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My entire summer has been rife with just reading and writing. I'm a literary fag. But for some reason, I take extreme joy in reading massive piles of novels, comics, and whatever else is on my desk. So, time to run through what I've read and judge it.

I read the following:

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway. How to describe it? Dreary, boring, slow, and a pitiful payoff. I appreciate the themes presented in the story, and Hemmingway writes a great character, but the entire novella consists of an old man in a boat fishing. That's about as exciting as it sounds.

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand. Brilliant play with lots of action, snarky dialogue, strong characterization, and happy romance. Frankly the best damn play I've ever read. Hell, I'd go so far to say that it's one of the best pieces of literature I've ever laid eyes on.

Watchmen by Alan Moore. I thought this was a damn good graphic novel. It was my first comic book, so that might have something to do with it. But the exposition, characters, action, all of it is flawlessly executed. The entire cast of characters is so memorable, you might as well relabel them the A-Team instead of the Watchmen.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. As soon as I finished Watchmen, I wanted more of Moore's (ba-dum-tish) amazing writing. This graphic novel shares some similarities with the movie (obviously), but the characters couldn't be more different. V isn't the romantic, hesitant killer he is in McTiernan's adaptation, he's a cold, ruthless terrorist who seeks anarchy. It's so much damn fun to watch him work. Another winner from Moore.

World War Z by Max Brooks. The definitive dystopia novel. Forget 1984 and Brave New World, Brooks' exposition on the zombie apocalypse is more touching than those classics. His narrative, a fragmented exposition on survivors of the Zombie War, is realistic and frightening, making it all the more brilliant.

Candide by Voltaire. Voltaire's magnum opus is bitingly sarcastic, fast-paced, and hilarious in its bluntness. Not to mention it pretty much destroys the very premise of optimism throughout the entire adventure, stomping on its face every chapter to remind you of how foolish it is to be hopeful, but also lampoons adventure story cliches with outrageous and ironic descriptions of torture and violence. In short, it's damn funny.

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. The excellence of The Dark Knight inspired me to check out the works that inspired it, starting with this one, Frank Miller's best work. Year One develops Batman and James Gordon in the same light, people trying to do the right thing in a city that only wants to do wrong. It is remarkably dark and serious, which is up my alley, for sure.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I love dystopia novels, obviously. Like World War Z, BNW scares the living bejesus out of you by ironically describing a utopia and the life that the citizens live. Drugs, sleep hypnosis, castes, suppression of individuality, and vast amounts of sex characterize the ironic dystopian utopia of the World State. It's bone-chilling but also fucking awesome.

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb. While Frank Miller writes a mean Batman story, nothing can compare to Loeb's The Long Halloween. The story is heavily inspired by film-noir elements, realistic and dark, and yet Loeb still manages to slip the like of Poison Ivy and the Riddler in without disturbing the setting. The mystery is intriguing and well-written. It has everything a Batman fan would want.

Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb. This one was good, really good actually. Featuring Two-Face as the main villain, Dark Victory is a direct sequel to The Long Halloween, and its tale is pretty compelling, if a bit reliant on the plot of its predecessor. It's comfortable, and introduces Robin, which isn't exactly too great of a plot point. Ugh. Robin.

And currently in progress we have:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I really love this book - I'm halfway through. The tales of random Russian citizens getting fucked up by Satan's retinue is endlessly entertaining. When you put a hippo-sized tomcat with an affinity for vodka and pistols with Satan's personal hitman, a fanged, redhaired cyclops and his personal assistant, a jabbering little man with a pince-nez, you have a formula that cannot be beaten.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Austin heartily recommended this one to me, and I already really like it. The character of Humbert Humbert is both fascinating and creepy, like a peeping tom with the most advanced satellite technology or something. I am definitely not giving up on this one.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. This is a pretty hilarious book; Ignatius P. Reilly, a spoiled as shit manchild is a perfect protagonist. He's like the literary form of Will Ferrel in Step Brothers.

Stuff I gave up on:

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. There's only so much weirdness I can take. I stomached and loved Slaughterhouse Five, but this one is like Slaughterhouse Five combined with Eraserhead combined with a Max Ernst painting.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. SLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I feel really bad for giving up on this. The made-up vocabulary kinda turned me off, but I reckon I'll get back to it some day.

Dune by Frank Herbert. Like LOTR, there's so much to keep track of, such a huge overarching mythology that it's just too damn intimidating.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I just got really damn bored with it.

Stuff in the future:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Plague by Albert Camus
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
On the Roadby Jack Kerouac

I leave you with a quote from Dr. House:

"Read less, more TV."