What feels like a very long time ago, and maybe it has been, I started a project inspired by Julien Smith to read a book a week for the year. I love this goal and was very excited to take on the challenge. I am a bit embarrassed to have to report to you now that I have fallen down greatly on the goal. I have many excuses and here are some of them. The move was a killer of course. After packing all day and dealing with the general stress of closing the house deal and moving out, I was left exhausted by the end of the day. That’s really the main reason and once you take your eye off the ball, it’s pretty much all over.

That’s not to say I haven’t been reading at all. The second reason for my shortcoming is that I have become obsessed with comics and graphic novels. I have been reading alot actually, just about every day, but not traditional books. I have been absorbing comics as fast as I can get them. It all started for me with The Walking Dead, a fantastic black and white zombie/end of the world comic that is now going to be a series on AMC television. It’s a super compelling and addictive book and it drew me in to the whole larger world of comics where I have found several series I am loving. Here are a few of the things I am reading thus far.

The Walking Dead: Much better than your traditional zombie comic. Plenty of violence and gore, but a real human element to the story is the main driver.

The Unwritten: A interesting comic that’s hard to explain. A writer of children’s books much like the Harry Potter series has gone missing. His son is often mistaken for the lead character in the books and the words themselves seem to have a power to them. His son is basically trying to figure out who is after him and why and what is the mystery surrounding his father.

Transmetropolitan: Spider Jeruselem is a disaffected journalist who rails against the system with his column. Partially psychotic and often out of control, this is an adventure into urban decay, politics and other social commentary.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Who knew! Joss Whedon himself continues the story from right where the tv series ended. This is the actual continuing story of Buffy but in comic form. I actually like it better as a comic.

This is only a short list. There are many others and several one off graphic novels I have read as well. I don’t know how to classify these as they are not traditional books and they are so short in their single issue forms. What I will do it call it even. For the past few months I have not technically posted a book a week, I will consider all my comics as time served. And we will start again from this week (yesterday).

I hope you are doing well with your own book a week project. Don’t give up, the year is young!