Hello from my sickbed.

Hello from Mr. Caine and me!

I've been knocked down by some random cold that's run through Ben and jump onto me.

It's not cool. I haven't be able to do much except sleep, read, eat and check Tumblr.

I'm feeling more substantial today though.

On Saturday we went up to a town called New Harmony that's been very well preserved and has tons of old churches and buildings. New Harmony hosts a lot of little galleries and a lot of events take place there. We went for a "gallery stroll." It was fun except it had to be crazy hot of course. We took a break in their coffee shop/used bookstore/gallery. 

The gallery was hosting some truly atrocious painting selling for unbelievably high prices, but the coffee shop was air conditioned so we stopped to rest there for awhile. Looking at the books for sale was way more interesting than those paintings!

The rest of the week I've spent a lot of time of at dccomics.com. It seems that my brain can only process a little information at a time so I've slowly caught up on the New 52 Wonder Woman series. So far I'm pretty impressed.

What have you been up to this week?

Happy reading!

Comic Review: A Study in Scarlet

I've always told myself that I'd read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and it hasn't happened yet.

I keep saying to myself "Oh, I'll get to it...after I read this."

Ben and I did listen to some of the stories on audiobook while packing up the apartment.

They seemed to be towards the end of the series.

A Study in Scarlet is the start of Sherlock Holmes series. It introduces Dr. Watson and Holmes.

The mystery deals with poison and Mormons. It was really entertaining but also a little odd (Mormons? Who knew they were so vicious).

This graphic novel was listed as an Illustrated Classic which means it was safe for children. Considering the time period that the story was original written I doubt it needed to be censored for content. 

I liked the graphic novel version it was still text heavy but it was split up enough that it was a fairly quick read. 

I was weary about the art at first-it's very caricature like- but the coloring was very detailed and it all work well together.

I would like to read the others in this series as well.

I also watched the first episode of the first season of the BBC series Sherlock.

A Study in Pink

It was extremely well done and I can see why the fandom is fierce.

So fierce it's a little off putting...

Happy reading!

The joy of pens

I've been journalling since I was nine. My first journal was a composition notebook like Amelia from Amelia's Notebooks. I used to love writing with pencils. I remember carrying this notebook and pencils with me everywhere, documenting every happening. I loved the act of writing itself. I loved to feel the lead dragging across the page. I never liked pens much because I could never get the ink to come out evenly and I always ended up scratching the pages. A couple years ago a discovered PaperMate Flair pens. I was doing a journalling challenge and the host talk about these as her favorite pens so I tried them out. They remind me of markers but don't bleed and they have a similar drag quality as pencils do. I now have tons of these pens everywhere. My favorite colors are purple and green.
The other night I saw a commercial for a new PaperMate pen. (which I thought was weird, but I also think commercials for books are weird)

These are new journals from 08-10. My childhood journals are buried somewhere.

Well, whilst wandering around a drug store I came across these new pens, the InkJoy pens, and decided to buy some. We have a myriad of cheap pens around the house that drive Ben crazy because he can never make them work (he doesn't like my Flair pens, he classifies them as markers) so I got these for him and I hopefully will slowly start purging the house of the old ones; he feels bad about getting rid of these cheap pens because he thinks it's a waste, God bless him.
All this talk of writing makes me want to find my journal, where ever I misplaced it.

Happy Writing!

What I'm currently reading...

I'm in the middle of reading a couple of things that I thought I'd share with you. I'm still recuperating from the wedding weekend and we have a house guest in the form of a Great Pyrenees this week, so I'm a little slow on my reading, forgive me.

Outlander

My aunt gave this too me to read I'm about 2/3rd of the way through and I like it.

Goodreads has mixed reviews on it at polarizing ends too. They are either obsessed with the series (didn't realize it was legit series I just thought it was stand alone) or they tore the book apart. (someone stated they burned it which was a bit melodramatic in my opinion) Right now I haven't gotten to any "romantic" parts which is what has everyone in a tizzy, but am enjoying the peek into Scottish history which I know nothing about.

Anna Karenina

I'm reading this along with a group on Goodreads.

Actually, I'm listening to it on audiobook. I had to read Tolstoy in high school and I knew from experience I'd give up on actually reading it pretty quick. I do still tend to tune out parts of the book where he launches into his theorizing on economics and class, though interesting, they get tedious. That aside I'm enjoying the story and the characters thus far.

A Study in Scarlet

I've read/listen to a lot of Sherlock Holmes short stories but never any of the novels. This series of graphic novels has interested me for awhile and this one just happened to be at the library last week...

I'm planning on making lots of progress on all of these this week and have summaries as well as some opinions on Romance and the Classics.

Happy reading!

Weddin' time!

link

One of my dearest friends is getting married on Saturday. We've been doing traditional wedding things lately- like stressing about dresses, bachelorette parties, trying to figure out hair and nail appointments and being awake way too late. 

So to be honest, I haven't done reading of any kind this week, but it will back to normal on Sunday! and I'll be back then.

Have a lovely weekend!

Comic Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Okay, bear with me here this is my first review of a comic.

And, this is my first Batman Comic that I've read this decade.

That being said I don't think this was a good place for me to start back.

This also contains spoilers.

This comic was published in 1989 right before Warner Brother's came out with their Batman, and they asked that this comic be censored to a point. I think because of this a lot was lost in the story.

I read a review/summary on it after I read it through and it mentioned things like Batman dealing with his sexuality and a cannibalistic scene with Abraham Arkham that I totally missed.

I went back and read it through again and had to stretch my imagination on though scenes.

The artwork was beautiful in the book, but it didn't portray motion well. I don't think Dave Mckean wanted it too he went for an abstract approach I think that it was to focus on the emotional and psychological issues that were supposed to be happening.

However I sort of lost that in the writing. A lot of scenes turned out to be Batman wandering the halls of Arkham Asylum occasionally peeking in to see old rivals and getting his ass kicked by the Croc.

At that point I wondered why he came. He's Batman and he was doing what he was told by the Joker? What? and the only point I saw any psychological struggle was when he remembered his parent's murdered and whispered "Mommy?" Then he just lets all the villains go...

WHAT?

What kind of conclusion was that?

The comic was supposedly exploring a different side of Batman which it did, however it did it weakly.

Arkham's story was better and clearer.

If they had removed the almost random Batman side story I think they could have made it an interesting look in Arkham's history instead it turned into a vague exploration of the Batman that didn't quite go anywhere.

Library Love

Libraries.

I love them.

My mom took me and my brother to the library a lot when we were little.

To me, it was like being in a bookstore except I could take any of it home.

I still have that view I guess.

I always check out more than one just because I can.

 I really started to utilize the library the summer of my junior year.

I answered phones for a Feedscrew company and had a lot of down town.

I remember going to the library and just checking out stacks of books at a time.

I read almost all of Francesca Lia Block's books, and the whole Sandman series that summer.

I have an e-reader now, but I still enjoy going to the library. I like being around books as weird as that sounds.

I thought I'd share some of my favorite libraries with you.

All photos come from here

For some reason this reminds me of the library from Beauty and the Beast.

George Lucas has great taste.

Neil Gaiman's library. Duh.

I'd totally live in this loft. In Paris.

This looks like the coziest place on Earth. 

Does anyone enjoy looking at books as much as I do?