The last few years I resolved to read more. I used to watch a lot of film before this but I found my concentration span for cinema became absolutely shot to pieces when I first became a teacher. Reading became enforced quiet time or something I do while walking. It's a soothing balm on my brain. This year I've had less time to read than I did in years before but I still enjoy it so much.
Below are just five books I really like.
Sabrina: I love comics. Not the superhero kind, the other kind. No, not the Sunday funny strips, the other other kind... the self-contained graphic novels, Belgian and French adventure comics, independent comics; that sort of thing. When I found out that there was a graphic novel that got nominated for the Man Booker Prize, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, I quickly made sure it got in front of me so I could experience it. It was really something else. In the age of fake news, internet trolls, and trial by social media, Drnaso has created an unsettling parable for the times - masterfully constructed and carefully controlled, and every bit as nuanced as any worthwhile literary novel.
Under Milk Wood: I read this three times in 2019 in order to prepare material for a textbook for Into English. I'd read it before, back in 2017, and I fell head over heels for Thomas's slippery, cheeky, self-engineering folklore. Listening to the 1950s BBC production, and reading it several times, allowed me to slowly immerse myself in the language and discover new things in every line. If you're unaware of Dylan Thomas's radio play then I would recommend reading up on it a bit to get an understanding of what it's 'about' before you read it - jumping into it cold turkey can be a disconcerting experience from a contemporary standpoint (I tried once 20 years ago and gave up before coming back to it in 2017). It's a rewarding text, extremely funny in parts, but it's also very unusual - essentially a day in the life of a town with over 60 characters and no real plot. If you can accept that you're not going to get a storyline or remember all the characters, then you'll be fine.
As I Lay Dying: Faulkner is such a dude. I'd never read his work before this and it was such a rich, textured vision of southern misery that I instantly started seeking out more of his stuff. Each of the characters present their own distinct stream-of-consciousness viewpoint, shedding shifting light on dark subject material. I kept thinking I could see where the narrative was going but Faulkner is playing his own game, and the rules to that game aren't easy to gauge through the various shades of narration, much of which is best judged as potentially unreliable. This easily deserves its status as a modern classic of the American Depression.
The Pueblo Revolt: I did a lot of reading on the contact and colonisation endured by the Pubeloan peoples in America's southwest during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the course of my research I zeroed in on this book by David Roberts as being the best... aside from being well-researched in its depiction of the clash between the Puebloans and their Spanish conquerors, it also happens to be an engaging narrative that conveys the work of a historian travelling across a landscape in search of leads and new primary sources. A great book for anyone who's interested in the way in which history is written, and also a uniquely detailed representation of a fascinating and largely unknown piece of frontier history.
Freddy Lombard: I'm a big fan of the ligne claire comic genre (think Tintin) and this tragically short series expands, subverts, and pays homage to all the things that are great about it. My only criticism is that there will never be any more adventures for Freddy Lombard and his pals due to the untimely death of author Yves Chaland in 1990. I've written more extensively about this gem here.
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