Book Rec Meme

[apple_pathways]

How does a book rec meme work?

5 EASY STEPS TO REC SUCCESS:

1. Find the genre/type of book you're looking for in the comments! The following genre/types are listed in alphabetical order:
   
   Chick Lit
   Children's and Young Adult Lit
   Classics
   Contemporary Literature
   Fantasy
   Historical Fiction
   Horror
   Manga, Comics, and Graphic Novels
   Mystery/Detective/Crime
   Non-Fiction
   Romance
   Science Fiction
   Thrillers
   and "Other" (For any genre or type not already listed.)
   
   
2. Click 'reply to this' on the comment with the genre you're looking for. If you're recommending a book, type "RECCING" in the Subject line of your comment. If you're requesting a recommendation, type "REQUESTING".
   
3. Either copy, paste, and fill out the handy forms provided, or describe in your own words the book you're recommending or looking to read.
   
4. Browse the other recommendations that have already been left. Read the rec requests other participants have left, and make suggestions for books you think they might like.
   
5. Share the love! ♥ Copy and paste the following code into your journal to send your friends to the meme:
   
   <a href="http://apple-pathways.livejournal.com/76281.html"><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/apple_pathways/pic/000akqeh"></a>
   
   

It's that easy! ;)

Just remember:

* Keep it civil, or suffer the consequences! (Consequences TBD, but may include deletion, bannination, or unsightly rash.)
* DO NOT "Post a new comment"! To keep things tidy, please post all comments as a reply to an existing comment. Misplaced comments will be removed: it doesn't mean you're a bad person. :P
* If you need to ask me something or get my attention, either PM me or post a reply under the "Questions" thread, otherwise I may not see it.

Happy Reading! ♥

Comments

Re: Questions? Complaints?

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I am going to find you a graphic novel that you would like! "Graphic novels" are more of a medium than a genre when you get down to it, so unless you really don't like stories with pictures there's got to be one out there for you. ^_^ (And now I just picked Jimmy Corrigan off the shelf again and am re-reading it, darn you. But at least I can rec things properly now. ^_^)

Re: Questions? Complaints?

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

unless you really don't like stories with pictures

*touches nose* Bingo!

It's not that I have anything against illustrations, but I'm just not a very visual person, and I find that pictures take me out of the story when I'm reading. You know how some books have pictures occasionally, like the illustrations that accompany the Sherlock Holmes story? I always tend to skip right over them; often not even realizing they're there. When I've tried to read graphic novels, I find myself trying to skip over the pictures to get to the next big block of text, but when the pictures are telling the story...that doesn't really work. And it drives me nuts.

I'm a Neil Gaiman nut, and I'm sure I'd love the story behind the Sandman series, but it's the medium I really have a problem with.

Re: Questions? Complaints?

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I actually don't like illustrated stories, since I feel like the illustrations get in the way of how I picture the characters. It annoys me to come across illustrations that look nothing like my mental image. But in those cases it's more an issue of the illustrator being more of an afterthought than an asset or selling-point.

What graphic novels have you tried to read? Because if it was Sandman... yeah. Actually, I could tell you very little about the art that goes along with that, other than the basic look of things. The way Gaiman writes, I find it really hard to pay attention to the words and the pictures at the same time, so it ends up being a very different experience from most other comics and graphic novels. (But I really didn't much like the art for Sandman, either. And that makes a huge difference. I'm not a huge fan of Sandman, even though I love the characters, because so much of the art is just... meh, to me.) In the end, a lot of it comes down to actually liking the art style for a graphic novel (or manga), because if you don't want to look at the pictures, there's not much point to it. (Which is why there are vast swaths of manga I just can't get into, whether it's because I hate the art, or because I love the art but can't stand the story.)

Jimmy Corrigan, in my experience, is pretty much the quintessential graphic novel, in that it relies really almost exclusively on the images to tell the story (there's very little text, and it's a bit like reading a diagram of a movie (which doesn't sound appealing, but the way you're guided across the pages is really pretty cool). Speaking of... I wonder if it'd help if you read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which sort of explains the tricks to actually getting something out of the experience, and the mechanics of what comic artists are trying to do (but then, I love academic treatises on things that most people don't delve into very seriously). But if you just don't like picture-stories there's not much that can be done to fix that, regardless of what I throw at you. (-;)