Wednesday Reading

[lydamorehouse]

i can't actually say it's been a slow reading week, since I plowed through the remaining 21 volumes of Pandora Hearts. I also read an on-line, one volume, one-shot yaoi called One Yen Man / 1-en Otoko as well as got through volume 2 of another manga called Bunny Drop last night, which I mentioned here previously (and I have volumes 3-6 on my TBR pile).

It's funny how, despite the number of pages that the above represents, I always feel like I've read NOTHING when I've only read manga.  That's kind of sad, because, obviously, graphic novels and manga are just as "real" reading as any traditional novel.  I don't really know why I buy into the idea that somehow they're 'lesser.' 

Speaking of my my TBR pile, on it is a graphic novel called Skim by Marika Tamaki / Jillian Tamaki, a traditional novel called The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, the second collected volume of Bitch Planet, Bitch Planet: President Bitch by Kelly Sue Decconnick / Valantine DeLandro, and a graphic novel The Stoneman Mysteries: Book One by Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple / Orion Zangara.

We'll see how much of this I get through in a week.  I need to at least get though The Stoneman Mysteries since I told Twin Cities Geek that I'd review that one for them.  Adam is, of course, a local author and Twin Cities Geeks likes to highlight the local interest stuff whenever possible.  

Meanwhile, I still have a pretty intense case of the blahs.  I blame the weather and the Nazis.

Comments

[umadoshi]

Out of curiosity, do you know anything about how the Bunny Drop story ends? (I'm being vague here, but asking for a reason.)

[lydamorehouse]

I do know that it's controversial. Should I skip it??? Abandon ship now??? (I don't mind spoilers, so you can feel free to point me to some.)

[umadoshi]

Personally, I stopped wherever I was when I heard about the ending, not because I flat-out couldn't cope, but because I had NO interest in seeing that happen. I'm gonna use Rot13 in this comment so you can decide how much to decode and read. (If you're not familiar with Rot13, you can just go to that link and copy-paste my coded text into the text field to read it.)

(For additional context, I say all this as someone whose main fannish love includes pnabavpny vaprfg orgjrra nqbcgvir fvoyvatf, jub V fuvc jubyrurnegrqyl. [Newsflesh spoilers])



Bunny Drop has a time skip; I think it's the first four volumes where Rin is little, and that she's in high school for most of the rest. I gather those latter volumes (general theme spoilers here) ner zber sebz Eva'f CBI guna gung bs gur thl jub envfrq ure (jubfr anzr V sbetrg), naq gung gurfr ibyhzrf qrny jvgu ubj ure puvyqubbq naq jrveq snzvyl fvghngvba nssrpgrq ure, be fbzrguvat nybat gubfr yvarf?



And then at the end, fur qrpvqrf fur'f va ybir jvgu ure sngure svther (nygubhtu vg gheaf bhg gurl'er ABG ovbybtvpnyyl eryngrq, juvpu V thrff vf fbzrguvat), naq gurl jvaq hc qrpvqvat gb trg zneevrq. V guvax fur'f fbzrguvat yvxr 19-20 naq ur'f va uvf rneyl 40f, fb gurer'f gur uhtr ntr pnc nybat jvgu gur fbpvny vaprfg.

V tngure fbzr crbcyr fgvyy yvxr gur raqvat naq guvax gur perngbe unaqyrq vg jryy naq jnf nqqerffvat pbzcyrk gurzrf naq jungabg, ohg n YBG bs ernqref jrer haqrefgnaqnoyl ubeevsvrq/fdhvpxrq, naq/be sryg orgenlrq ol ubj fgnttrevatyl qvssrerag gur gbar bs gur frpbaq unys jnf sebz gur svefg. Zvyrntr inevrf jvyqyl.


But again, I haven't read it firsthand.

[lydamorehouse]

Wow, I love that decoder! I feel like a SPY.

I actually went looking after you mentioned that there were issues. It's kind of what I expected/feared. There is certainly foreshadowing in what I've read so far, which DOES NOT HELP, and may be why some people felt squicked. The bummer is that the relationship is otherwise very charming (at least ATM). SIGH.

[umadoshi]

Rot13 is SUPER handy. I wish it were more widespread. (I have a Firefox extension to just flip text back and forth from a few years back when I was following some spoilery discussions that used it. Very tidy.)

[bibliofile]

I really liked Skim, it's one of those graphic novels where I think the pictures only help the personal story.

In the middle of that Claire North too, though it had to return to the library before I got very far. I generally like her books, though.

Looking at the local library system, I see that Jane Yolen collaborates with a lot of Stemples, not just Adam, lol. Alas, they don't carry The Stoneman Mysteries yet.