Troy’s Book Club: three books and a LOT of comics

It’s been over a year since I’ve updated this blog. It’s not because I haven’t been reading – I definitely have, but not too many “Book Books”. Lots of comics; new comic, old comics, borrowed comics…I just really love comicbooks, have since I was a kid. Anyway, I DID recently finish three books, and that’s what I’m hear to write about. I read some non-fiction (THE NEW JIM CROW), some fiction (THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE), and some ancient fiction (GILGAMESH).

THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander is a tough read. It goes in-depth on how the United States has gone out of its way time and time again to maintain White Supremacy as the “law of the land.” And the book is heart-breaking and depressing and a giant reminder of how much this country still needs to do to prove itself the “land of the free and home of the brave.” It has a LOT of work to do. WE have a lot of work to do.

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman is pretty standard Gaiman…meaning it is excellent. And thoughtful, and whimsical, and manages to give you feelings of sincerity and safety and warmth…and also create imagery that is creepy as heck, and may even inspire a nightmare or two. This book is fairly short, and some folks could read it in a sitting or two, but I only read it one chapter at a time, and drew it out for awhile. If you enjoy some modern mythology, some fairytales for today, some fantastical realism, check it out.

Finally, there is GILGAMESH, a translation by Herbert Mason. I’ve often heard of Gilgamesh, but didn’t really know much about him. I thought he was some sort of wandering ancient hero, and knew he was once a member of the comicbook AVENGERS (and had an …odd costume), but that was all I really knew.

I learned that GILGAMESH was a king, and he had a best friend, and he loved that best friend in a big way, and it was pretty neat to see how important their friendship. Ultimately, that friendship is what drove the narrative here. And Gil had lessons to learn, and they weren’t easy, but hey, that’s being human.

What made reading this book significant to me is HOW I read it. My girlfriend and I read it together, I read it to her. We started reading this in a tent, with light from a small lantern hanging above, while we laid on an air mattress, covered with unzipped-and-opened sleeping bags. It was neat being in that tent, and reading this verse poem from the ancient times of Mesopotamia. Darn neat.