Speed Reading

You know what I hate? Lengthy tomes that actually take the full three weeks to read. I'll admit to having the general attention span of a sugar-high chipmunk & I want books that are either 1) so interesting & awesome that I finish it in a week or 2) so short it would be impossible to NOT finish it in a week. Stickman Odyssey, an Epic Doodle: Book One, Chopsticks," & Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary all took an hour each to read. No joke. Three books in three hours. Why are they such quick reads? Cause thanks to the brilliance of creative authors these books mix multimedia, drawings, comics, poetry, and photography to tell a story rather than just words

"Chopsticks" by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral is a fairly typical romance: Glory, a famous piano prodigy, meets Frank and it's true love almost immediately. Eventually she becomes unable to play any song other than "Chopsticks" and then she's gone.... Collages, IMs, letters, and some great staged photos tell Glory's story in an appropriately creepy way that makes you wonder about everything you just read. Because it only takes about an hour to read, you'll have plenty of time to read it again to work everything out.


"Epic Doodle" by Christopher Ford is brilliant if only because I can't believe no one thought of re-telling classical Greek epics in STICK DRAWINGS before. Brilliant and ridiculously funny! Stickman Zozimos is on a quest, aided by the goddess Athena, to find Sticatha. He encounters foreign lands, beautiful maidens, Golems, and a cursed hermit. I'm impatiently waiting for Book Two.

"Tina's Mouth" by Keshni Kashyap and illustrated by Mari Araki is a total geek girl book. Tina's weird English teacher makes her keep a diary that will be sealed and then mailed back to the students 3 years later. Because Tina is a true geek girl, all her entries are written as letters to Jean-Paul Sartre and there are some truly hysterical drawings and comics as Tina navigates her family, friends, and first kiss.

Want some other quick reads so you can tell everyone you read a book a day? There are some great books written in verse (poetry), letters, even text messages.

-- The Stacked Librarian