The Collected Somewhat

Bill Bryson does it again. This book is chock full of interesting tidbits. Just endlessly fascinating and covers a wide range history as usual. There are just so many things in here I’d never heard of, but am now fascinated by, things like Skara Brae, the Crystal Palace, Addison Mizner, Edison’s concrete houses, coade stone.

Even things I knew about I have completely new appreciation for now. Things like the Erie Canal, the Monadnock in Chicago, the salt and pepper on our tables, even rats! This man cannot contain himself. He set out to simply write about the things around his home, but each knew item opens a pandora’s box of history behind it, and I’m glad for it and Bill is there to explain it all.

We go from room to room in a Victorian parsonage in the English countryside and wind up learning about the entire world. Even the introduction where I side with Bill on his guestimate of how many people are buried in the Church graveyard, only to find out that the Church is literally buried in the sheer numbers of people who have lived and died in this little “un-interesting” area of England, instantly captivated me.

The book is sub-titled “A short history…” thought that must be only by Bill’s standards. I’m sure he could have written a multi-volume work, for me it was just long enough at 512 pages.

The best zombie themed graphic novel I’ve ever read. Uniquely for this genre you are immediately thrust into the action, and the story unfolds from there. A Natural progression and journey with a few surprises here an there.

This book borrows freely from the mechanics of a first-person shooter video game, especially the good one’s like Half LIfe which additionally are excellent at telling a story. Some of the themes and and the story arc borrow almost too much, enough to make me possibly uncofortable in the copyright department.

Brian Ralph’s offering could have been extremely boring if it was indeed just a video game in graphic novel form, the lack of interactivity would have doomed it. Instead it offers an extremely engaging story that pulls you along to the end with a few haunting images in between and implicating you in an action that you yourself the reader may or may not have taken.

I’ve only read two so far, but enjoyed both very much. First off the stories are interesting and often have odd twists and even odder details. Second the drawing style just really jives with me. Wikipedia says he’s “influenced by Hergé’s ligne claire” drawing style, so, being a Tintin fan perhaps that is why I like it. The cute anthropomorphic characters really add to it, especially when juxtaposed with some of the morbid and odd situations they are in. All of this wrapped with some pretty sparse dialogue. Perfection? Pretty close.

Isle of 100,000 Graves

A training school for executioners? Pirates? Need I say more? Odd premise, odd but likeable characters, and what do we get? (see post title)

I Killed Adolf Hitler

Aside form the based-on-the-title storyline, which btw involves a time-machine, and a right from the start things don’t go the way you might think twist, this is also a very moving love story, although still very much Jason (see post title). And just so you know, since there are a lot of hitmen around, despite these being cutesy animals, there are a lot of bullets going into animal-people heads. You can see more for yourself and read an excerpt here.

I am very much looking forward to reading more of Jason, there are quite a few titles to choose from, all with tantalizingly peculiar titles:

Hey, Wait…
Sshhhh!
The Iron Wagon
Tell Me Something
You Can’t Get There From Here
Why Are You Doing This?
Meow, Baby!
The Left Bank Gang
The Living and the Dead
The Last Musketeer
Pocket Full of Rain
Low Moon
Almost Silent
Werewolves of Montpellier
What I Did