What I Read

The 10 Letters Project: A Year of Art & Friendship

By: Tim Manley and Jen Lee

This is my (primary) bed book. I'll get into this more in other parts of this site, but this book started out as a project by its authors.

As is apparent from my Letters page, I love them. I love writing them and I love receiving them. Imagine my surprised when the book showed up in the mail, sent by Tim. I've gotten about 5 letters in (from both authors) and so far it's contributed to the crisis of conscience that's currently underway in my brain. I may or may not get into that more later.

Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation

By: Tim Manley

 

I purchased this book awhile back when I first started to read and learn about Tim's work. I got through maybe a quarter of it, but I made the mistake of purchasing it through the iTunes store so that I only remembered I had it when I was poking around iBooks for a different reason and realized I hadn't finished.

Once I rediscovered it, I finished it in a day or two. It's excellent and, I think, does a brilliant job of being timely. I can't speak highly enough of Tim and anything he creates.

Miramont’s Ghost

By: Elizabeth Hall

 

After finishing Sister Carrie, I didn't really know what to read because it was so different from anything else I've read before. I thought I needed some sort of transition or palate cleanser, so I picked this book that I got on sale on Amazon. Still too early to be able to say much about it.

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances

By: Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal)

 

I managed to sneak this one into 2016. I've read parts of it before in standalone comics from The Oatmeal's website, but some of it was new. I did think The Oatmeal got a little bit preachy on what are the right and wrong ways and reasons to run, but I'm always impressed by how his comics resonate with such a large number of people.

 

If you're a runner, you're almost certain to enjoy this book and I recommend it.

Bad Feminist

By: Roxane Gay

I was introduced to Roxane Gay's work through one of my favorite websites, The Toast. To my dismay, almost immediately after I discovered her work on that site, she stopped contributing. Fortunately, my friend Helen owns this book, which she wrote. I'm only a bit in but I already love it for its truth about the need for feminism in our society, but also for its admission of feminism's flaws, and her own in adhering to its principles.

 

Sister Carrie

By: Theodore Dreiser

The Kindle has made my natural book collecting tendencies easier, as space is no longer a constraint. Sister Carrie is one example of a book that I mean to read years ago, and have now been able to sort of keep in my back pocket for a convenient time. This time presented itself in the wake of finishing Go Set a Watchman.

 

So nothing about the book specifically at the moment. I'm not far enough in to have much to say.

 

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

By: Issa Rae

 

 

Last year, Amazon had an end-of-year fire sale on Calvin and Hobbes and books by The Oatmeal. I'm trying not to read too much into the fact that this year's sale seems to be on feminist books. If I chose to read into it, I guess I could read it in both a positive and negative way but I'm not going to.

 

Anyway, I got this book the day after Christmas and it proved to be a good, fast read. I haven't watched Issa Rae's productions (most notably Awkward Black Girl and Insecure), but now of course, I consider it homework to be done. I was impressed enough by her trajectory as an actress, director, writer, and producer to now want to know about everything she's created.

My Dog the Paradox

By: Matthew Inman

This is another book I got on Amazon over the holidays. As I think I've written before, some of The Oatmeal's work is more appealing than other work. This is one example of a delightful series of comics about something to which many of us can relate, beloved pets.

 

Born to Run

By: Christopher McDougall

I started reading this book last year over a weekend when I was sick. I read almost half of it and barely touched it again until a couple days ago. 

This book was hugely popular among runners in 2009 and 2010. It chronicles the history of a tribe of people in Mexico called the Tarahumara who have historically run ultramarathon distances as a way of life. McDougall also details the different occasions on which the outside world has infringed upon or intended to protect this way of life, most notably through an ultramarathon race put on by a mysterious man named Micah True but known as Caballo Blanco before his death in 2011.

We Should All Be Feminists

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

This book is a short one, and apparently based on a Ted Talk that the author gave back in 2012. It's a good, quick read. I was able to get through 60% of it just on the train ride to work, and then the rest of it in the next couple of evenings. Read it!