back in November. And of all of the Batman graphic novels I bought, this one is my least favourite.

It started out with a pretty good premise. The Joker has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so he goes crazy and plans his last laugh. I think my problem with the whole thing was that it was a major cross over. The Joker's Last Laugh didn't just feature other villians from Batman; no it featured villians from all over the place in the DC multiverse. And I really don't know who the vast majority of them are.

Another thing that I didn't like was that Batman wasn't really a major part of this story. I bought it thinking it would be a fun battle between the Joker and Batman. But Batman only showed up every here and there. The Joker's Last Laugh was more about Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson. Well, and the Joker as well of course. I think Batman only showed up like two or three times in the story. And he never punched the Joker out the way they show on the back of the book.

So as far as Batman stories go, this one really wasn't one. If you like cross over stories, you'd probably like this one. But otherwise, you're probably better off passing this story up.

School Book: A Million Little Pieces

This is not the kind of book that I would normally pick up, but it is on the reading list for one of my classes next term, popular fiction.

James Frey's A Million Little Pieces tells the story of the author's time in rehab. When he was 23, he woke up in a bloody mess on a plane with no memory of how he got there. At the time he was addicted to alcohol, glue and several other drugs. He went to a treatment facility where he was told he could either clean up or die before his next birthday.

The book itself is a very brutal account of addicts and treatment. James was an absolute mess when he got to treatment. A Million Little Pieces does not shy away from the horror you go through while trying to beat an addiction. You are there when James wakes up, with a hole in his cheek and his teeth missing. You are there when he goes through root canal without pain killers. You are there for everything.

The one thing that surprised me was the presence of love in the story. I didn't think that James would fall in love while in rehab. That was a very touching addition to this story.

Of course, after reading the back of the book and thinking about it for a bit, I was a little bit confused why Frey's memoir would be on the reading list for a class titled Popular Fiction. The mystery was soon solved when I started reading the book. In the author's note that is included, Frey admits that he embellished the story a bit. How much I am not entirely sure, but if you are interested, you can find some information on wikipedia. It appears there was quite a controversy on this issue. It takes a lot away from the story when you don't know how much of it is accurate.

A Million Little Pieces is also written rather weirdly. There are no quotation marks anywhere in the book to denote dialogue, and whenever Frey lists things, there are no commas. This made the book a little confusing at times (the dialogue you get used to as you read, but the lack of commas makes you have to stop and reread some passages). This is a minor inconvenience overall, but an inconvenience nonetheless.

Overall though, I have to agree with the Los Angeles Times Book Review's quote that is on the cover of my edition: "Gripping. . . A great story. . . You can't help but cheer his victory." Even though it is now considered a work of fiction, it was a good story. And among all the controversy surrounding the book, Frey managed to succeed in fighting his addiction. And that in itself is a wonderful thing.

Library Books: Powers Volumes 1 and 2

Powers was recommended to me at work by a patron. I had never heard of the series before and it looked interesting. So I got Volume 1: Who Killed Retro Girl back in October to give it a shot. It sat in my room for a couple of months. I was about to bring it back to the library, when I decided that I should give it a shot. (Besides, if I didn't like it, I could always return it as I was working today).

And then I started reading it. Who Killed Retro Girl? was amazing! Powers is about two cops who work with superheroes, trying to solve murder cases that involve those who are more than human. Right off the bat, I liked the feel of the whole story. But more and more, I started to really like the main characters. Detective Walker seems like a typical cop. But the further into the story you go, the more obvious it is that he's hiding something. His past is mysterious, and wow do I want to know more about him! And Detective Deena Pilgrim is spunky and fun, the opposite of Walker; with her, what you see is what you get.

I was about half way through Who Killed Retro Girl when I realized that I would need more! So I looked to see what else the library has. I was excited to go and get Volume 2: Roleplay while I was still at work (sadly, the library is missing volume 3, so I won't be able to read it anytime soon).

Anyway, Walker and Deena managed to solve the case of Retro Girl. So when I finished Volume 1, I started reading Volume 2 immediately after. And Roleplay was just as good as Who Killed Retro Girl? Roleplay started off rather differently than Who Killed Retro Girl; in fact, the beginning of Roleplay reminded me of an episode of CSI. But it has the same feel as Who Killed Retro Girl, and has a very interesting story.

Powers seems like an amazing story and I really hope I'll be able to read more of it in the future. What I have read so far has been great, and is definitely worth checking out!

Batman: The Killing Joke

I know, I know, another Batman story. What can I say? They're good reads. The Killing Joke was no exception. It was written by Alan Moore, and drawn/coloured by Brian Bolland. This was the deluxe edition, reprinted 20 years after it was originally made. My copy has the following quote by tim Burton: "I loved THE KILLING JOKE...It's my favourite. It's the first comic I've ever loved." While I don't exactly agree with this (My love goes to Knightfall part 1), The Killing Joke was pretty amazing.

When I bought this, I didn't bother reading the back of it. I just assumed it was the story of when the Joker killed Robin. While I was very wrong (Robin does not appear in this story at all) it was still a very interesting and involved story. The Joker believes that one bad day is all that separates so called normal people from the psychopaths of Gotham. To prove his point, he's decided to subject Commissioner Gordon to the worst day of his life.

This story is rather brutal at some points. To give Gordon a bad day, the Joker does some extremely terrible things both to Gordon and his daughter, Barbara. But The Killing Joke is extremely well written, and the art is fantastic.

Oh, and here's a bit of trivia: the original edition was not coloured by Brian Bolland. He recoloured everything for this deluxe edition. He also changed some of the drawings. So if you have both this copy and the original (which I don't, I just have the deluxe edition) then you can go through the books page by page looking for the differences.

The Killing Joke is a must-read for all of the Joker fans out there!