100+ Book Reading Challenge 2011--I Have Begun!

 

I mentioned this challenge in yesterday's post, but because I subscribe to the old adage that what you do on New Year's Day is what you will do all the next 364 days, I wanted to ensure I read for pleasure on 1/1/11--and I did.  Sign up and join us--all the details are on the sign-up page linked above and my reading list is currently housed at the bottom of my blog (until I can learn the art of setting up pages in Blogger).  There are other reading challenges listed here as well (the library challenge looks quite interesting and with as much research as I still have ahead of me, I may try that one as well; a book read for one challenge can also be counted for another).  But now to my first review of 2011--

I've never read a graphic novel; I tried comic books when I was younger but never got hooked.  However, when my beloved author Diana Gabaldon announced she was re-telling the story of Jamie and Claire Fraser from Murtagh's POV, I knew the time had come to "go graphic".  My autographed copy came during NaNo and I reluctantly put it away but I made sure I took time to honor it as my first read of 2011.  Once more, Diana did not disappoint.  Covering about the first third of OUTLANDER meant that it was a quick read (after all, the graphics are supposed to overshadow the story line, right?), but it was still superb--and the artist's renderings of Jamie and Claire and Black Jack are wonderful.  I will re-read this again simply to enjoy the drawings and also to catch the nuances between the depictions of Dougal and Murtagh and Kenneth.  OUTLANDER fans will not be disappointed, and newcomers to the series may enjoy a short peek into the saga.

So, one book down and 99 more to go...