Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Graphic Novel OOooooo Pictures

So, recently I’ve decided to give graphic novels a go.  I read one shortly after I got to Korea called Pyongyang A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle.  Delisle is a Canadian comic artist and decided to tell his story of his time in Pyongyan in graphic novel form.  It made the story come alive and it is much easier to draw many of the images he saw than try to explain them or insert several pages of photos in the novel. 
  About a month ago I was wandering through Kyobo, waiting for book club to start, and came across The 9/11 Report a combined effor by Lee Hamilton, Sid Jacobson, Thomas H. Kean.  I’ve been interested in the commission and when I saw the report was condensed into a little over 100 pages I couldn’t resist.  The head of the cimmission even had a little blerb in the book giving it the authenticity it required for someone a little skeptical about the whole thing.  All in all it was fantastic and very informative.
  Now, after glancing at the 8 volume set several times over when I’ve been at What the Book I finally decided to read Buddha a graphic novel by Osamu Tezuka.  Thus far I’ve read the first book and starting the second.  I’ve got book number three waiting for me when I finish book two (which will probably happen tomorrow).  This tells the story of the life and times of Buddha aka Siddhārtha Gautama.  The first book is the story of his birth…including the 6 tusked white elephant impregating his mother.  Great story and wonderful images fill the pages of the book. 
Well, it’s looking like it’s time to go home and do some reading.  I picked up a number of books today that are calling me, books including; Book Lust and More Book Lust, Movie Lust, and Buddha volumes 2 and 3.  One of these days my love of books is going to get me into a lot of trubble…if it hasn’t already happened.
Posted by Aaron Kropf in 11:26:58 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Mockingbird

  This book could have used a lot more information about Harper Lee.  Charles J Shields made a strong attempt at bring the story of Harper Lee to live once again in Mockingbird A Portrait of Harper Lee unfortunately he didn’t have enough information about Lee.  This is largely due to her not allowing an interview with Shields or anyone else for that matter.  The most interesting aspect of the book was the time Lee helped out her childhood friend Truman Capote with In Cold Blood it was the contining relationship between these two authors that really kept the book going.  
    To Kill a Mockingbird is truely a great book and it would have interesting to see what Lee’s second book would have been about, and if infact she did spend a lot of time working this second novel.  I’m sure there could have been much more to add to Mockingbird if only Shields could have had the change to talk with Lee personally and perhaps more friends.  Dispite the challenges he had Charles J. Shields did an alright job with telling the story of Harper Lee.
Posted by Aaron Kropf in 10:50:46 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, December 7, 2007

Another two books down

  So, I finally read Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland.  Another great novel by this wonderful Canadian.  His stories are often very witty and I’m often surprised to find something interesting in each book.  This book in particular was great as I felt that I could relate to the main character Liz Dunn on many leves.  The story was full of many turns, dispite being predictable at times, I was totally into this book.  It only took about 4 hours to read and keeps you involved from beinning to end, like most of Coupland’s novels.  This is definately one of his best.
    I also finished A Thousand Splendid Suns for book club this Sunday.  I throughly enjoy this one.  I’m looking forward to the discussion at book club this week.  Like many of the books I’ve read for Bookleaves I really enjoyed the history behind the story more than the story that was actually being told.  Again I would say this is a good book and it has even more exctied to read The Kite Runner and has me looking forward to the movie adaptation that’s to be released soon.
    I should finish my first biography, I haven’t read one of these in a very long time, tomorrow.  I shall discuss this book in my next blog.  But Mockingbird is an interesting attempt at a biography.
Posted by Aaron Kropf in 11:48:10 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Monday, December 3, 2007

Books books and more books

Well, I decided to finally create this blog specifically to discus my love for books and talk about some of the books and book related things I’ve either read or come across.  And here I am writing my first entry (hopefully the start of a regular activity). 
While trying to come up with a name for this particular blog I thought about my favorite book store in Seoul , that has probably made a lot of money, enough to survive, since my introduction to this great book emporium.  What the Book is a fantastic store which has a great collection of new and used books. They are also more than willing to order books for you!  My trips to What the Book have fortunately or unfortunately…depending on how you look at it have become much more frequent since moving to Ansan. 
When I first got to Korea I had come with maybe 3-5 books but now the collection is in excess of 30 books.  Lately, Kyobo has also been to blame for the growing number of books in my collection but it was What the Book that must bare the brunt. 
A book club that I’ve joined while being in Korea (Bookleaves) has been stretching my literary intake.  As of now I’ve read three books for this book club and in the midst of reading the fourth.  Or latest book is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, writer of The Kite Runner.  I’m about half finished and am enjoying this unique look into the life of an Afghani, as well of as learning some the recent history of this nation.  The writing is simple making the book easy to read with a few Afghan words thrown into the mix to help transport you to the arid land of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
It is also my hope to be challenged to read other books, perhaps ones I don’t normally read through this blog.  With that in mind 2007 is drawing to a close and hope reads of this will send me their favorite reads from the year. 

Posted by Aaron Kropf in 08:35:27 | Permalink | Comments (1) »