Read in May 2018

There's nothing particularly special about May. And it's over now. So, without further ado, here are the books I read this month:

H.P. Lovecraft and I.N.J. Culbard, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (5/1)

Howard Chaykin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Twilight (5/2)

Richard Gehr, I Only Read It for the Cartoons (5/2)

Joe R. Landsale, Tim Truman, and Sam Glanzman, Jonah Hex: Shadows West (5/3)

John Allison, Lissa Treiman, and Max Sarin, Giant Days: Not On the Test Edition, Vol. 1 (5/4)

John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming, Giant Days: Not On the Test Edition, Vol. 2 (5/5)

Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 (5/6)

Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969 (5/6)

Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 2009 (5/6)

Berkeley Breathed, The Bloom County Library, Vol. 4: 1986-1987 (5/7)

Jane Yolen and Rebecca Guay, The Last Dragon (5/8)

Kate Leth, Brittney L. Williams, and Natasha Allegri, Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat!, Vol. 1: Hooked On a Feline (5/9)

Jackson Landers, Eating Aliens (bound galleys) (5/9)

Edward Lucie-Smith, Erotica: The Fine Art of Sex (5/10)

Andi Watson, Skeleton Key, Vol. 1: Beyond the Threshold (5/11)

Andi Watson, Skeleton Key, Vol. 2: The Celestial Calendar (5/11)

Andi Watson, Skeleton Key, Vol. 3: Telling Tales (5/11)

Andi Watson, Skeleton Key, Vol. 4: Cats & Dogs (5/12)

Andi Watson, Skeleton Key, Vol. 5: Roots (5/12)

The New Yorker Book of Mom Cartoons (5/13)

Dennis O'Neil, Denys Cowan, and Rick Magyar, The Question, Vol. 2: Poisoned Ground (5/14)

John Layman and Rob Guillory, Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Vol. 4 (5/15)

James Morrow, The Asylum of Dr. Caligari (5/16)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain, Dungeon: The Early Years, Vol. 1: The Night Shirt (5/16)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain, Dungeon: The Early Years, Vol. 2: Innocence Lost (5/17)

Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 1: Duck Heart (5/18)

Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 2: The Barbarian Princess (5/19)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Boulet, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 3: Back in Style (5/20)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcenet, Dungeon: Parade, Vol. 1: A Dungeon Too Many (5/21)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcenet, Dungeon: Parade, Vol. 2: Day of the Toads (5/22)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Mazan and Jean-Christophe Menu, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 1: The Crying Giant (5/23)

Chris Offutt, My Father, The Pornographer (5/23)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Stephane Blancquet and Andreas, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 2: The Dark Lord (5/24)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Carlos Nine and Killoffer, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 3: Heartbreaker (5/25)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Jean-Emmanuel Vermot-Desroches and Yoann, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 4: Night of the Ladykiller (5/26)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Blutch and Bezian, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 5: My Son the Killer (5/27)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Stanislas and Keramidas, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 6: The Great Animator (5/28)

Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 1: Dragon Cemetery (5/29)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Kerascoet, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 2: Armageddon (5/30)

Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Kerascoet, and Obion, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 3: The New Centurions (5/31)

And that was May. 

Welcome to Book-A-Day 2018!

I seem to do this every three to four years -- long enough for my reading and posting to ebb lower, and for me to get first annoyed and then energized by that -- so it's about time again.

Like 2014, this is planned to fill the whole calendar year. (I also had earlier stints of Book-A-Day in 2006-2007 and 2010-2011.) If you wonder what kind of books these will be, the 2014 Post-Mortem is likely to still match my current reading style pretty well. And my old post on how to read a book a day could also be informative.

I expect 2018 to closely match the 2014 model: I'm starting out with fewer books "saved up" to review (six), but the point is still to post a review of something every day for the whole year, and have that need for content force me to read more.

Below this point, an index will grow, as the year goes on and I actually read books and post about them. If history is any guide, I will double-count at least once.

Today's book post will go up sometime this afternoon (since I haven't written it yet), and after that I hope to settle down to my usual noon posting time. As always, plans are not guarantees.

The Index:

1: Inio Asano, A Girl on the Shore
2: Kaori Ozaki, The Gods Lie
3: Rick Geary, The Lindbergh Child and The Saga of the Bloody Benders
4: Deborah Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook
5: Paul Theroux, The Tao of Travel 
6: Tom Gauld, Baking With Kafka
7: Richard Sala, The Bloody Cardinal
8: Ben Blatt, Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve
9: Michel Choquette, editor, The Someday Funnies
10: Frank Thorne, The Complete Iron Devil
11: Rick Geary, The Secret Room at the White House
12: Velhmann and Kerascoet, Satania
13: Peter Bagge, Fire!!
14: Mawil, Home and Away
15: Randall Munroe, Thing Explainer
16: Chris Achilleos, Amazona
17: Roger Langridge, Fred the Clown in "The Iron Duchess"
18: Cyril Pedrosa, Equinoxes
19: James Vance and Dan E. Burr, On the Ropes
20: Jonathan Barli, Vip: The Mad World of Virgil Partch
21: Steven Brust, Vallista
22: Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals, Vol. 4: Fourgy!
23: Jeff Lemire, Royal City, Vol. 1: Next of Kin
24: Kevin Underhill, The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance
25: Mimi Pond, The Customer Is Always Wrong
26: Sarah Glidden, Rolling Blackouts
27: Teri S. Wood, Wandering Star
28: Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur, The Star Wars Poster Book
29: Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Mr. Higgins Comes Home
30: Michel Rabagliati, Paul Has a Summer Job
31: Colleen Frakes, Prison Island
32: Catel and Veronique Grisseaux, Bluesy Lucy
33: Lawrence Block, The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes
34: Makoto Shinkai and Yukiko Seike, 5 Centimenters per Second
35: Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth, Stumptown, Vol. 1: The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her Mini)
36: Jennifer Hayden, Underwire
37: Scott Rubin, Sean Crespo, and Mason Brown, editors, National Lampoon's Big Book of Love
38: Svetlana Chmakova, Brave
39: Shannon Wheeler, Sh*t My President Says
40: Nico Tanigawa, No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, Volumes 8 and 9
41: J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
42:  Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!, Vol. 1
43: Jeff Lemire, Roughneck
44: Brandon Graham, King City
45: Paul Grist, Jack Staff, Vol. 1: Everything Used To Be Black and White
46: Julia Wertz, Museum of Mistakes
47: Katsu Aki, Manga Sutra, Vol. 2
48: Satoko Kiyuduki, Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, Vol. 4 and 5
49: P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings
50: Kate Ascher, The Works: Anatomy of a City

51: Howard Chaykin, Black Kiss and Black Kiss 2
52: Dan Piraro, Bizarro Heroes
53: Tillie Walden, Spinning
54: Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota, Lucky Penny
55: Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis, Defiance and Victory
56: Diana Wynne Jones, The Pinhoe Egg 
57: Gabrielle Bell, Everything Is Flammable
58: Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim, Poppies of Iraq
59: Paul Hornschemeier, The Collected Sequential
60: Santiago Garcia and David Rubin, Beowulf
61: Jeff Smith, editor, The Best American Comics 2013
62: Naoki Urasawa with Takashi Nagasaki, Pluto, Vol. 1 and 2
63: Haruki Murakami, Men Without Women
64: Andy Warner, Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
65: Zander Cannon, Kaijumax, Season Two: The Seamy Underbelly
66: Terry Pratchett*, The Compleat Discworld Atlas
67: Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault, Louis Undercover
68: Lorena Alvarez, Nightlights
69: Georges Perec, The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise
70: Kim Dong Hwa, The Color of Water and The Color of Heaven
71: Thu Bui, The Best We Could Do
72: Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening
73: Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone, Shade the Changing Girl, Vol. 1: Earth Girl Made Easy
74: Jonathan Lethem, editor, The Best American Comics 2015 and Roz Chast, editor, The Best American Comics 2016
75: Stewart O'Nan, The Night Country
76: Batton Lash, The Soddyssey and Other Tales of Supernatural Law and The Werewolf of New York 
77: Ryan North and Erica Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now
78: Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, Andy Kubert, and Klaus Jason, Batman: The Dark Knight: Master Race
79: Kyle Baker, Nat Turner
80: Paul Grist and Phil Elliott, Jack Staff, Vol. 2: Soldiers
81: Charles Forsman, I Am Not Okay With This
82: Pascal Girard, Nicolas
83: Eleanor Davis, You & A Bike & A Road
84: Bill Corbett and Len Peralta, Super-Powered Revenge Christmas
85: Sergio Aragones, Mark Evanier, and Thomas Yeates, Groo Vs. Conan
86: Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen,  Descender, Vol. 4
87: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls, Vol. 3
88: Cassandra Jean, Reindeer Boy
89: Dan Wells, Nothing Left To Lose
90: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, Nemo: Heart of Ice, Nemo: The Roses of Berlin, and Nemo: River of Ghosts
91: Ted McKeever, Meta4
92: Jeff Lemire, Essex County
93: Nina Bunjevac, Fatherland
94: Nick Bertozzi, Lewis & Clark
95: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Paul Grist, The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed
96: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Christopher Mitten, Rise of the Black Flame
97: Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist
98: Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Saga, Vol. 8
99: Gretchen Edgren, The Playmate Book
100: Masamune Shirow, The Ghost in the Shell

101: Frederik Peeters, Aama, Vol. 3: The Dust of Mirrors
102: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, and various artist, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1954
103: Lynda Barry, Syllabus
104: Paul Levitz and Steve Lightle, Legion of Super-Heroes: The More Things Change
105: Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
106: Kyle Baker, King David
107: Gary Spencer Millidge, Strangehaven: Brotherhood
108: Mike Grell, Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden
109: Roberta Gregory, As Naughty As She Wants to Be!
110: Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres, Valerian: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1
111: Herge, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 1
112: Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, Tank Girl, Vol. 1
113: Ryan North and Erica Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 4: I Kissed a Squirrel and I Liked It
114: Lawrence Block, Borderline
115: Neil Gaiman, et. al., Free Country: A Tale of the Children's Crusade
116: Kurt Busiek and Brent Eric Anderson, Astro City: The Dark Age, Vol. 1: Brothers and Other Strangers
117: Laura Lee, Around the World in 80 Cliches
118: Marcel Beyer and Ulli Lust, Voices in the Dark
119: Julia Wertz, Tenements, Towers & Trash
120: Joe Ollmann, The Abominable Mr. Seabrook
121: G. Willow Wilson and various artists, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 5: Super Famous
122: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Carolyn Nowak, Lunberjanes, Vol. 3: A Terrible Plan
123: Jillian Tamaki, Boundless
124: Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia
125: John Porcellino, The Hospital Suite
126: Roz Chast, Going Into Town
127: Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, The Vision (2 Vols.)
128: Brahm Revel, Guerillas, Vols. 1 & 2
129: Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, Tank Girl, Vol. 2
130: P.G. Wodehouse, Louder and Funnier
131: Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli, The Puma Blues
132: Bruce Marshall, Building New York
133: Mike Mignola and various collaborators, Abe Sapien, Vols. 8 & 9
134: Mawil, We Can Still Be Friends
135: Dave McKean, Cages
136: H.P. Lovecraft and I.N.J. Culbard, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
137: Howard Chaykin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Twilight
138: Richard Gehr, I Only Read It for the Cartoons
139: Joe R. Landsale, Tim Truman, and Sam Glanzman, Jonah Hex: Shadows West
140: John Allison, Lissa Treiman, and Max Sarin, Giant Days: Not On the Test Edition, Vols.1 &
 2
141: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century
142: Berkeley Breathed, The Bloom County Library, Vol. 4: 1986-1987
143: Jane Yolen and Rebecca Guay, The Last Dragon
144: Kate Leth, Brittney L. Williams, and Natasha Allegri, Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat!, Vol. 1: Hooked On a Feline
145: Jackson Landers, Eating Aliens
146: Edward Lucie-Smith, Erotica: The Fine Art of Sex
147: Andi Watson, Skeleton Key (5 vols.)
148: The New Yorker Book of Mom Cartoons
149: Dennis O'Neil, Denys Cowan, and Rick Magyar, The Question, Vol. 2: Poisoned Ground
150: John Layman and Rob Guillory, Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Vol. 4

151: James Morrow, The Asylum of Dr. Caligari
152: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain, Dungeon: The Early Years, Vol. 1: The Night Shirt
153: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain, Dungeon: The Early Years, Vol. 2: Innocence Lost
154: Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 1: Duck Heart
155: Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 2: The Barbarian Princess
156: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Boulet, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 3: Back in Style
157: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcenet, Dungeon: Parade, Vol. 1: A Dungeon Too Many
158: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcenet, Dungeon: Parade, Vol. 2: Day of the Toads

159: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Mazan and Jean-Christophe Menu, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 1: The Crying Giant

160: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Stephane Blancquet and Andreas, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 2: The Dark Lord

161: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Carlos Nine and Killoffer, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 3: Heartbreaker

162: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Jean-Emmanuel Vermot-Desroches and Yoann, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 4: Night of the Ladykiller

163: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Blutch and Bezian, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 5: My Son the Killer

164: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Stanislas and Keramidas, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 6: The Great Animator

165: Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 1: Dragon Cemetery

166: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Kerascoet, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 2: Armageddon

167: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Kerascoet, and Obion, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 3: The New Centurions

168: Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Alfred, and Mazan, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 4: The End of Dungeon

169: Chris Offutt, My Father, The Pornographer

170: Charles Stross, The Delirium Brief
171: Jason Shiga, Demon (4 vols.)

172: Ben Costa and James Parks, Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Middle-Route Run

173: Chad Sell and various writers, The Cardboard Kingdom
174: Mark Siegel, Alexis Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, and Boya Sun, 5 Worlds, Book 2: The Cobalt Prince
175: James Crumley, The Wrong Case
176: Jaime Hernandez, Maggie the Mechanic
177: Baboon Metaphysics and Other Implausibly Titled Books
178: Jason, On the Camino
179: Nagata Kabi, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness
180: Peter Watts, The Freeze-Frame Revolution
181: Jacques Tardi, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Vol. 2
182: Hartley Lin, Young Frances
183: Gilbert Hernandez, Heartbreak Soup

184: Taiyo Matsumoto, Sunny, Vols. 5 & 6

185: Robert Niles, Stories from a Theme Park Insider
186: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls, Vol. 4
187: Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
188: Jeff Lemire, Royal City, Vol. 2: Sonic Youth
189: Peter S. Beagle, In Calabria
190: Jaime Hernandez, The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.
191: Lewis Trondheim and Nicholas Keramidias, Mickey's Craziest Adventures
192: Jacques Tardi and Leo Malet, Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge
193: Richard Sala, The Chuckling Whatsit
194: Jason, Why Are You Doing This?
195: Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins, Grass Kings, Vol. 1
196: Peter Milligan, Chris Bachalo, and Mark Pennington, Shade, the Changing Man, Vol. 1: The American Scream
197: Gilbert Hernandez, Human Diastrophism
198: Massimo Carlotto and Marco Videtta, Poisonville
199: Guy Delisle, Hostage
200: Jason, Pocket Full of Rain

201: Howard Mohr, How to Speak Minnesotan
202: Alan Moore and various artists, Saga of the Swamp Thing (6 vols.)
203: Larry Gonick and Art Huffman, The Cartoon Guide to Physics

204: Jaime Hernandez, Perla La Loca
205: Bill Morrison, Roswell Walks Among Us
206: Greg Ruth, Sudden Gravity
207: Lewis Trondheim, Mister I
208: Kristen Radtke, Imagine Wanting Only This
209: P.G. Wodehouse, Over Seventy
210: Manuele Fior, Blackbird Days
211: Gilbert Hernandez, Beyond Palomar
212: G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Mirka Andolfo, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 6: Civil War II
213: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Joe Rubinstein, Formerly Known as the Justice League
214: John Stanley with Lloyd White, Tubby, Vol. 3
215: George O'Connor, Hermes: Tales of the Trickster
216: Michael Chabon's The Escapist: Amazing Adventures
217: James Alan Gardner, All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault
218: Los Bros Hernandez, Amor Y Cohetes

219: Fran Krause, The Creeps

220: Jason Novak, Et Tu Brute?
221: Ryan North and Eric Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 5: Like I'm the Only Squirrel in the World
222: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Brooke Allen, Lumberjanes, Vol. 4: Out of Time
223: Penelope Bagieu, Brazen
224: Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock, Knife's Edge
225: Jaime Hernandez, Penny Century
226: Matthew Hughes, The Commons
227: Russell Ash, It Just Slipped Out...
228: Hope Larson, All Summer Long
229: Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood
230: Eleanor Davis, Why Art?
231: Reverend Jen, Live Nude Elf
232: Gilbert Hernandez, Luba and Her Family

233: Tony Cliff, Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling

234: Warren Ellis, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, and Colleen Doran, Ocean/Orbiter: The Deluxe Edition
235: Various writers and artists, Star Wars: A Long Time Ago...: Dark Encounters
236: Jaime Hernandez, The Dragon Slayer
237: Jamie S. Rich and Megan Levens, Ares & Aphrodite: Love Wars
238: The Pander Brothers, Girlfiend
239: Jaime Hernandez, Esperanza
240: Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy, Labor Days 2: Just Another Damn Day
241: Cullen Bunn, Shawn Lee and Matt Kindt, The Tooth
242: Tom Perrotta, Mrs. Fletcher
243: Gabby Schulz, Sick
244: Linda Medley, Castle Waiting
245: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Joe Rubinstein, I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League
246: Gilbert Hernandez, Ofelia

247: Benjamin Frisch, The Fun Family

248: James Thurber and E.B. White, Is Sex Necessary?
249: Frederick Burr Opper's Happy Hooligan
250: Labiano and Dufaux, Dixie Road

251: Roz Chast, The Four Elements
252: Dave McKean, Pictures That Tick 2
253: Gilbert Hernandez, Comics Dementia

254: Paul Grist, Jack Staff, Vols. 3 and 4

255: Chris Oliveros, editor, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase: Book Two
256: Dave Sim, Cerebus
257: Steve Erickson, Days Between Stations
258: art spiegelman, The Complete Maus
259: Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, Soonish
260: Jaime Hernandez, Angels and Magpies

261: Martha Wells, Artificial Condition

262: Simon Rich, Spoiled Brats

263: Mike Baron and Steve Rude, Nexus Archives, Vols. 1-9
264: Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder, and Natchas Bustos, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 1: BFF

265: Kelly Sue DeConnick, Christopher Sebela, Dexter Soy, Emma Rios, and Filipe Andrade, Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: Earth's Mightiest Hero

266: Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew, Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea

267: Gilbert Hernandez, Three Sisters

268: Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris, My Boyfriend Is a Bear

269: George Booth, Think Good Thoughts About a Pussycat
270: Nate Powell, Come Again
271: Jesse Sheidlower, The F Word
272: Ian and Tyson Smith, Oddjob
273: Kristen Gudsnuk, Henchgirl
274: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 1

275: John Allison and various artists, Giant Days: Extra Credit, Vol. 1

276: Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals, Vol. 5: Five-Fingered Discount
277: Steven Brust, Good Guys
278: Ted Rall, Real Americans Admit: "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done!"
279: Grant Morrison, Steve Yeowell, and Jon J. Muth, Sebastian O/The Mystery Play
280: Brecht Evens, Night Animals
281: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 2

282: Brandon Graham, Multiple Warheads, Vol. 2: Ghostown

283: Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen, Descender, Vol. 5: Rise of the Robots
284: Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
285: Dave Sim, High Society
286: Matt Furie, Boy's Club
287: Jim Ottaviani, The Imitation Game
288: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 3

289: Rick Geary, Chester & Grace: The Adirondack Murder

290: Herge, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 2
291: G. Willow Wilson, Mirka Andolfo, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Francesco Gaston, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 7: Damage Per Second
292: Ryan North and Erica Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe
293: P.G. Wodehouse, Young Men in Spats
294: Michael Kupperman, All the Answers
295: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 4

296: Nick Drnaso, Sabrina
297: Molly Knox Ostertag, The Witch Boy
298: Howard Chaykin, David Tischman, Marc Laming, and John Stokes, American Century, Vols. 1 and 2

299: Carlos Fuentes, The Old Gringo

300: Christopher J. Moore, In Other Words

301: Keith Knight, What a Long Strange Strip It's Been

302: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 5

303: Kyle Baker, I Die at Midnight

304: Carla Speed McNeil, The Finder Library, Vol. 1

305: Matt Wagner, Mage: The Hero Discovered (2 Vols.)

306: Rick Geary, A Treasury of Victorian Murder, Vol. 1

307: Tony Horwitz, One for the Road

308: Andi Watson, The Complete Geisha
309: Gilbert Hernandez, The Adventures of Venus
310: Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga, Vol. 3
311: Liz Prince, Look Back and Laugh
312: Kelly Sue DeConnick and others, Captain Marvel: Earth's Mightiest Hero, Vol. 2
313: Pratap Chatterjee and Khalil, Verax
314: Dennis Lehane, The Drop
315: Philip Larkin, Collected Poems
316: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 6
317: Martha Wells, Rogue Protocol
318: Anonymous, editor, Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament
319: Neil Gaiman and Kim Newman, editors, Ghastly Beyond Belief
320: Peter Bagge, Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me
321: Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly, The New York Four
322: Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock, The Martian Confederacy, Vol. 2: From Mars With Love
323: Gilbert Hernandez, Julio's Day
324: Kristen Gudsnuk, Making Friends
325: Alan Moore, J.H. Williams II, and Mick Grey, Promethea, Book 1
326: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Brooke Allen, and Carolyn Nowak, Lumberjanes, Vol. 5: Band Together
327: Stewart O'Nan, The Odds
328: Jen Wang, The Prince and the Dressmaker
329: Shannon Wheeler, Memoirs of a Very Stable Genius
330: Gilbert Hernandez, The Children of Palomar
331: Michael Moorcock and Howard V. Chaykin, The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell
332: Grant Morrison, Richard Case, and others, Doom Patrol (3 and/or 6 vols.)
333: Svetlana Chmakova, Crush
334: Adam Resnick, Will Not Attend
335: Masamune Shirow, The Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Man-Machine Interface
336: Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag, Strong Female Protagonist, Book Two
337: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 7
338: Matt Wagner, Mage: The Hero Defined
339: Matt Kindt, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man
340: Zander Cannon, Kaijumax, Season 3: King of the Monstas
341: Pam Smy, Thornhill
342: Jamie S. Rich and Nicolas Hitori De, Spell Checkers (2 Vols.)
343: Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and James Harren, B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, Vols. 11-13
344: The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 8 (11/19)
345: Kyle Baker, You Are Here
346: Evan Dorkin, Dork
347: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Al Gordon, Justice League International, Vol. 1
348: Larry Marder, Beanworld Omnibus, Vol. 1
349: Matt Wagner and various artists, Grendel Omnibus (4 Vols.)
350: Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga, Amazing Facts and Beyond! with Leon Beyond

351: Marc Sobel and Kristy Valenti, editors, The Love and Rockets Companion

352: Jim Ottaviani and various artists, Fallout
353: Ryan North and Eric Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 6: Who Run the World? Squirrels
354: Brian K. Vaughan and various artists, The Escapists

355: Jeff Parker and various artists, Batman '66, Vol. 1
356: Jay McInerney, Story of My Life
357: Herge, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 3

358: Gilbert Hernandez, Birdland

359: Michael Kupperman, Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Vol. 1
360: Claudio Persanti and Lorenzo Mattotti, Stigmata
361: Al Columbia, Pim and Francie: "The Golden Bear Days"
362: Joyce Farmer, Special Exits
363: Charles Forsman, The End of the Fucking World
364: Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation
365: Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets, Vol. 4 (6 comics issues)

366: John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming, Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition, Vol. 3
367: Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, and Erin Humiston, Calla Cthulhu, Vol. 1
368: Chris Roberson, Francesco Biagini, and Stephen Downer, Michael Moorcock's Elric: The Balance Lost, Vol. 1
369: Matt Wagner, Mage: The Hero Denied, Vol. 1 (or maybe 5)
370: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls, Vol. 5
371: Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Saga, Vol. 9
372: Nicholson Baker, House of Holes
373: Larry Marder, Tales of the Beanworld (Vol. 3.5)
374: C. Tyler, You'll Never Know (Vols. 2 and 3)
375: John Boswell and Dan Starer, Five Rings, Six Crises, Seven Dwarfs and 38 Ways to Win An Argument
376: Jim Woodring, Poochytown
377: Tim Truman, Scout and Scout: War Shaman (4 Vols., more or less)
378: Eddie Campbell, Bacchus (2 Vols.)
379: Kaoru Mori, Emma (5 Vols.)
380: Brandon Graham, Royalboiler
381: Martha Wells, Exit Strategy

Book-A-Day 2018: Post-Mortem

Introductory

First of all: yes, I know. It does seem odd to have a post-mortem for something not yet dead. But, trust me, Book-A-Day 2018 is dead: everything is read and all of the posts written and scheduled. [1] It's just going to twitch a bit for the next two weeks while the dying makes it out to all of the extremities.

2018 was my fourth run of Book-A-Day here on Antick Musings -- before that, it was something I did myself in a desultory way for a few weeks or months, to kick myself out of a reading doldrum. Those prior runs are the year of 2014, a year-long stretch covering 2010-2011, and a 200-day stretch in 2006-2007.

Book-A-Day can be either of two things: either I'm reading a book every day, or I'm writing a post about a book every day. Over the course of a year, the latter turns into the former, obviously. And every time I do this, I try to do both, and I think it's been more successful each time. (Of course, I would think that.)

This is probably the last time I do a Book-A-Day year. I have two reasons for that, one serious-logistical and one silly.

The silly reason first: I just realized that I was laid off soon after finishing every other Book-A-Day run: first in April of 2006 (after ending in February) and then in January of 2015 (after the 2014 run). I should be safe this time, but I'm not planning to tempt fate.

The more serious reason is that I just don't have the vast masses of quick-to-read books coming into my house that I did back in the SFBC days, and I've now worked down all of the remnants of both those days and what I've bought since then. (Well, the quick-to-read portions of both: I still have far more unread books than I can get to in the next five years.)

So even if I wanted to do Book-A-Day again, in 2021 or so, and tempt the Job Gods, I probably wouldn't have the books to do it with. I relied heavily on the library this time out, and the only way to do that again would be to read a lot of junk that I don't care much about just to pad out the totals. (Which, come to think of it, I did quite a bit in the 2014 and 2010-2011 runs.)

Given that, let me take a look at what I did read in 2018, in the manner of the previous Post-Mortems for 2006-2007 and 2014. There will be only one graph, I think, and this is it.

In 2018, I read 433 books in 365 days and wrote 379 blog posts covering 437 books and 6 individual comics issues. Careful readers will note that I wrote about more books in 2018 than I read; I started the year with a small cushion of stuff read in December 2017. I also read more books than I wrote posts, because I wrote about longer series (all comics) more and more as the year went on. The numbers and percentages in the chart and below are based on number of books rather than number of posts.

I don't know if everyone likes placing books into tidy little categories as much as I do, though the wars over the SF/Fantasy border seem to prove they do. But it's how I organize these Post-Mortem posts, so here's what I read, as I categorize it:

Fiction: SF and Fantasy (18, 4.2%)

• Steven Brust, Vallista
• Diana Wynne Jones, The Pinhoe Egg
• Stewart O'Nan, The Night Country
• Dan Wells, Nothing Left To Lose
• James Morrow, The Asylum of Dr. Caligari
• Charles Stross, The Delirium Brief
• Peter Watts, The Freeze-Frame Revolution
• Peter S. Beagle, In Calabria
• James Alan Gardner, All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault
• Matthew Hughes, The Commons
• Steve Erickson, Days Between Stations
• Martha Wells, Artificial Condition
• Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew, Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea
• Steven Brust, Good Guys
• Martha Wells, Rogue Protocol
• Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation
• Nicholson Baker, House of Holes
• Martha Wells, Exit Strategy

This is what I used to do for a living: I know, I'm surprised it's this small a portion of my reading these days, too. I keep saying that I'd be happy to go back to SFF publishing if they wanted me, but I have no idea how my current expertise would align with that world.

In 2014, this was 4.4%, with 16 books.

Fiction: Mystery and Thriller (5, 1.2%)

• Lawrence Block, The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes
• Lawrence Block, Borderline
• James Crumley, The Wrong Case
• Massimo Carlotto and Marco Videtta, Poisonville
• Dennis Lehane, The Drop

The larger genre right next door to SFF, in which I also used to read a lot more. Several of my would-be reading projects are in this area; maybe one or more will happen in 2019.

In 2014, this was 0.5%, with 2 books.

Fiction: Mainstream (10, 2.3%)

• J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
• P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings
• Haruki Murakami, Men Without Women
• Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist
• Tom Perrotta, Mrs. Fletcher
• Simon Rich, Spoiled Brats
• P.G. Wodehouse, Young Men in Spats
• Carlos Fuentes, The Old Gringo
• Stewart O'Nan, The Odds
• Jay McInerney, Story of My Life

I'm reading fewer long books of prose in the first place these days, but it seems like about the same percentage of it is not obviously genre. But I tend to think of this category as defined negatively: it's what doesn't fit into clear genres.

In 2014, this was 2.7%, with 10 books.

Non-Fiction: Narrative (15, 3.5%)

• Deborah Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook
• Kevin Underhill, The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance
• Ben Blatt, Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve
• Georges Perec, The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise
• Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia
• Richard Gehr, I Only Read It for the Cartoons
• Jackson Landers, Eating Aliens
• Chris Offutt, My Father, The Pornographer
• Robert Niles, Stories from a Theme Park Insider
• Reverend Jen, Live Nude Elf
• James Thurber and E.B. White, Is Sex Necessary?
• Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, Soonish
• Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
• Tony Horwitz, One for the Road
• Adam Resnick, Will Not Attend

This is the category for relatively serious non-fiction -- histories, travelogues, memoirs, stuff like that. It's really miscellaneous, obviously.

In 2014, this was 6%, with 22 books.

Non-Fiction: Lists and Frivolities (17, 3.9%)

• Paul Theroux, The Tao of Travel
• Randall Munroe, Thing Explainer
• Scott Rubin, Sean Crespo, and Mason Brown, editors, National Lampoon's Big Book of Love
• Shannon Wheeler, Sh*t My President Says
• Andy Warner, Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
• Terry Pratchett*, The Compleat Discworld Atlas
• Laura Lee, Around the World in 80 Cliches
• P.G. Wodehouse, Louder and Funnier
• Baboon Metaphysics and Other Implausibly Titled Books
• Howard Mohr, How to Speak Minnesotan
• Jason Novak, Et Tu Brute?
• Russell Ash, It Just Slipped Out...
• Jesse Sheidlower, The F Word
• Christopher J. Moore, In Other Words
• Neil Gaiman and Kim Newman, editors, Ghastly Beyond Belief
• Marc Sobel and Kristy Valenti, editors, The Love and Rockets Companion
• John Boswell and Dan Starer, Five Rings, Six Crises, Seven Dwarfs and 38 Ways to Win An Argument

And this is the non-fiction category for things that aren't serious at all -- a lot of these were bathroom books, and this category has often been the place for things I read quickly in an evening when I realized I hadn't read a book yet that day. But my sense is that the cute little gift-y thing that sits by the cast register isn't really a big book category anymore.

In 2014, this was 2.7%, with 10 books.

Comics: Strip and Panel Collections (27, 6.2%)

• Tom Gauld, Baking With Kafka
• Richard Sala, The Bloody Cardinal
• Jennifer Hayden, Underwire
• Julia Wertz, Museum of Mistakes
• Dan Piraro, Bizarro Heroes
• Gabrielle Bell, Everything Is Flammable
• Jillian Tamaki, Boundless
• John Porcellino, The Hospital Suite
• Berkeley Breathed, The Bloom County Library, Vol. 4: 1986-1987
• The New Yorker Book of Mom Cartoons
• Jason Shiga, Demon (4 vols.)
• Fran Krause, The Creeps
• Frederick Burr Opper's Happy Hooligan
• Roz Chast, The Four Elements
• Dave McKean, Pictures That Tick 2
• art spiegelman, The Complete Maus
• George Booth, Think Good Thoughts About a Pussycat
• Matt Furie, Boy's Club
• Keith Knight, What a Long Strange Strip It's Been
• Rick Geary, A Treasury of Victorian Murder, Vol. 1
• Liz Prince, Look Back and Laugh
• Peter Bagge, Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me
• Shannon Wheeler, Memoirs of a Very Stable Genius
• Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga, Amazing Facts and Beyond! with Leon Beyond

I divide the world of comics into possibly idiosyncratic categories, based on how they first appeared. I think it makes sense; you may disagree. First up are books of comics that originally appeared as individual strips somewhere -- online or in print. This used to be mostly collections of newspaper comics, then mostly collections of webcomics, and now it's pretty miscellaneous.

In 2014, this was 10.4%, with 38 books.

Comics: Floppy Collections (194, 44.8%)

• Frank Thorne, The Complete Iron Devil
• Roger Langridge, Fred the Clown in "The Iron Duchess" 
• Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals, Vol. 4: Fourgy!
• Jeff Lemire, Royal City, Vol. 1: Next of Kin
• Teri S. Wood, Wandering Star
• Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth, Stumptown, Vol. 1: The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her Mini)
• Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!, Vol. 1
• Brandon Graham, King City
• Paul Grist, Jack Staff, Vol. 1: Everything Used To Be Black and White
• Howard Chaykin, Black Kiss and Black Kiss 2
• Paul Hornschemeier, The Collected Sequential
• Jeff Smith, editor, The Best American Comics 2013
• Zander Cannon, Kaijumax, Season Two: The Seamy Underbelly
• Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening
• Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone, Shade the Changing Girl, Vol. 1: Earth Girl Made Easy
• Jonathan Lethem, editor, The Best American Comics 2015 and Roz Chast, editor, The Best American Comics 2016
• Batton Lash, The Soddyssey and Other Tales of Supernatural Law and The Werewolf of New York
• Ryan North and Erica Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now
• Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, Andy Kubert, and Klaus Jason, Batman: The Dark Knight: Master Race
• Kyle Baker, Nat Turner
• Paul Grist and Phil Elliott, Jack Staff, Vol. 2: Soldiers
• Charles Forsman, I Am Not Okay With This
• Sergio Aragones, Mark Evanier, and Thomas Yeates, Groo Vs. Conan
  
• Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen,  Descender, Vol. 4
• Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls, Vol. 3
• Ted McKeever, Meta4
• Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Paul Grist, The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed
• Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Christopher Mitten, Rise of the Black Flame
• Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Saga, Vol. 8
• Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, and various artist, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1954
• Paul Levitz and Steve Lightle, Legion of Super-Heroes: The More Things Change
• Gary Spencer Millidge, Strangehaven: Brotherhood
• Mike Grell, Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden
• Roberta Gregory, As Naughty As She Wants to Be!
• Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, Tank Girl, Vol. 1
• Ryan North and Erica Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 4: I Kissed a Squirrel and I Liked It
• Neil Gaiman, et. al., Free Country: A Tale of the Children's Crusade
• Kurt Busiek and Brent Eric Anderson, Astro City: The Dark Age, Vol. 1: Brothers and Other Strangers
• G. Willow Wilson and various artists, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 5: Super Famous
• Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Carolyn Nowak, Lunberjanes, Vol. 3: A Terrible Plan
• Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, The Vision (2 Vols.)
• Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, Tank Girl, Vol. 2
• Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli, The Puma Blues
• Mike Mignola and various collaborators, Abe Sapien, Vols. 8 and 9
• Dave McKean, Cages
• Howard Chaykin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Twilight
• Joe R. Landsale, Tim Truman, and Sam Glanzman, Jonah Hex: Shadows West
• John Allison, Lissa Treiman, and Max Sarin, Giant Days: Not On the Test Edition, Vols.1 and 2
• Kate Leth, Brittney L. Williams, and Natasha Allegri, Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat!, Vol. 1: Hooked On a Feline
• Andi Watson, Skeleton Key (5 vols.)
• Dennis O'Neil, Denys Cowan, and Rick Magyar, The Question, Vol. 2: Poisoned Ground
• John Layman and Rob Guillory, Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Vol. 4
• Jaime Hernandez, Maggie the Mechanic
• Hartley Lin, Young Frances
• Gilbert Hernandez, Heartbreak Soup
• Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls, Vol. 4
• Jeff Lemire, Royal City, Vol. 2: Sonic Youth
• Jaime Hernandez, The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.
• Richard Sala, The Chuckling Whatsit
• Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins, Grass Kings, Vol. 1
• Peter Milligan, Chris Bachalo, and Mark Pennington, Shade, the Changing Man, Vol. 1: The American Scream
• Gilbert Hernandez, Human Diastrophism
• Alan Moore and various artists, Saga of the Swamp Thing (6 vols.)
• Jaime Hernandez, Perla La Loca
• Bill Morrison, Roswell Walks Among Us
• Greg Ruth, Sudden Gravity
• Gilbert Hernandez, Beyond Palomar
• G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Mirka Andolfo, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 6: Civil War II
• Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Joe Rubinstein, Formerly Known as the Justice League
• John Stanley with Lloyd White, Tubby, Vol. 3
• Michael Chabon's The Escapist: Amazing Adventures
• Los Bros Hernandez, Amor Y Cohetes
• Ryan North and Eric Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 5: Like I'm the Only Squirrel in the World
• Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Brooke Allen, Lumberjanes, Vol. 4: Out of Time
• Jaime Hernandez, Penny Century
• Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood
• Gilbert Hernandez, Luba and Her Family
• Warren Ellis, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, and Colleen Doran, Ocean/Orbiter: The Deluxe Edition
• Various writers and artists, Star Wars: A Long Time Ago...: Dark Encounters
• Jamie S. Rich and Megan Levens, Ares & Aphrodite: Love Wars
• The Pander Brothers, Girlfiend
• Jaime Hernandez, Esperanza
• Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy, Labor Days 2: Just Another Damn Day
• Cullen Bunn, Shawn Lee and Matt Kindt, The Tooth
• Linda Medley, Castle Waiting
• Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Joe Rubinstein, I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League
• Gilbert Hernandez, Ofelia
• Gilbert Hernandez, Comics Dementia
• Paul Grist, Jack Staff, Vols. 3 and 4
• Chris Oliveros, editor, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase: Book Two
• Dave Sim, Cerebus
• Jaime Hernandez, Angels and Magpies
• Mike Baron and Steve Rude, Nexus Archives, Vols. 1-9
• Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder, and Natchas Bustos, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 1: BFF
• Kelly Sue DeConnick, Christopher Sebela, Dexter Soy, Emma Rios, and Filipe Andrade, Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: Earth's Mightiest Hero
• Gilbert Hernandez, Three Sisters
• Ian and Tyson Smith, Oddjob
• Kristen Gudsnuk, Henchgirl
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 1
• John Allison and various artists, Giant Days: Extra Credit, Vol. 1
• Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals, Vol. 5: Five-Fingered Discount
• Grant Morrison, Steve Yeowell, and Jon J. Muth, Sebastian O/The Mystery Play
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 2
• Brandon Graham, Multiple Warheads, Vol. 2: Ghostown
• Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen, Descender, Vol. 5: Rise of the Robots
• Dave Sim, High Society
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 3
• G. Willow Wilson, Mirka Andolfo, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Francesco Gaston, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 7: Damage Per Second
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 4
• Howard Chaykin, David Tischman, Marc Laming, and John Stokes, American Century, Vols. 1 and 2
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 5
• Carla Speed McNeil, The Finder Library, Vol. 1
• Matt Wagner, Mage: The Hero Discovered (2 Vols.)
• Andi Watson, The Complete Geisha
• Gilbert Hernandez, The Adventures of Venus
• Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga, Vol. 3
• Kelly Sue DeConnick and others, Captain Marvel: Earth's Mightiest Hero, Vol. 2
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 6
• Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly, The New York Four
• Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock, The Martian Confederacy, Vol. 2: From Mars With Love
• Gilbert Hernandez, Julio's Day
• Alan Moore, J.H. Williams II, and Mick Grey, Promethea, Book 1
• Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Brooke Allen, and Carolyn Nowak, Lumberjanes, Vol. 5: Band Together
• Gilbert Hernandez, The Children of Palomar
• Grant Morrison, Richard Case, and others, Doom Patrol (3 and/or 6 vols.)
• Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag, Strong Female Protagonist, Book Two
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 7
• Matt Wagner, Mage: The Hero Defined
• Matt Kindt, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man
• Zander Cannon, Kaijumax, Season 3: King of the Monstas
• Jamie S. Rich and Nicolas Hitori De, Spell Checkers (2 Vols.)
• Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and James Harren, B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, Vols. 11-13
• The Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets: New Stories, No. 8
• Evan Dorkin, Dork
• Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Al Gordon, Justice League International, Vol. 1
• Larry Marder, Beanworld Omnibus, Vol. 1
• Matt Wagner and various artists, Grendel Omnibus (4 Vols.)
• Ryan North and Eric Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 6: Who Run the World? Squirrels
• Brian K. Vaughan and various artists, The Escapists
• Jeff Parker and various artists, Batman '66, Vol. 1
• Gilbert Hernandez, Birdland
• Michael Kupperman, Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Vol. 1
• Charles Forsman, The End of the Fucking World
• Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets, Vol. 4 (6 comics issues)
• John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming, Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition, Vol. 3
• Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, and Erin Humiston, Calla Cthulhu, Vol. 1
• Chris Roberson, Francesco Biagini, and Stephen Downer, Michael Moorcock's Elric: The Balance Lost, Vol. 1
• Matt Wagner, Mage: The Hero Denied, Vol. 1 (or maybe 5)
• Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls, Vol. 5
• Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Saga, Vol. 9
• Larry Marder, Tales of the Beanworld (Vol. 3.5)
• Tim Truman, Scout and Scout: War Shaman (4 Vols., more or less)
• Eddie Campbell, Bacchus (2 Vols.)
• Kaoru Mori, Emma (5 Vols.)

The second category of comics includes things that were mostly reprinted from periodical comic books. Most of this stuff reprints series (ongoing or mini-) in an obvious way, but there are a few oddballs like the Best American Comics series, which I put here to put them somewhere. But, generally, things in this category appeared as a publication under the same overall name as the eventual collection. Since the American comics market is what it is, and I was reading a lot of comics this year, it's the largest category -- almost half of all books.

In 2014, this was 19.5%, with 71 books.

Comics: Originals in Book Form (66, 15.2%)

• Rick Geary, The Lindbergh Child and The Saga of the Bloody Benders
• Michel Choquette, editor, The Someday Funnies
• Rick Geary, The Secret Room at the White House
• Peter Bagge, Fire!!
• Mawil, Home and Away
• James Vance and Dan E. Burr, On the Ropes
• Mimi Pond, The Customer Is Always Wrong
• Sarah Glidden, Rolling Blackouts
• Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Mr. Higgins Comes Home
• Colleen Frakes, Prison Island
• Catel and Veronique Grisseaux, Bluesy Lucy
• Svetlana Chmakova, Brave
• Jeff Lemire, Roughneck
• Tillie Walden, Spinning
• Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota, Lucky Penny
• Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis, Defiance and Victory
• Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault, Louis Undercover
• Thu Bui, The Best We Could Do
• Pascal Girard, Nicolas
• Eleanor Davis, You & A Bike & A Road
• Bill Corbett and Len Peralta, Super-Powered Revenge Christmas
• Cassandra Jean, Reindeer Boy
• Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, Nemo: Heart of Ice, Nemo: The Roses of Berlin, and Nemo: River of Ghosts
• Jeff Lemire, Essex County
• Nina Bunjevac, Fatherland
• Nick Bertozzi, Lewis & Clark
• Lynda Barry, Syllabus
• Kyle Baker, King David
• Joe Ollmann, The Abominable Mr. Seabrook
• Roz Chast, Going Into Town
• Brahm Revel, Guerillas, Vols. 1 and 2
• H.P. Lovecraft and I.N.J. Culbard, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
• Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century
• Jane Yolen and Rebecca Guay, The Last Dragon
• Larry Gonick and Art Huffman, The Cartoon Guide to Physics
• Kristen Radtke, Imagine Wanting Only This
• Hope Larson, All Summer Long
• Eleanor Davis, Why Art?
• Tony Cliff, Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling
• Gabby Schulz, Sick
• Benjamin Frisch, The Fun Family
• Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris, My Boyfriend Is a Bear
• Nate Powell, Come Again
• Ted Rall, Real Americans Admit: "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done!"
• Jim Ottaviani, The Imitation Game
• Rick Geary, Chester & Grace: The Adirondack Murder
• Ryan North and Erica Henderson, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe
• Michael Kupperman, All the Answers
• Nick Drnaso, Sabrina
• Kyle Baker, I Die at Midnight
• Pratap Chatterjee and Khalil, Verax
• Anonymous, editor, Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament
• Jen Wang, The Prince and the Dressmaker
• Michael Moorcock and Howard V. Chaykin, The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell
• Kyle Baker, You Are Here
• Jim Ottaviani and various artists, Fallout
• Al Columbia, Pim and Francie: "The Golden Bear Days"
• Joyce Farmer, Special Exits
• C. Tyler, You'll Never Know (Vols. 2 and 3)
• Jim Woodring, Poochytown

This category should be pretty self-explanatory: comics, by people working in the English language, that first appeared as a book, without any previous serial publication.

In 2014, this was 29%, with 106 books.

Comics: Translated from Japanese (and other Asian languages) (17, 3.9%)

• Inio Asano, A Girl on the Shore 
• Kaori Ozaki, The Gods Lie
• Makoto Shinkai and Yukiko Seike, 5 Centimenters per Second
• Nico Tanigawa, No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, Volumes 8 and 9
• Katsu Aki, Manga Sutra, Vol. 2
• Satoko Kiyuduki, Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, Vol. 4 and 5
• Naoki Urasawa with Takashi Nagasaki, Pluto, Vol. 1 and 2
• Kim Dong Hwa, The Color of Water and The Color of Heaven
• Masamune Shirow, The Ghost in the Shell
• Nagata Kabi, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness
• Taiyo Matsumoto, Sunny, Vols. 5 and 6
• Masamune Shirow, The Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Man-Machine Interface

Comics, mostly manga, translated for an American audience.

In 2014, this was 12.9%, with 47 books. I used to read a lot more in this area, but that was mostly stuff that came in as publicity packages and that I didn't necessarily like all that much. Once the flow of free product stopped, there were only a few things from that flood I wanted to keep up with on my own.

Comics: Translated from French (and other European languages) (42, 9.7%)

• Velhmann and Kerascoet, Satania
• Cyril Pedrosa, Equinoxes
• Michel Rabagliati, Paul Has a Summer Job
• Santiago Garcia and David Rubin, Beowulf
• Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim, Poppies of Iraq
• Frederik Peeters, Aama, Vol. 3: The Dust of Mirrors
• Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres, Valerian: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1
• Herge, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 1
• Marcel Beyer and Ulli Lust, Voices in the Dark
• Mawil, We Can Still Be Friends
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain, Dungeon: The Early Years, Vol. 1: The Night Shirt
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain, Dungeon: The Early Years, Vol. 2: Innocence Lost
• Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 1: Duck Heart
• Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 2: The Barbarian Princess
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Boulet, Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 3: Back in Style
• \Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcenet, Dungeon: Parade, Vol. 1: A Dungeon Too Many
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Manu Larcenet, Dungeon: Parade, Vol. 2: Day of the Toads
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Mazan and Jean-Christophe Menu, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 1: The Crying Giant
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Stephane Blancquet and Andreas, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 2: The Dark Lord
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Carlos Nine and Killoffer, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 3: Heartbreaker
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Jean-Emmanuel Vermot-Desroches and Yoann, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 4: Night of the Ladykiller
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Blutch and Bezian, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 5: My Son the Killer
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Stanislas and Keramidas, Dungeon: Monstres, Vol. 6: The Great Animator
• Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 1: Dragon Cemetery
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Kerascoet, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 2: Armageddon
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Kerascoet, and Obion, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 3: The New Centurions
• Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Alfred, and Mazan, Dungeon: Twilight, Vol. 4: The End of Dungeon
• Jason, On the Camino
• Jacques Tardi, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Vol. 2
• Lewis Trondheim and Nicholas Keramidias, Mickey's Craziest Adventures
• Jacques Tardi and Leo Malet, Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge
• Jason, Why Are You Doing This?
• Guy Delisle, Hostage
• Jason, Pocket Full of Rain
• Lewis Trondheim, Mister I
• Manuele Fior, Blackbird Days
• Penelope Bagieu, Brazen
• Labiano and Dufaux, Dixie Road
• Brecht Evens, Night Animals
• Herge, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 2
• Herge, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 3
• Claudio Persanti and Lorenzo Mattotti, Stigmata

In 2014, this was 7.7%, with 28 books. This one swapped size with the translated-from-Asia category since 2014, interestingly. I think part of that is just that there's more "art comics" coming over, accessibly, from France than from Japan, and part is that I did a big re-read of the whole Dungeon series, which contributed 17 books all on its own.

Art Books (9, 2.1%)

• Chris Achilleos, Amazona
• Jonathan Barli, Vip: The Mad World of Virgil Partch
• Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur, The Star Wars Poster Book
• Kate Ascher, The Works: Anatomy of a City
• Gretchen Edgren, The Playmate Book
• Julia Wertz, Tenements, Towers & Trash
• Bruce Marshall, Building New York
• Edward Lucie-Smith, Erotica: The Fine Art of Sex
• Brandon Graham, Royalboiler

Back in my SFBC days, this was a huge staple of my book-a-day runs, and often the trigger for them: when I had too many art books stacked up, it was time to run through them comprehensively. But I think there are fewer books like that being published at all, in this Internet age, and I haven't had a way to get them free for a decade now.

In 2014, this was 2.2%, with 8 books.

Books for Children of Various Ages (12, 2.8%)

• Lorena Alvarez, Nightlights
• Ben Costa and James Parks, Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Middle-Route Run
• Chad Sell and various writers, The Cardboard Kingdom
• Mark Siegel, Alexis Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, and Boya Sun, 5 Worlds, Book 2: The Cobalt Prince
• Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
• George O'Connor, Hermes: Tales of the Trickster
• Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock, Knife's Edge
• Jaime Hernandez, The Dragon Slayer
• Molly Knox Ostertag, The Witch Boy
• Kristen Gudsnuk, Making Friends
• Svetlana Chmakova, Crush
• Pam Smy, Thornhill

This is one of my fuzziest categories, since nearly everything here could be counted as something else -- a novel, an original GN, or whatever. But this is where I put things that are very specifically for younger readers, and not just accessible to younger readers. I try to put "YA" books -- which regularly bleed into adult readership -- in the general categories, and books aimed at middle-grade or younger readers here. But I don't promise absolute consistency.

In 2014, this was 1.6%, with 6 books.

Poetry (1, 0.2%)

• Philip Larkin, Collected Poems

I read a book of poetry this year! And I have a bookmark in another one, so I may actually finish a similar book next year. I used to read more poetry, ten to fifteen years back -- the book I had going in the bathroom was generally poetry, until some particularly horrible British historical survey anthology knocked me out of the habit.

I have not read any poetry, as far as I can tell, in any prior book-a-day run.

Playscripts (1, 0.2%)

• Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

I did read one playscript in 2014, for 0.3% of the total. So that number holds absolutely steady.

That's what I read in 2018. I should come back in about two weeks and add in the last links, once all of the posts have gone live. If you're reading this later than January 16, 2019, you can judge whether I did that or not.

If you've read this far, let me leave you with one last thought. There's probably some similarly crazy project in the back of your head -- maybe for your work, maybe gardening, maybe exercise- or diet-related, maybe housecleaning, maybe running for Congress!

Do it. Do it this year. Start in on it as soon as you can. Jump onto your crazy hard-work ideas and make them real. There's nothing like finishing up something you really wanted to do and looking back on it. I want all of you to have that feeling. So do it. Start the planning today.


[1] With one tiny asterisk: the post for the book I finished today isn't quite done yet. I wrote the post for book #380 today (which I read yesterday) and started #381, but it's not final. So, tomorrow morning I will finalize and set to post the very last Book-A-Day 2018 post.