The name of the rose.

I recently read and enjoyed 'The Name of the Rose', by Umberto Eco. The premise: In the guise of a murder mystery, the story follows two characters who are blatantly modeled after Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, as they take you on an exploration of 14th century science and politics, a time in human history which isn't often examined by the weak flashlight of popular literature.

Who will enjoy this book?

Anyone who has a deep appreciation for history, or for logic and the sciences. Anyone who enjoys a good whodunnit murder mystery. Anyone interested in the subject of the reconciliation of religion and science. Anyone who wants to know more about the late middle ages, a period during which the church held a vice-like grip on the power field of Western Europe. Anyone who just plain loves books. According to Eco, at it's heart, this is a book about books.

Who won't enjoy this book?

Anyone afraid to read a book that has more than five hundred pages, during which the characters frequently stop what they're doing to engage in debate at length on the subject of objective reasoning, or the plight of the church and the distinctions between the various sects of the day.

All in all, I found this book to be a real page turner. As a kid, I used to love Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes stories. Still, I realize that this isn't everyone's cup of tea.

"Comics" are not comical.

It is my frequently expressed opinion that some of the most brilliant and innovative works of literature in the late 20th Century were comic books. Alan Moore's From Hell and Watchmen, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan and ( portions of ) Dave Sim's Cerebus are examples of genre bending works which fall squarely in the realm of modern literature. If a book can have respect and a film can have prestige, why not a comic book? Is it because of the common name of the medium? Would it help to use the term "graphic novel" instead? Maybe people have difficulty acknowledging a medium which is published primarily in serial format?

No matter what you need to tell yourself in order to justify plunking down three bucks a pop for a 32 page gem, you'd better start talking. You can start by picking up the first two issues of DMZ, a monthly comic by Brian Wood, which examines the problematic environment of the Middle East by transplanting it into our very own backyard. Under the pretenses of setting the story in the not-so-distant future, Wood takes us into the lives of a group of people living in a very different version of New York city. In this place, the proud inhabitants of the city move from day to day, living with endless war as a fact of life. These are people who have learned to survive, and even thrive in a place that cannot even be called sane.

As there are only two or three issues out right now, this is a good jumping on point for people who want to see what comic books have to offer. Well paced writing, good characters and an excellent premise give me good cause to recommend this book to anyone with half a brain.

Words.

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. That depends on your perspective. Pictures and film appeal to our senses, and are quite adept at quickly describing situations and environments with which we are already familiar in some way. Words, however, are better suited to the purely conceptual; They are much better at breaking new ground for the intellect.

This blog will be a running log of what I'm reading, and a place for book, comic book and website recommendations.