July: 26 through 28

26: The Chinese Bell Murders, Robert van Gulik

More van Gulik.

27: The Monkey and the Tiger, Robert van Gulik

28: The Chinese Nail Murders, Robert van Gulik

July: 19 through 25

I read a lot this month.

19: The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Pretty addictive, though the stories are better in my imagination.

20: The Chinese Lake Murders, Robert van Gulik

Audrey found one at a used bookstore, so then I started looking for them, too, and ended up with a big stack, all of which I've already read in Dutch multiple times. I wish he'd written more.

21: The Chinese Gold Murders, Robert van Gulik

22: The Haunted Monestary, Robert van Gulik

23: Persepolis & Persepolis 2, Marjane Satrapi

Recommended by Irina. Comics, so I won't count them as two. I feel ridiculous enough counting this at all.

Anyway: a similar feel to Maus. Quite good. Makes me want to write some autobiographical comics, but I doubt I can be as honest about myself, my family, and my feelings as Marjane is (or seems to be).

24: Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud

Satrapi re-awakened my interest and I happened upon this at Feldman's. This is one of those books that people like Cory Doctorow love to rave about, and that naturally makes me want to hate it. It's O.K. There's some pretentious nonsense and the random bolding of words in the dialogue is insanely frustrating, but most of it makes good sense and may even get you thinking about art a little.

25: Essentially Odd: a catalog of products created for and sold at the 826 National stores

If comics count, this counts. I went to both the Pirate Supply store in SF and the Time Travel Mart in L.A. this month. Amusing stuff, but funnier when you discover it for yourself in the various stores (and have to go out of your way to get to said stores). The Chicago store looks very promising. I should send Heather over to investigate.