stuff to read

After an unexpected shopping escapade at Rockwell, plus the usual and unsual reading purchases, here's the list of new stuff to devour until new comic book day:

*Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix - of course we got it - we loved the series waaaay before the hype and my wife is secretly a Potterhead, like my best pal Vin.

*Essential X-Men Vols. 3 & 4 - covering huge chunks of Chris Claremont's juicy years. These contain some of the most wonderful stories of the period, including the first X-Men comic for Nikki (#168 - "Professor Xavier is a Jerk!") and those lovely Paul Smith issues (ah, the Morlock tunnels with the classic Storm versus Callisto knife duel).

*Night Music - lost Mozart sheet music and lots of intrigue

*Y The Last Man - hyped start-up scenario: one man left in an entire world of women (plus his monkey, natch)

*Moore's Swamp Thing Vols. 2 & 3 - at last completing the volumes I lost during one of the house moving escapades. These contain "Pogo", easily one of the best stand-alones Alan Moore ever wrote and the American Gothic story arc which gave John Constantine much of his enigmatic persona.

*Ultimate SpiderMan Vol.6 - I like these trades because the arcs are complete plus I enjoy Brian Bendis' spot-on dialogue. (No indie crap for me this time, it's mainstream all the way.) Besides, his reinvention of Venom was well-imagined.

The book that tempted me most is Umberto Eco's Baudolino, a heavy hardbound with an equally heavy mindfuck potential. But how can I resist something set in 1204 involving Barbarossa and a quest for the Kingdom of Prester John?