My Library: "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" by Joshua Foer

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

Book - Amazon | Goodreads | Wikipedia | NY Times book review by Alexandra Horowitz

Author - Website | Goodreads | Wikipedia | Interview with Foer from The Colbert Report

I bought this book not long after it first came out in March of 2011, started it once and never finished, until about a month ago when I picked it up again and started afresh and I am pretty glad that I did because it was a very interesting read. I have read a few negative reviews of the book on Goodreads and what I found was that people didn't seem to like the book because it read more like a long magazine article (which is what Foer did before becoming a book author), but in my own personal opinion that didn't matter too much to me. I was more interested in the information that he presented, the strange cases of memory loss, and the ways that competative memorizers memorize information. I also found it interesting that the ways that were presented in this book were apparently the learning of daily lives in olden times. The more modern we became as people, the less we taught people how to learn opposed to what to learn. It's a very interesting read but do not mistake it for a "self-help" type of book. While it does present ways one can memorize better, I do not believe it's main goal is to help people to memorize, even though you might assume that from the title (The Art and Science of Remembering Everything). 

My Library: "Black Hole" by Charles Burns

Black Hole by Charles Burns

Book - Amazon | Wikipedia | Goodreads

Author - Wikipedia | Goodreads

One could easily say that this book is very very different thank other comic books out there. It's a real life situation where STDs become a metaphor, where teenagers have to live with the evidence of their sexual relationships through visual representations and grotesque mutations. An interesting thought, but at times I have to admit this book made me cringe and it is most certainly not for the faint. The artwork is amazing, normally I'm one to love color, but this black and white artwork is so strong and perfect for the story. There has been lots of talk of this book being made into a movie, but to date there is no real definitive answer, there is however an abbreviated live-action version of it on Rupert Sander's website, I will say this though, it is not safe for work and is a tad disturbing. You can find the video here. 

Here is what Goodreads has to say about the book: 

Suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the out-set that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways — from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable) — but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back.As we inhabit the heads of several key characters — some kids who have it, some who don’t, some who are about to get it — what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself — the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape.And then the murders start.As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it- back when it wasn’t exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin…

-Goodreads

Definitely worth a look if you're into the weird.  

My Library: "Ghost World: The Special Edition" by Daniel Clowes

Ghost World: The Special Edition by Daniel Clowes
Book - Amazon | Wikipedia | Goodreads
Movie - IMDb | Website | Trailer
Author - Website | Wikipedia | Goodreads

In the comic book world I think there's nothing better than a story that tells the truth and reality of people (I mean there's only so many super hero stories one can take, ya know?!), so I must say that Ghost World fits that category very well. It seems to me that my life growing up wasn't as strange as I always thought it was, that my swearing like a sailor in my teen years/late adolescents wasn't odd at all. It's somewhat stereotypical, right?
One thing that this edition of Ghost World offers that others don't is the extensive background to the story and it's creation that it offers. Where characters came from and how Enid is a reflection of an actual person. In my opinion it's totally interesting to learn more about the story.
On a side note, for those who have seen the movie staring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi, I must warn you, the book and movie are very different from one another, so don't expect to get the movie from the book or the book from the movie. Just understand that while they are related, they are not the same thing.