Is actually pretty funny. I just got done listening to the audiobook version of David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day and I enjoyed it. It was read by the author too, which is always a godsend. One thing that did get on my nerves was that at the end of each essay (and occasionally at the end of each chapter of an essay) some goofy piano roll or musical cue plays. It seems silly and out of place and often feels like it’s supposed to be the *badum tish* drum-and-cymbal part at the end of a joke. It almost ruined some of the stories, but all in all it was an easy to listen to, amusing, fluffy piece of work. Definitely a nice break after listening to 10 CDs of Noam Chomsky. Next on my list will probably be Life of Pi, because a friend of mine keeps hounding me to read it and I’m starting to feel bad that I haven’t.

I also read Scott McCloud’s follow up to Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics. Published well before broadband was a universal reality, RC was way ahead of its time. Parts of it sound silly now, other parts have turned out to be dead on, and other parts still have a good chance of becoming reality. The book was essentially a state of the industry address with a clarion call for a shift to digital distribution of comics because of the many advantages a theoretical system like that would have. The book has been attacked on nearly all fronts, but made some really valid points. While I think the mainstream digital distribution of comics (and other printed media) is still a bit of a ways away, we’re starting to see the beginnings of it now with things like the Amazon Kindle. Comics will probably be some of the most resistant things to a switch to this kind of format because of the collection aspect of the physical books, but eventually it well be, at least, an option.

While not as universally appealing as Understanding Comics was, Reinventing Comics was a good read, albeit a bit wordy at parts. In the end Understanding Comics is a history that’s potentially of interest to anyone who cares about art while Reinventing is strictly for those who have an interest in the future of the comics industry and where digital distribution might be able to take it.