Book Recs/Manga Recs, 8/6/08
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoFrom the book club shelf:
Renfield Slave of Dracula: The title alone is worth the cost of the book; the expressions on people's faces when I tell them what I'm reading have been priceless. It's like a National Enquirer headline in novel form! Having said this, I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but found the horror somewhat lacking. Vampires just don't do it for me anymore in the scare department, and I've never had much patience for Bram Stoker's book--too much Victorian sillyness and illogical behavior ("Dracula is in her room! We must rescue her!" "But, wait! One never enters a lady's room without permission!" Come on, people, just bust down the damn door!) for my taste. This book retells the Dracula story from Renfield's point of view, and aims to fill in a lot of the gaps in the original narrative. And it's a serviceable read, not particularly profound or deep, but good enough to occupy my time. It would be a great plane book.
Not from the book club shelf:
Cakes and Ale: Why, oh why, did I never read W. Somerset Maugham until now? The man's prose is so deceptively simple that all of a sudden, I'm halfway through the book and thinking that I've known these characters all my life when I remember that I'm reading a book and not actually observing what's going on. He has such a knack for character, language, and description, and there have only been a few times when I thought, are you ever going to get on with it? I must read everything he has written, although not in a gobbling fashion--these are books to be savored, slowly. Up next is his book of short stories (or two).
Claymore, Volume 1:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meganbmoore was right: this is a great work of manga art and storytelling. The moment that clinched it for me was when a monster took a hostage and taunted her, "What are you going to do now? I'll kill him if you take another step closer!" and she replied, "I don't care," and meant it--the look on her face was all steely determination and absolutely none of the standard shounen manga girl who wavers and worries about her options, even though she's physically entirely capable of handling the situation. The art is very well done, the story violent and creepy. Not for younger readers, but good for mature readers who want something different than the standard shounen manga battle-battle-brief-interlude-battle-battle formula.
Not books:
orichalcum sent me two Maison Ikkoku videos she rescued from the library book sale as a birthday present, and I have been having a wonderful time falling in love with the series all over again. Even with the sitcom-ish elements of the story, it's great to see such a tender love story/coming of age story unfold, with the knowledge that all will be well for our two main characters, after they sort their feelings out.
And, in a completely different train of thought, I finally realized why "The Dark Knight" left me so exhausted: it was a moral Choose-Your-Own Adventure story for adults. "If you agree that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, go to scene 13! If you want love to save the day, go to scene 21!" There's nothing wrong with that idea--in fact, I quite like moral choose-your-own-adventures. The problem was how often it occurred. In "The Dark Knight", every second scene was a thorny moral dilemma, which mounts up to about... oh, say 30 or so major moral dilemmas for the film. Which makes for thrilling--but exhausting--viewing.
Renfield Slave of Dracula: The title alone is worth the cost of the book; the expressions on people's faces when I tell them what I'm reading have been priceless. It's like a National Enquirer headline in novel form! Having said this, I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but found the horror somewhat lacking. Vampires just don't do it for me anymore in the scare department, and I've never had much patience for Bram Stoker's book--too much Victorian sillyness and illogical behavior ("Dracula is in her room! We must rescue her!" "But, wait! One never enters a lady's room without permission!" Come on, people, just bust down the damn door!) for my taste. This book retells the Dracula story from Renfield's point of view, and aims to fill in a lot of the gaps in the original narrative. And it's a serviceable read, not particularly profound or deep, but good enough to occupy my time. It would be a great plane book.
Not from the book club shelf:
Cakes and Ale: Why, oh why, did I never read W. Somerset Maugham until now? The man's prose is so deceptively simple that all of a sudden, I'm halfway through the book and thinking that I've known these characters all my life when I remember that I'm reading a book and not actually observing what's going on. He has such a knack for character, language, and description, and there have only been a few times when I thought, are you ever going to get on with it? I must read everything he has written, although not in a gobbling fashion--these are books to be savored, slowly. Up next is his book of short stories (or two).
Claymore, Volume 1:
meganbmoore was right: this is a great work of manga art and storytelling. The moment that clinched it for me was when a monster took a hostage and taunted her, "What are you going to do now? I'll kill him if you take another step closer!" and she replied, "I don't care," and meant it--the look on her face was all steely determination and absolutely none of the standard shounen manga girl who wavers and worries about her options, even though she's physically entirely capable of handling the situation. The art is very well done, the story violent and creepy. Not for younger readers, but good for mature readers who want something different than the standard shounen manga battle-battle-brief-interlude-battle-battle formula.Not books:
orichalcum sent me two Maison Ikkoku videos she rescued from the library book sale as a birthday present, and I have been having a wonderful time falling in love with the series all over again. Even with the sitcom-ish elements of the story, it's great to see such a tender love story/coming of age story unfold, with the knowledge that all will be well for our two main characters, after they sort their feelings out.And, in a completely different train of thought, I finally realized why "The Dark Knight" left me so exhausted: it was a moral Choose-Your-Own Adventure story for adults. "If you agree that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, go to scene 13! If you want love to save the day, go to scene 21!" There's nothing wrong with that idea--in fact, I quite like moral choose-your-own-adventures. The problem was how often it occurred. In "The Dark Knight", every second scene was a thorny moral dilemma, which mounts up to about... oh, say 30 or so major moral dilemmas for the film. Which makes for thrilling--but exhausting--viewing.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 06:53 pm (UTC)And I need to watch Maison sometime!
And I'll have to try Claymore out. I've now got Yumekui Kenbun, XXX-holic, and Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play (which I can't find number 5 for at any of the bookstores around here), and this would probably fill in the gaps to some degree! :)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 06:56 pm (UTC)And I'd love to hear your thoughts on Nightmare Inspector. I really love the artwork, but have some annoyances with the main plot that just refuse to go away.
I really cannot recommend Maison Ikkoku enough. It's a love story set in the real world, and so incredibly different from Takahashi's other works (which are awesome in their own ways, naturally!) that I like reading it just for that aspect. But what gets me every time is the empathy she has for her characters. There's a moment towards the end of the story that makes me cry every time I read it. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 07:04 pm (UTC)Well, I've only read the first one (and only have the second in possession at the moment). I enjoyed some of the horror aspects to it, but would like a little more insight as to what the Nightmare Inspector is doing. I understand that he eats dreams, but the endnotes (which help me considerably) didn't really focus on anything to do with the plot. The views of the teahouse are gorgeous though... especially that first "shot". I'm not a big fan of the assistant so far. She seems almost robotic. Hopefully, I'll get to the plot soon. ;) Right now, the main character just seems horribly self-absorbed.
And I definitely would like to get into Maison, though I don't know if I've seen it or the anime anywhere recently. Rack up number six and let it fly. ;)