Fall '11 reading list

Non-ironic unicorn

I finally drew a non-ironic unicorn! The original was given away as a gift and I forgot to scan it, so this is a reproduction.  You may wonder, “why on earth did you—Tim Fish—draw a unicorn? It’s not like you’re Adam Leveille or anything.”

I read The Last Unicorn, is why! I shied away from the girly film as a boy, but the book by Peter Beagle published in 1968 has some really beautiful passages in it. Beagle had been at New York Comic Con signing copies of the DVD. One thing lead to another, and bam!—unicorn drawing.

Also perfect for autumn reading was Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.  Being a rabid fan of Wuthering Heights was not exactly encouragement to delve into its better-regarded sister work. But Robert insisted Jane was a heroine worthy of my reading. I must admit I enjoyed reading it, once it really got creepy. But it’s still quite a ways down the list for recs.

Lastly, I finally read The Great Gatsby. I think I had too many ideas about what I wanted from a novel when I read Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. Perhaps shockingly hedonistic in its day, I found the plot, characterizations, and language all rather flat. I may need to re-read it to gain a better understanding of its place in the annals of American lit.

Speaking of unicorns...you may recall Adam and I have sketchbook duels. We'll each sneak drawings into the others' sketchbooks, and sign the others' names to them. Most often, they are dirty drawings, or drawings of super-girly things Adam's a fan of, such as unicorns. Check out Adam’s artblog, Simple City Boy!