2011 in Review

42 books. That's how many I read in 2011, including audiobooks and lecture series. A pretty good year. I was reading during my lunch break for a while during the year but my schedule changed so I usually went swimming instead. I found myself reading less as the year went on and I got occupied doing different things.

My favorite books of the year: The Skinner; C; Freedom; The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet; and Atonement. My favorite book I read this year was The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Honorable mention goes to Christopher Hitchens' Arguably.

I finished two series this year, the His Dark Materials series and the Aubrey/Maturin series. I also started the Sword of Truth series. For 2012, one of my goals is to finish the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I must admit I have a love/hate relationship with book series. The second book alone of the Sword of Truth was nearly a thousand pages long.

Another goal is to finally read 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, another long book. Also, I have a shelf full of books I've accumulated that I'd like to read, and a list on the library web site that's close to fifty books.

The Best American Comics 2011

The Best American Comics 2011 is a compendium of comics from the previous year, edited by Alison Bechdel. There's a variety of content and genres here, from philosophical to fantasy to memoir to meta. Some pieces are complete sections and some are as short as a page. The really short ones are hard to digest, and I couldn't get a good sense from just one or two pages.

The best piece is "Nov. 3, 1956" by Joe Sacco. This black and white comic starkly depicts the murders of dozens of Palestinian men by Israeli soldiers on that date. But it also contrasts the tales of the survivors, showing that while their stories make a coherent whole, one contradicts the others. It is a commentary on memory and history.

I really appreciated "Pet Cat" by Joey Alison Sayers, a comic about a comic, and the comic's fate as it goes through different writers. Another gem is "Flower Mecha" by Angie Wang, a colorful and imaginary creation combining organic and mechanical art.

Jeff Smith's "The Mad Scientist", an excerpt from his comic RASL, is a fun, gritty, and informative selection. It involves Tesla and time travel, along with the protagonists wild adventures. This is one comic that I will want to see more of.

The selection of comics is a bit uneven, though this is not surprising with such a wide variety of subject matter and styles to choose from. There are several good ones so overall it is enjoyable. B