This and that

Greetings from Philadelphia on a brisk, sunny (finally!) Wednesday morning. Here's a glance at what I've been up to lately:

I just finished listening to Stephen King's Under the Dome on unabridged audio (mostly listening in the car during my morning/afternoon commute). I enjoyed the book quite a bit, and even clocking in at over 30 hours on audio and just under 1100 pages in hardback (I peeked at the page count in the bookstore), I didn't think the story dragged at all. A full review will be posted soon, but for now, I thought Mr. King's latest was a winner: creepy, scary, character-rich, keep-telling-me-more fun.

It's taking me forever to get through Lee Goldberg's The Walk, but it's not the book's fault. I've just been really busy lately and haven't been able to manage more than twenty minutes or so a night of reading. I'll write something of length about this pretty good thriller- set in the aftermath of a huge earthquake in California- as soon as I finish it. By the way, the book is a dirt-cheap Kindle exclusive.

The movie Kick-Ass will be opening soon, so the bookstores have lately been hit by lots of copies of the nicely-produced Marvel hardback collecting the first eight issues of the comic book upon which the movie is based. It's visceral, violent stuff, about a kid who tries to become an actual superhero (the setting is essentially our world, where there are no real superheroes). To me, it's tough, bracing nirvana, and a welcome change from the PG-13 niceties of most superhero stories. But do yourself a favor and avoid Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s little epic if you're offended by profanity, sex, violence, and all those other hot-button areas. Full review of this book will follow (I'm still not quite finished with this one, either), and probably a review of the movie, too. I'm really curious if the movie will be as visceral as the comic book. I hope it is, but we'll see.

Well, time to get back to my real job. I'll talk to you folks in a bit.

Good airport read

Step on a Crack is a mid-level quality James Patterson collaboration, not great but not bad. Co-written with Michael Ledwidge, the story delivers a big, broad caper plot which is somewhat cartoony but just credible enough to keep your interest. There's also a subplot involving protagonist cop Michael Bennett's sad family situation that I found moving but some may feel goes over the top in tugging the heartstrings.

There's nothing subtle or unique about Step on a Crack, but it's certainly a painless and adequately engaging reading experience. The book, the first in the Michael Bennett series, is available on Kindle for $7.99. If you like it, the next two installments in the series, Run For Your Life and Worst Case (both co-written with Mr. Ledwidge and both so far unread by me) are floating around out there, too, in various hardback, paper, audio, and Kindle editions. There are so many ways to experience a book these days!

Free isn't a big deal?

With more than thirty people voting so far in my poll on their favorite genre to read on Kindle, no one has yet picked the "free titles" choice. Does this mean that the wide variety of free books always available on Kindle is not a big part of the Kindle experience for most people? Myself, I pick up a free title now and then, but I don't load up on them, or otherwise bounce from free title to free title. I usually just go right to the titles I previously decided I wanted to read, and buy them. Maybe most people are like me in that regard. What are your Kindle buying habits?

Outdone by the kid

I drove my teen daughter to work the other day, and during the course of catching up on things with her (car rides are great places to do that), she mentioned that she recently saw the movies, Shutter Island, The Crazies, Remember Me, and Alice in Wonderland... all in the past week or two. I was so jealous! Time was, I used to see every new movie, too, and quickly.

Actually, I still do pretty good with movies. The last movie my wife and I saw was An Education, on the Saturday before the Oscars. I saw it so I could say- for the first time in several years- that I had seen every Best Picture nominee prior to the awards ceremony. And that was saying something this year, because there were ten nominees instead of the usual five. But still. I'm lucky if I see one or two movies a month.

Anyway, I have to get out there and start seeing movies as aggressively as I used to. Conveniently, my wife is usually willing to go along with a movie for our Friday or Saturday night activity, as long as every one of my picks isn't a geeky genre selection. Thankfully, though, she has a soft spot for horror and can actually tolerate big-budget science-fiction and superhero movies as long as I don't push one every week.

We did see Shutter Island right when it opened, and really liked it. So I guess I'll try to stop being jealous of the poor kid. But, wow, four or five movies in two weeks. I want that life again.

Slow barman

A penguin walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “Has my brother been in here?”

The bartender replies, “I don’t know. What does he look like?”

Fun stuff

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a polished, engaging collection of the first six issues of the comic book of the same name, presenting to readers a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek take on DC comics' superheroes and villains. The comic-book series collected here is actually based on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold television cartoon program, with sports the same light, kid-oriented tone. From what I can tell, however, the stories in this book are original creations, done in the style of the TV show but not adapting specific stories from it. The stories in this volume were written by either Matt Wayne or J. Torres, both DC regulars, and drawn by a variety of artists who skillfully keep to a specific light, bouncy look obviously created for the series.

It seems we've come full circle with our superheroes. Time was, viewers like me were annoyed that cartoons always messed up our favorite comic book heroes, making them too stiff, or worse, goofy, and usually saddling them with a stupid animal sidekick for comic relief. But now, probably because we more than have our fill of grim and gritty superheroes on TV these days, we don't mind the occasional light, retro take on our masked, caped friends. At least, that's how I feel: as long as there are plenty of straight-up, fairly adult television adaptations of my favorite heroes, I can enjoy the occasional goofy elements in shows like the animated "Teen Titans", and the overall it's-all-in-fun tone of comic books like this one.

Every story in this collection starts out with a two-page (no more and no less) mini-adventure prior to the issue's main business. I'm guessing this emulates the cartoon series, which probably features a mini-adventure prior to the opening credits, and then the main story after the credits. I'll have to check out the show to see if I'm right about that. Anyway, every issue in this collection tells a complete story (once you get past the mini-adventure), and features Batman teaming up with a different hero from the DC universe. One story guess-starred Aquaman, another Superman, Captain Marvel was in one, another had someone named Kid Eternity, etc. Actually, retro take or not, the book was a painless way to catch up on who's running around these days in DC's various comic book titles fighting crime.

I wouldn't read a steady diet of this type of comic book (a little "Curses, Batman, you foiled my plans!" goes a long way), but subsequent volumes of this title will be fun to read every now and then. Stories like the ones in this colorful, bouncy book are like a refreshing bowl of ice cream after a week of rich, gourmet entrees. After all, the gourmet stuff is great, but sometimes you just want a simple, refreshing treat. This first volume of Batman: The Brave and the Bold fits the bill on that score quite nicely.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold isn't available on Kindle, alas (you'd miss the bright colors too much, anyway), but it can easily be found all over the place for about 10 bucks. The accompanying art shows the cover of the book minus the book's title and other cover verbiage. The better to see the art, my dear!

Hmmm, what to read next...?

As of this fine Friday morning, the following are the top five books in the Kindle store:

1) Primitive, by Mark Nykanen. FREE

2) A Bride Most Begrudging, by Deborah Gist. FREE

3) Sushi For One (Sushi Series #1), by Carny Tang. FREE

4) Operation Sheba: Super Agent Series, Book 1, by Misty Evans. FREE

5) Booth's Sister, by Jane Singer. FREE

You know, in light of the above, Amazon should really start marketing the Kindle with a line or two like this: Buy a Kindle, and read an unlimited amount of books for free! Sure, we offer books to buy on Kindle, too, but most of the time we think you'll like the free books just fine. Kindle: Buy once, read forever.

Okay, maybe that's pushing things a bit too far, but Amazon should probably do a little more to remind people that Kindle, contrary to being a luxury, can be a prudent economic tool, providing plenty of free reading material during those tight weeks or months we all experience occasionally.

Just a thought.