Top 5 most requested items for November 2012

"There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read."
- G.K. Chesterton

I think I'm somewhat of a voyeur because I am always interested in what other people are reading/watching/listening to. It is the best part of conversations with other people. It is the worst part of conversations with other people. And so even as a small part of me goes SQUEE because YAY MORE BOOKS, an even smaller part of me groans in misery because my TBR (to-be-read) list cannot contain much more awesomeness. And yet I throw more at it, anyway. (Although not Fifty shades of Grey because I'm SO OVER THE HYPE OF IT. People, you need to find a new vanilla-BDSM book to OOH and AAH over). Today's list offers up some bad sex (although not so bad either of them won the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award, no, that honour went to Canadian author Nancy Huston), the 17th book in the Jack Reacher series (I still can't bring myself to watch Tom Cruise play the lead role - it's enough to make me want to cry), a lawyer in prison for the murder of a judge, and the youngest of the Walsh sisters. Et voilà! The top 5 most requested items for November 2012. ALL fiction.

5 graphic novels you need to request now right now

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
- PJ O'Rourke

I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to graphic novels. Not because I'm any good at picking them. (If anything, I'm absolute rubbish at knowing what to try next. It's because I have next to no filter when it comes to books. I will try anything and everything at least once, and sometimes this goes against me). It's more that I'm lucky enough to work with amazeballs people who, almost daily - by email, text, Facebook message, Twitter, and in person - give me suggestions. Totally unsolicited. Once they've given me one, I find a whole heapload more that I just have to read. Which results in a Top 5 list much like this one. My parents encouraged me to read comics as a child. They wouldn't just buy them, though, we'd also talk about them. I distinctly remember, as a 9 year old, falling in love with Peter Bromhead. Well, his editorial cartoons in the Auckland Star, that is. My parents noticed my interest, and so Bromhead would, often, be a part of our dinner conversation. We would discuss the point of the cartoon in relation to whatever current events were taking place both nationally and internationally at that point in time. I am lucky enough to work with people who do the same - recommend titles or writers and, afterward, want to talk about them. The other day, someone told me to give Marbles: mania, depression, Michelangelo, & me : a graphic memoir by Ellen Forney a try, so I've requested it already, and am impatiently awaiting its arrival. Once I've finished it, we'll catch up and trade opinions and thoughts. And, as is usually the case when I'm in the catalogue, I came across 5 other graphic novels that, really, have to be bumped to the top of my TBR list. Today's list is: 5 graphic novels you need to request now right now. Have I steered you wrong yet? (Don't answer that just in case I have). They're an unusual mix of books, too - cooking, fantasy, life in Jerusalem, love in a time of a galactic war, and aliens in Australia. I know, right? You're welcome!

What graphic novels are you reading right now?