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Wednesday—Unexpected Treasure
We invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger. What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like?
I’m mostly an equal opportunity reader. If it looks good, I’ll read it. I can be stubborn about what I will and won’t try though. (Non-fiction rarely makes it through my filter) To answer this question, I have to go back to my GoodReads-only days.
Becky, who is now blogging at Escapism Through Books, has excellent taste in books and writes reviews that will make you either want to run out and buy those she loves or give away your unread copy of those she dislikes. So when she gave five stars to The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelmann, and then started talking about it in our Wild Things group, I added it to my to-read list. Admittedly, this wasn’t a huge stretch for me. I’d read the grapic novel edition of Coraline by Neil Gaiman, but I hadn’t been that impressed. I would likely have left the genre alone after that if not for Becky’s review. See, I have some sort of fascination with Holocaust stories, and the idea of a son writing down his father’s Holocaust experiences in graphic novel form, with the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, just fascinated me.
I was blown away.
I can get goosebumps thinking about that slim little graphic novel. The concentration camp experiences are in there, the aftermath, the living with it, the children living with it–all ramifications that I hadn’t really thought about before. Amazing.
Because Becky got me to try Maus, I am now more willing to try other graphic novels. My best experiences seem to be with memoirs. I enjoyed Persepolis 1 and 2 by Marjane Satrapi. I can see the freedoms that the form gives the author to express ideas that would be really hard to get across with only words. I’ve read Neil Gaiman’s first two Sandman graphic novels, and while I’m still not that crazy about this series, there’s enough that I do like that I’m planning to read the third one soon.
So, thanks for that review, Becky!
5 Comments
Maus is just brilliant. The nazi cats are just a perfectly creepy touch, and the little mice are so pitiable and cute. (Obviously, I have a thing for rodents, but I think it lit, everyone does.)
Maus is also a book that I wouldn't have read had it not been for book bloggers!
Both Maus and Persepolis are on my list for today's post. Aren't they great books? Just thinking about Maus gives me the chills.
Maus is awesome!
Becky does have quite a convincing way of reviewing. 🙂
I admit to reading plenty of books because she's given them good reviews. Her, Allison, and Fiona, I've read plenty of books because of them.
I have heard great things about Maus but I haven't had much luck with graphic novels before. I do like the look of this though, so maybe I should give it a go.
Thanks for sharing.