Just hit 155 books on the year...
I'll spare you everything I've read last week, AND...
…I will instead offer up some observations.
Observation No.1
If a Current Year production is inspired by something that was good 30 years ago, just read that.
This was my takeaway from finishing THE LONG HALLOWEEN by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. It’s a 13-volume omnibus from the 90s about a new Batman villain nicknamed “Holiday,” who only attacks on major holidays. Batman, Harvey Dent, and Commissioner Gordon literally go up against the entire rogues gallery over the course of a year, including F-tier villains like Calendar Man, as they try to figure out who’s killing members of the Gotham crime families.
Matt Reeves said he drew on TLH for The Batman, and after reading the comic, I can see how. Barely. I mean, he took one or two ideas from it…and that’s it. Pretty much the rest of that movie was drudgery. Christopher Nolan borrowed liberally from this book for Harvey Dent’s story in The Dark Knight, and while I love that movie, it was a very different treatment from the overall arc of the comic, and the fact that Harvey wasn’t married meant that the final twist couldn’t play out the way it did on the page.
Worth the time it takes to read it. I thought it was really cool. Attempts since then have largely fallen flat.
Observation No.2
Reread, reread, reread.
After rereading BRIAN’S WINTER and BRIAN’S RETURN, I remembered what I loved about those short, earnest books, written by a master storyteller who based them on things he knew from firsthand experience.
If it was good once, and good twice, it’ll keep being good, and it’s a better use of the time and energy that goes into reading, than it is to read something that sucks.
Observation No.3
I have to read more in Spanish.
This is highly personal, but I’m learning that I’ve lost a lot more than I realized, and if I want to remain truly conversational in my second language, I need to read more and perhaps listen to more podcasts. I’m committing to finishing the Alatriste series in 2024.
Observation No.4
It’s good to take a break.
This year I’ve read 155 books and done 23,000 pushups. This week I let myself take a break from both. Work, hang out with the kids, listen to music, and chill. I’ll still hit my goals for the year. All production with no decompression makes Jack a dull boy.
As you were.