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Recommendations We Resist: "Watchmen"
April 29, 2008
You might remember
my friend John, who is now
Bookreporter.com Contributing Editor John (that last link is to his interview with Francoise Mouly on her new TOON series; very cool stuff). (Go John go!)
John is a graphic novels maven, and for years now he's been encouraging me to read one of the classics of the genre,
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. He has encouraged me so strongly for so long that I
actually listened to him and ordered the collected edition (illustrated left with US cover, right Canadian cover). Unfortunately, after receiving the slipcased and shrinkwrapped book, I put it on one of my shelves and promptly neglected it. (NB: That is not to say I neglect all graphic novesl; I've read and enjoyed many of them. But read on...)
This past weekend while visiting John, I was once again given the "You really
should read
Watchmen" talk, and it is to his credit that John delivered this talk a) with great restraint and b) after administering a glass of Charles Cimicky Gnarled Vine grenache. John gently pointed out that I nearly always at least dip into a book he recommends to me (and I usually love his recommendations...people, if you haven't read David Mitchell by now, you're just missing out...), so why was I refusing to even remove the plastic from my deluxe edition of Moore's masterpiece?
Of course, I had my various excuses, and he had anticipated them all. So I came home on Sunday night, took the book from its niche (really, it had almost worn a groove on the shelf, at least dustwise; I'm a book maven, not Martha Stewart), ripped off its plastic, and...
...let it sit there. I am completely resistant to this book's supposed charms. I can't decide if it's because it's a big, unwieldy hardcover, because I tend to believe I don't like superheroes, or because action-packed comics give my ADD-prone brain
agita, or simply all of the above. Whatever the cause, last night again, instead of even turning one page in the graphic novel, I picked up
Murder of a Medici Princess instead.
Which book have you been resisting?
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on April 29, 2008 | Comments (7)
