Don't mind the tiger!

For something a bit different, this week’s blog is on comics.

Okay, so this is the part where I put on my snobbish voice and say something like “comics date back to the 12th century…” and everyone rolls their eyes and stops reading, but it is actually really interesting. Of course everyone draws links between cave paintings and comics, but later on, sometime between the 12th and 13th century came the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga a set of four picture scrolls, similar to comics. They’re believed to be the beginning of manga.

Then, in 1827 Rudolphe Töpffer created the first comic strip and then, ten years later, his graphic novel Obadiah Oldbuck became the first comic book ever published in the US. Then we have Brenda Starr, the first comic strip drawn by a woman, published in 1940. Needless to say, this is not a new thing.

The comic that I’m focusing on is Calvin and Hobbes. I have loved Calvin and Hobbes for as long as I can remember. I must own over ten volumes. But what makes Calvin and Hobbes so popular? How is it that a comic whose strip was published almost 20 years ago is still relevant today?

Calvin and Hobbes manages to deal with issues like climate change, death, war… and the public education system,  through a six year old, and all of these issues are still relevant today. It’s really interesting to notice that there are very few things in Calvin and Hobbes that give you an idea of when it was drawn. It could have been drawn last month, and it’ll keep on like that until humans move to mars. Or stop driving cars. Calvin and Hobbes is very effective as a public awareness tool. It sneaks “positive messages” in without anyone noticing, and it appeals to both the younger and the older generation. Plus Calvin and Hobbes is just plain funny.

So, Calvin and Hobbes- saving the world, on comic strip at a time.

Feisty chick-o-meter:5/10
Age rating: 5+
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Ahahahahahaha
Book or audiobook:

Life-changing books!

This week is something a little different; it’s the three books or series that changed my life (with the big flashy lights).

The Harry Potter Series
By JK Rowling

I don’t really think it needs a summary.

The Harry Potters were pretty much the first “proper” books I’d ever read. My mom read the first three to me when I was four. They terrified me, but I loved them, I would hide under the duvet, all the way down at the end of the bed, hugging my teddy bear and yelling “Don’t stop reading!”

By the time I was eight I had read all the books and seen all the movies that were out.  It was, and still is one of my favourite series, and every book I read after that was either Almost as good as Harry Potter or Nowhere near as good as Harry Potter.

But Harry Potter wasn’t just a book that I loved. It started off my reading experience with one important thing that has stayed with me this whole time: Hermione. Basically, I wanted to be Hermione. She was incredibly smart, strong, and brave and she looked like me, or at least I imagined she did, with the same hair, and eyes. And from the age of four, Harry Potter showed me that it’s okay to be smart, and it’s okay to show it, but also that it’s okay to mess up sometimes.

Plus, who doesn't want a wand?

Feisty chick-o-meter: 10/10
Age rating: 9+
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book

The Rowan of Rin Series
By Emily Rodda

This next series was a collection of books that I really identified with at the time. It’s about a boy who doesn't think he’ll ever be brave but then the village’s water supply dries up and he is sent on a quest along with six others to confront the dragon who presumably had something to do with the problem (as dragons usually do).

The Rowan of Rin series were really good for me at a time when I didn't feel like I had any friends or that I fit in, and the characters were very relatable. Also there’s a super awesome girl called Zeel who saves the day and is generally just awesome.




Feisty chick-o-meter: 7/10
Age rating: 8+
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book



The Percy Jackson Series
By Rick Riordan

Finally, The Percy Jackson series. This is on the Books Everyone Must Read list, and it’s written, of course, by the fabulous Rick Riordan.

I read the Percy Jacksons before and while my family and I were travelling  and although I had taken an interest before, this series was really the climax of my Greek mythology obsession (and I mean OBSESSION).

The other part was the whole friendless kid meets a bunch of other freaky and awesome people and gets to save the day. And there is the awesome character, Annabeth who is incredibly smart and without whom every quest would fail. If Hermione was taken, I'd be pretty happy with being her.


Feisty chick-o-meter: 10/10
Age rating: 12+
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book

The Book That I Love but Cannot Come Up With a Cool Title For

The President's Daughter

By Ellen Emerson White

Life is good for 16 year-old Meghan Powers. She likes living in Massachusetts, her school, her friends and doesn’t even mind her mother’s job as a senator. But then all that changes, because her mother runs for president – and wins.

Neither Meg nor her brothers really expect their mom to win, but she does, and Meg has to adjust to a new school where everyone seems to be scared of her, maybe because she comes to school with body guards and oh, I don’t know, lives in The White House. Plus she has to deal with always being in the spotlight, and constantly under inspection.

However, despite all the insanity going on, Meg actually has a nice, happy, mostly functional family where everyone likes each other, which is a really nice change from books where at least one family member is either dead or fighting with the main character.

I originally read this when my family and I were travelling and loved it, but I had to leave it behind (there are space issues that come with living out of a suitcase). Since then, I’ve been looking for it on my kindle, but until recently it wasn’t available on kindle, however, a couple years ago I got it for Christmas and got to read it again and enjoy it all over again.

Meg has to be up there on my favourite female characters list. She’s really feisty and doesn’t conform to what is expected of her. It’s also really interesting to look at it from the fact that although this book was written a while before Obama’s presidency, there’s currently a girl roughly the same age as Meg in the White House. Another thing that I really like is that it’s Meg’s mom running for president and her dad stays at home and nobody makes a big deal about it.

And the rest?

Well written? Check. Funny? Check. Page turner? Check. Awesome? CHECK.

Feisty chick-o-meter: 9/10
Age rating: 13+

Rating: 10/10

Stand alone or series: Series

Book or audiobook: Book

Not the Vogon Poetry!!!!!!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By Douglas Adams

How do you think the world will end? Floods?  Earthquakes?  Nuclear Explosions? If only… How about a fleet of Vogon ships, demolishing the planet to build an inter-galactic bypass? Well, that’s what happens, to Arthur Dent, an ordinary human who is yanked out of his ordinary life, and off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, right before the earth explodes.

As they hitchhike through space, Ford and Arthur are subjected to almost everything that could go wrong, from Vogon Poetry to murderous mice. AND they have to put up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two headed president of the galaxy, and kidnapper of himself, his girlfriend Trisha McMillian (now Trillian) who Arthur unsuccessfully tried to pick up the night before Armageddon, and Marvin the universe’s most depressed robot.

The Hitchhiker's series is one of my favourites. It’s one of those series that actually makes you laugh out loud. Douglas Adams is an extremely good and an extremely funny writer. One moment the story will be ticking along then all of a sudden it will veer off on a two chapter long, hilarious tangent about sheep, or flower pots, that will be, somehow, obscurely related to the main plot.

The series makes no effort to conform to the expectations of sci-fi books  -  or books, at all, really, and they’re full of funny quotes. The one downside is that the last book in the series - “the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy” - sort of peters out at the end, however, they’re still a really good read.

I always recommend this book. I try to get everyone I know to read them. And I think they really are worth it. Plus, there are some benefits:

• Find out the deal with the number 42,
• Learn how to fly (it’s all in the distraction) and
• See why everyone is making such a big deal about towels.

And if you read far enough in, you might even find out why this blog is called Eddie’s Sofa. And yes, he is in the timestream.

Feisty chick-o-meter: 2/10 there really aren't that many female characters.
Age Rating: 14+
Rating: 9/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book