Read in December

Another month is done and with it 2008. It looks like I read a lot of books this year, but, as always, I'm focused on the ones I didn't read, and the teetering piles of books I still haven't gotten to. But here's what I did read recently, mostly (as usual) for my own reference.

• Ushio Mizta & Akiyoshi Ohta, Kaze No Hana, Vol. 3 (12/1)
  
• Judith Park, Y Square Plus (12/3)
  
• Gilbert Hernandez, Speak of the Devil (12/3)
  
• Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody (12/3)
  
• Nina Matsumoto, Yokaiden, Vol. 1 (12/4)
  
• Guy Delisle, Aline and the Others (12/5)
  
• Kyo Shirodaira & Eita Mizuno, Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vol. 5 (12/8)
  
• Gene Wolfe, An Evil Guest (12/8)
  
• Chris Ware, ACME Novelty Library, #19 (12/9)
  
• Osamu Tezuka, Black Jack, Vol. 2 (12/9)
  
• Rin Tanaka, Sounds of Love, Vol. 1 (12/10)
  
• Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris, Ex Machina, Vol. 7: Ex Cathedra (12/11)
  
• Hope Larson, Chiggers (12/12)
  
• Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, editors, Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (12/14)
• Ivan Brunettti, ed., An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons & True Stories, Vol. 2 (12/14)
  

Julian L'Estrange, editor, The Big Book of Sex "Quotes" (12/14)
This sat on my nightstand for a few months, and was entertaining enough while it lasted. I've pulled some of my favorite bits from it for future "Quote of the Week" usage; look for them the last Friday of each month through most of 2009. But I'm not going to bother to "review" this book; it's just not worth it.

• Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, et. al., Fables, Vol. 11: War and Pieces (12/15)
  
• John Porcellino, Thoreau at Walden (12/16)
  
• James Bamford, The Shadow Factory (12/16)
• Scott Morse, Notes Over Yonder (12/17)
  

The Will Eisner Reader (12/18)
Seven semi-random Eisner stories plucked from his work to make one slim introductory book. I may write more about it later -- here or at ComicMix -- but, then again, I may not.

• Sarah Lyall, The Anglo Files (12/18)
  
• Lucy Knisley, French Milk (12/19)
  
• Scott Morse, Tiger!Tiger!Tiger! (12/20)
  

Robert Mankoff, The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (12/22)
The last time I was in the library, I happened to be poking through the oversized books, where I don't think I'd ever browsed before. And, lo and behold, I found this behemoth. And then, after I'd lugged it home and read more than half of it -- not a difficult thing; it may be huge, but it's nearly all cartoons and those are pretty good -- I wandered over to my own shelves on a hunch and discovered that I'd bought this myself a few years back and read it once already. If you like New Yorker-style cartoons, this is the book to get -- but it came out in 2004, so you likely don't need me to tell you that. If you want a book that could kill a small dog if thrown (or launched -- it's big enough that you need serious upper-body strength just to hold it), this is also the book to get.

• Tomoko Noguchi, Object of Desire (12/24)
  
• Est Em, Red Blinds the Foolish (12/25)
  
• Kazuto Okada, Sundome, Vol. 4 (12/25)
  
• Dash Shaw, Bottomless Belly Button (12/28)
  
• W.E. Bowman, The Ascent of Rum Doodle (12/28)
  

Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist, The Lump of Coal (12/31)
I'm not going to bother breaking this one out into its own entry -- as I did last year with The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, Snicket's first holiday-themed picture book. This one is the fabulist tale of a talking lump of coal, who wants to be an artist, or perhaps part of a barbecue. Snicket must be mellowing, because Lump of Coal has what approximates a happy ending...

And that was 2008. I expect I'll read more books in 2009, and I'll keep writing about them here. More than that, I won't promise.