The Vulgar Eclectic

Tag: reading

  • L’Assommoir by Emile Zola

    Here is a book jot from July 2021: I finished reading L’Assommoir (1877) by Emile Zola, translated by T. W. Tancock. It’s one of twenty books that make up his Les Rougon-Macquart series. These novels follow two lines of a French family living in the latter half of the 19th century. L’Assommoir chronicles the lives…

  • Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island

    A few nights ago, I read Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island (1984), written by R. L. Stine and illustrated by David B. Mattingly. This is the first Indiana Jones Find Your Fate book, which is a choose-your-own-adventure style gamebook series. I read a couple of these as a kid and decided to…

  • The Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola

    I just finished reading The Fortune of the Rougons (1871) by Émile Zola, translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. This is the first book in Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart cycle of twenty novels. I have previously read four other books that take place much later in the series, and reading the beginning was quite interesting. Some characters…

  • The soul’s dark cottage…

    I am trying to create a habit of reading a poem every day. I just this evening read Of the Last Verses in the Book by Edmund Waller (1606-1687). Here is an excerpt, a line I particularly enjoy: “The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed,Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.”

  • Rawhide Kid and the Western

    I read an issue of Rawhide Kid last night (#68, 1969), a Marvel western that began in 1955 and ran until 1979. I really enjoyed Larry Lieber’s distinctive art. It has a clean sharpness to it that works well with the bright, bold coloring style of the comic. Lieber wrote and drew the comic from…

  • The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

    A book jot from July 2021: I finished reading The Great Brain (1967) by John D. Fitzgerald with illustrations by Mercer Mayer. It’s a children’s novel that takes place in the late 1890s in Utah. The setting and some of the plotlines seem unusual for children’s literature, and it handles some difficult themes in a…

  • Tomahawk

    Yesterday I read an issue of Tomahawk, a DC comic that ran from 1950 to 1972. The character first appeared a little earlier, in 1947, and has had a few appearances since the title’s cancellation. The comic is somewhat unique in that most of the timeline takes place during the American Revolution. Some of the…

  • Electra by Euripides

    This is a book jot from June 2021: I just finished reading Electra (c. 420 BC) by Euripides, translated by Philip Vellacott. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Euripides, and tend to really like stories about the House of Atreus and any connected in some way to the Trojan War. The fate of those who…

  • Tolstoy as travel guide

    Here are a few panels from a comic I read yesterday (Unknown Soldier #242, 1980). The story is titled Red Flows the Don! and was written by Bob Haney with pencils by Dick Ayers and inks by Gerry Talaoc.

  • Robotech Defenders

    I received both issues in the Robotech Defenders miniseries in the mail today. I just finished reading the first one and it was fantastic! I haven’t been carried away by a comic for quite a while, and it was so much fun. The various settings briefly glimpsed were exciting, and I really enjoyed the team…