Fun with the A.V. Club

This is something of a quick post since I have quite a bit on my plate right now and the electricity keeps flickering in here for some reason. But there were a few articles I figured I’d share with you guys. The A.V. Club is one of my favorite websites, and as of late they’ve been posting their “Best of Decade” lists. At least 3 of them relate to literature. I wish I could say I have read every single one of them, but I haven’t.

Yeah. I know. For shame, right?

However, most of these were already on my “to read” list anyways, so I was glad to see a review site that generally lines up with my tastes speaking highly of them. But I have read some of them, either for the blog or prior to launching it, and they are all excellent. They are as follows:

The Best Comics of the ’00s

The 10 Best Short Story Collections of the ’00s

The Best Books of the ’00s

What do you think, guys? I definitely agree about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which was probably one of the best works of literature I’ve read period – not just of the decade. Persepolis is a delight as a both book and a movie, and seeing Marjane Satrapi speak in person was one of the greatest experiences I ever had in graduate school. I also would have added Warren Ellis’s Orbiter and Nicholas Gurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship to the comic book list as well.

What do you guys think? Anything glaring omissions? Anything you don’t think deserves the honor?

-Riot

Let’s Get Talky (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ask, “What’s This Madness?!”)

So it appears as if I am debuting a new “feature,” as it were.

Yeah, I know. Look, if you need some time to sit down and let the implications settle, go right ahead. I’ll still be here when you get back.

Ready? Good. I knew you would be.

The “Let’s Get Talky” category is pretty much self-explanatory. With my work schedule piled on top of some other writing projects, house hunting, helping my parents and grandparents, and making Festivus Christmas presents, I unfortunately have almost zero time to read the books in my stack right now. But I do have plenty of time to at least think about literature, and Let’s Get Talky is little more than a repository for any observations or musings on the subject of either reading or writing. Maybe I’ll post up some links to other blogs and discuss the content. Simple as that! Just firing off mind bullets full of commentary.

And, of course, I would present them with the hope that others may chime in and offer their perspectives as well. Maybe nurture some conversation, have a few more points of view opened up for others to read. Does it sound good to you? Because it sounds pretty good to me. This way, I’ll be able to offer you much more to read than only my reviews – which are a blast, don’t get me wrong, but also entirely dependent on whether or not I have time to actually read.

Right now, though, my brain bone is full of tired. I am so sleepy right now, my coherence is slipping away faster than something that’s insanely fast. So I won’t be offering any talking points tonight in spite of the debut. But why don’t you guys let me know what you think and offer up any suggestions about topics you’d like to see discussed on here?

-Riot