So, what have we learned this week?

Excellent question. Let me think.

Ummmm...

Well, I learned that Stephen King still delivers a right rollicking read. Cell has been great, utterly compulsive reading, and I'm inclined to try another recent King book (ably guided by Mart, who has recommended the good'uns and warned me about the bad'uns). I'd forgotten how much fun he is (I fell off the King bandwagon round about Desperation/The Regulators).

What else...

I've learned that my local WHSmiths have started stacking copies of Sight & Sound on the next shelf down from the one they used to, so that it's obscured from view unless I bend down.

Uh... I'm struggling here.

Ooh, I learned that Kick-Ass #7, which came out this week, doesn't bode well for Nic Cage's screentime in the movie.

And finally, I learned that I can function on three or so hours' sleep, but that by the end of the day I'm fucking knackered.

zzzzzzzz...

Y'know,

this is daft. Existential Ennui is my blog. I can do what the hell I like with it. If I'm not feeling comics right now (and that conjures up one of my friend Mart's memorable drawings of me naked and covered in comics) and am more into books, then why not blog about books instead?

So yes, I am reading Stephen King's Cell at the moment. And yes, I am thoroughly enjoying it. And yes, it is a first edition I picked up in Eastbourne for a fiver. And yes again, I know first editions of Stephen King books run into the umpteen thousands. But even so. I like first editions. I like reading them. I like having them. I hesitate to say 'owning', because really, in the grand scheme of things, do any of us ever really 'own' anything? Many of these books may still be around by the time I die, so I certainly won't own them at that point. They're merely with me at the moment. Unless I burn them once I've read them, a kind of scorched earth approach to reading.

But anyway, I've drifted off the point. Which is, it's my bloody blog and I'll write what I like on it.

The List

Here, as if anyone cares, is this week's intended buys:

Adventure Comics #2
Dark Avengers Uncanny X-Men Exodus
Dark Reign The List Avengers
Irredeemable #6
Kick Ass #7
Marvels Project #2 (of 8)
Ultimate Comics Avengers #2
Unwritten #5

Once again, it's a restrained list, but unlike previous weeks I probably will get everything on it. I've simply left off any comics I wasn't sure about, with the exception of Adventure Comics, which I think I will flip through first. Oh, and Irredeemable, which didn't turn up last week, and if it doesn't turn up this week I may just give up on the damn thing.

Mind you, I've still only read two of last week's comics. Five more to get through. Damn that Stephen King book. It's been a while since I've read one of his, and I'd forgotten how much like crack they are. Once you start, it's damn hard to quit.

So,

Saturday's trip to Eastbourne was a slight wash. Despite spending a couple of hours in Camilla's (which, before you ask "Camilla's what?" is the name of the bookshop), thoroughly examining the goods across two visits (broken up by a fruitless trip to the old town to visit another second hand bookshop that turned out to sell mostly new books and some old charity shop-style tat in the back), all I came out with was Stephen King's Cell. Still, I've started that already, and it's a decent enough end-of-the-world romp so far. And it's not like I haven't got plenty of other books to read, not to mention comics, old and new.

Speaking of comics, only read a couple of last week's haul thus far, but the first issue of new Vertigo series Sweet Tooth was rather good. Seems to be a post-apocalyptic scenario, which I hadn't worked out from the preview, and I likes me a good post-apocalyptic scenario, as my enjoyment of Cell testifies. I'll give it another few issues. If nothing else, it'll be interesting to see how an indie creator – Jeff Lemire, whose work I don't think I've read before – copes with the demands of a proper monthly comic book.