Sunday, September 21, 2008

Personal Thoughts On A Sunday Morning, Toon Books

Muse holding a mask.


Personal Thoughts On A Sunday Morning


As a final thought in Ben Yagoda's book The Sound on the Page, he says self-editing is a form of personal growth. I find this to be true. When I look at my blog and see what people want to read about, it is primarily my essays on different library and book related subjects.


Although, there is a claim, book reviews are more interesting than my rambling personal thoughts, my readership on this blog goes up when I write about myself and my experiences. In other words people want to see my experiences on the printed page.


I don't particularly understand this when people tell that the exact opposite is what they want. Human nature is often self-contradictory.


This self-contradiction reflects in many things people claim are not art. Comic books are a quintessential American art form. Science fiction is considered to be a form of low art. I am quite happy to exist on the ground not in the clouds. My existence is not one of academia. I am very much a public person in a way. I enjoy existing in comic book shops, bookshops, public libraries and other every day places. Academia is not for me.


Right now, I am looking at Writing Begins With the Breath, Embodying Your Authentic Voice by Laraine Herring. This book will be impossible to finish quickly. Not because the book is long, but because the book has specific writing exercises that take at least an hour to do at the end of each chapter. Some of the exercises require keeping a writing journal.


When I am doing reviews, I am realizing that some books take a long time to read, others a very short time. I can read a graphic novel in an afternoon. A nonfiction book may take several days. This creates a kind of strange interspersion of reviews on this blog. First a nonfiction book or fiction book, then a graphic novel.


Of course, you can write about an event immediately after the event occurs. This has an immediacy to it which is quite compelling. I still have not gotten my time slip for attending the New York Anime festival. I know it has been put in, but not authorized.


Tomorrow, once again, I am going to attempt to visit the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art so I can look at their library. This is almost ironic. I keep promising myself and you that I will do this and something always seems to come up at the last moment. I'll try though. I want to see if they can recommend some graphic novels which might be good for a library.

On a tangent, I realize that many people are finding this blog through Google image searching. They are looking for pictures. I think the pictures that I am putting on top of my posts are being picked up by search engines.


Another tangent. I rejoined the bookaholic blogring. I was getting some people visiting from there.

If you want something mildly entertaining to watch, you might try http://www.playcole.com/ . It has some videos that use action figures which is kind of interesting. There is also a video of Star Trek the Next Generation with a laugh track.

Toon Books

This site http://toon-books.com/ looks rather interesting. It sells graphic novels designed to teach literacy. Toon Books reminds me of the classic childrens cartoons like Nancy or Little Lulu which you no longer see much of. It used to be that you were able to get childrens comics that were light and full of fun. Now, it seems many of the graphic novels and comics are far too serious.

I like the idea of reading something meant to satisfy simple humor and basic reading skills.

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