I was in my neighborhood comic book shop...

I was in my neighborhood comic book shop with a fellow library student (we were doing research, I swear) when a mom walked in with her 6 year old son. Upon entering the store, the kid's eyes light up and he b-lines it to the superman comics. Although it's always pretty awesome to see children full of excitement, what really melted my heart was when he turned to his mom, his little fist full of comic books, and said "Can we check these out???"

"No, Honey," the mother replied as though she had been through this routine before, "this isn't a library, it's a bookstore."

Why can't they stay little forever....

I'm starting, finally, to get into comic books and graphic novels. I don't know why, but I was never really was into them as a kid. As an adult living in Portland, Oregon, comics sink into your subconsciousness, as if by osmosis. They're ubiquitous, all the cool kids are reading them, so I guess I should be, too.

And not just in Portland, either. Comic books, and comic book culture, seem to be really holding there own in western culture. Comic Cons continue to grow in popularity, most blockbusters these days seem to have their genesis in comic books, Allan Moore & Dave Gibbon's The Watchmen was named one on the top 100 novels of all time by Time magazine. The impressive art of sketching stories through hand drawn pictures is everywhere. One could argue that comic books are no longer for the geeks and the losers, but I would argue that the geeks and losers are finally taking their proper, hegemonic position in our society....

Recently, I discovered two of my favorite science fiction series were turned into a comic book - Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow - both by Orson Scott Card (yes, Orson Scott Card is a Mormon homophobe, but he is a good storyteller). It's great to see what some artists have done with the story, and it's equally great to revisit one of my favorite stories in a brand new format.

I also recently discovered the realm of historical and non-fiction graphic novels. My most recent find was a illustrated retelling of the formation and demise of the Students for a Democratic Society by Harvey Pekar. It's pretty amazing.

I think it's great that a lot of libraries, especially public libraries, are ensuring that their holdings include an expansive collection of graphic novels. Not only do these books foster imagination and creativity, but they can also be great alternative learning tools.

I want to discover more graphic novels, but am a little overwhelmed by all that is out there. Do you, dear readers, have any favorites you could share with me? Feel free to leave a comment with your recommendation and I'll see if I can get my hands on it....

Stephenie Meyer is the worst ecological catastrophe of the 21st century

I went in to work the other day and to see that her publisher released another paperback edition of New Moon (the sequel to Twilight) with a movie tie-in cover. Just in case the fans did not own enough junk.

I think that 10% of our books in the store are written by a Mormon who uses vampires as an analogy for angels (not that I have anything against Mormons. Just the bigoted ones). Seriously though, that is a lot of books. And multiply that by all of the big box corporate bookstores out there. Add in Amazon. Throw in a few independent stores for good measure. It all adds up

The lorax is weeping...

..and not just over Stephenie Meyer. Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Nicolas Sparks. I don't want to censor bad literature. We all need a little garbage in out lives. Once you think about it though, all those trees add up.

It got me thinking about eReaders again. One of my readings for class talked about the information infrastructure, liking it to our transportation infrastructure. There are dozens, if not hundreds of components that let individuals (and commodities) travel around, almost anywhere we want to get. The infrastructure of information is similar, and mobile technology such as the Kindle and the iPhone are additional components to our information systems. Not everything can be on them, but maybe some stuff should.

PS - found a blog on eReaders. teleread.org Maybe some of you already know about it. If you don't, check it out.