Day 28 Book Photo Challenge: Makes Me Incredibly Giddy

I have picked Comics for this thing that makes me giddy. I assume the intention of the challenge was to pick a specific book that makes you giddy or even an author but comics (buying, browsing, looking at old and new ones, reading and the prospect of any of these things.) is one of the few activities that I do, that I genuinely can not help my self clapping my hands, jiggling my feet and having my voice go up an octave like one of my students talking about some god awful boy band member. 

Just recently I discovered a comic book store near our new house and I think my partner was afraid I was going to send us bankrupt. I have been known to do all of those excitable things described above and say "I'm off to the comic book store" at the end of a work day and have people either look at me oddly or think that I am joking. Just to put it in context, I'm nearly 30 and female. But quiet frankly, I get my love of comics from my mum who still goes to comic stores even if she gets looked at as if she has taken a wrong turn on the way to the grocery store.

So in conclusion, comic books make me giddy and people shouldn't judge others on the stereotypes in their head.

*please note, I call them comics and I am sorry if you like calling them graphic novels. I love them whatever they are called.

Catwoman vol 1. New 52

Well I finally got the chance to sit quietly and digest this yesterday and honestly i love it as much as i ever used to as a teenager. (*Warning this will contain spoilers)
I love the rawness of Selina's personality. She has been broken and had to build herself up again and again and had no one to rely on until she found Lola. This means that she takes unnecessary risks, almost childlike in behavior that get her in trouble that she then has to get herself out of. This risk taking, reckless behavior combined with the beautiful drawings and layout by Judd Winick and Guillem March make it one of my favorite comics yet again.
I may have cried a little bit when Lola was killed and then again when Selina (Catwoman) went to Gwen for help at the end, even though she promised herself she would not. This volume has set up Catwoman beautifully to be that rather damaged cat burglar that i have come to love. The best bit is they haven't gone into the territory of Selina becoming unhinged like Harley Quinn and that way i have two strong women to read about. Yay!
I will be going out next week and getting the next volume so stay tuned if you want to find out more.

Day 15 Literary Photo Challenge: Currently Reading

I am currently reading reading a few books. Mainly I' reading Amari by Steven Atwood which I got through Library Thing for free. I'm halfway through Catwoman vol 1. I'm listening to the Collected Public Domain Works of H.P. Lovecraft from Liborvox. 

The Widowmaker: A Thriller For Horror Buffs I have been reading on and off for a while now but it hasn't really grabbed me.

Photo challenge (catch up day 1) this months reading list.

Technically day 1 of the photo challenge my proposed reading list for December. I stress the word proposed because the list in my head always changes as I actually come to the end of a book.

Also I have a list of ebooks that need reading because they need reviews.

But yay for comic books, sci-fi and historical fiction.

List:

Comic Books

•  Catwoman, vol 1 of new 52, Judd Winick and Guillem March
• Witch Craft, 1,2 & 3 of 3, James Robinson, Peter Snejbjerg and Teddy Kristiansen
• Ballads, Charles Vess

Novels

• Insurgent, Book 2 Divergent trilogy, Veronica Roth
• Allegiant, Book 3 Divergent trilogy, Veronica Roth
• The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett 

Why I Read Comics (The One That Sparked It All)

So I used to read Catwoman on and off as a teenager and I decided recently to get back into it since we had the reset of the new #52. I am not sure how I fell about the new #52 reset of comics and I have deliberately avoided reading any commentary on it, so I don't even know how I am expected to feel, so I will leave that discussion to another post.
 
As a kid and early teen, my mum would drive us the two hours to the city for the second hand card fairs and they were always one of the best days on the calender. It started out with trading cards and that gave me an appreciation for art no matter how small or mass produced the medium.  Pretty soon the trading card hype peaked and petered out but I still had a hankering for the art that I once got from trading cards.
In stepped the comic book!
Sure, having a mum that was into trading card (she was collecting them as well, there was a self serving motive to her motivations of persuading us to start a collection too,) we had comics in the house and i had read them in passing but they hadn't grabbed me yet. So, as the desks of trading card sellers shrank and the space was taken over by boxes of comics, well naturally I was attracted to the $1 comics boxes for a) a bargain and b) something to browse after I had finished looking at the cards.  One auspicious day I found this comic;

I'll admit, I judged a book by its cover, but what a cover. I had never been a traditional superhero comic book reader because they had never appealed to be with the big steroidy muscle men always doing the right thing and beating up the bad guy. But this was different, no brightly coloured cover with a suited man doing what suited men do. No this was the "hero" vulnerable in the distance being visited or haunted by a ghostly visage. As a teenage, I thought i could relate to this sort of "superhero" and she was a she and in purple (my favorite colour.  

And I have never looked back, with my stacks of random comics I have collected over the years, literally judging comic books by their covers and buy with that instinct and feeling I had back then.

Now I am going back to my comic book roots with Catwoman Vol 1 of the new #52.

I look forward to reliving the feelings of old.