I set a goal this summer to read 50 books again.

This goal comes from a few places, like Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday challenge, encouraging my own students to read through our summer reading, and a staff challenge that I’ve often instigated.  Most importantly, I’m trying to challenge myself to keep reading and not get caught up in movies, TV, and Sportscenter.

I met that goal this summer – with two weeks until the Labor Day deadline – mostly through delving into graphic novels.  I felt a little like I was cheating the first time I did this, but then I started to really get into them.  It started with BONE, I suppose.  That’s a great series of graphic novels from some years ago.  Then, I read – and am still reading – AMULET.  I started to branch out into other graphic novels, and I started to find individual novels that are outstanding.  CARDBOARD by Doug TenNapel is a favorite, and worth reading.

My favorite graphic novels, though, are novels that really take advantage of the visual medium.  I think of two – one from a few summers ago, PAGE BY PAIGE, and one from this summer, THE SCULPTOR, by Scott McCloud.

Both of these books don’t feel like slightly-modified novels – text with some images tacked on afterward.  Sometimes a graphic novel – especially a graphic novel adaptation of an original text – feels like the simplified, illustrated version.  It doesn’t always feel like the pictures make the story.  In both of these novels, the pictures manage to do things that are really hard to do with words alone.

For example, here’s something from PAGE BY PAIGE that attempts to explain the creative process:

Here’s something from THE SCULPTOR that shows the magic shaping power the main character acquires:

I think it might be my own subjective interest in art and creativity that makes both of these stories especially poignant.  It also helps that I have absolutely no talent at visual art, and I really admire people who can represent the world visually (without using a camera, as I so often do).  But both books are well-told stories with brilliant visual representations of conflict and character.

In the past, I’ve talked about how I seek out stories that “blow my mind,” that surprise me with strange but plausible imaginative leaps.  (There’s a nice example in THE MATRIX, when Neo first wakes up in his little pod, and he realizes that he’s been living his entire life in a computer simulation.  It was – and still is – awesome.  Just don’t watch the sequels.)

That brings me to the “adult graphic novel” section at my local library.  What a wonderful den of horrors.  There are a ton of great stories there, and I’m just starting to appreciate them.  I’m working my way through Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN series, and I just read the first half of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS by Frank Miller.  Fantastic.  Just fantastic.  There are many other great stories out there, either as comic-book compilations or stand-alone graphic novels.  And while I’m still not very good at reading them, I’m really enjoying the learning and discovery.

So I guess I don’t feel bad anymore that 30 or so of my summer reading books were graphic novels . . .