Sunday Readings 9-26-10

[I haven't done one of these in forever. Time to tweak the format a bit.]

Here's a few odds and ends from this past week that I've been thinking about...

The excellent myth-debunking site Snopes had a feature on the music from the Batman TV show recently. The idea that anyone, particularly Adam West, could think those voices were horns is really beyond me. I had no idea there were so many people involved in the singing of the one-work song, though. A nice bit of trivia for your Sunday morning.

Two of my Twitter pals are trying to understand the visual aspects of manga better via a set of columns. I think this is an awesome idea. You can check out the latest installment here. Speaking only for me, I know I often struggle with how to comment on the visual aspects of a book, whether it's manga or western. Getting two perspectives on the same set of panels is really cool. They'd love for others to jump in on the discussion in the comments section.

I passed on going to two book festivals this weekend, after a lot of thought. While the idea appeals to me, I realized that, no matter what the type of book, I rarely read anything new. Since festivals are all about the new, it just didn't make a lot of sense. I'm usually at least a few years behind, sometimes more, in reading good books. I keep trying to read more currently, but it just never seems to happen. I think part of this is a result of how many different types of books I read. The downside to reading manga, mini-comics, indie stuff, mysteries, horror, and history (just to name a few) is that it's neigh on impossible to keep up. Still, I can't bring myself to stop reading any particular genre, because there's so many good books out there. How do others handle this problem?

No, I didn't write that last paragraph just to use the phrase "neigh on impossible." I did write this paragraph so I could use the phrase twice.

I would never have thought about this as a subject, but All About Manga's Daniella Orihuela-Gruber takes a look at prostitution in manga. It's an interesting read.

Comicsgirl doesn't seem to have that issue with reading behind that I do. Here's her reviews (part one and part two) of her SPX mini-comics pickups. In proof that there's stuff for everyone, we only picked up 1 of of the same titles.

Finally, speaking of mini-comics, I am looking for where people find their mini-comics. Please share in the comments if you have some suggestions and ideas!