Second best birthday present this year was a copy of The Wall by Peter Sis. It's perfect for someone like me. Not sure about how much mass kid appeal there is for a Cold War quasi graphic memoir/journal/picture book. It's in the regular picture book format...the cover image you see online is a bit misleading as it makes the dust jacket not look quite so much like a dust jacket. I wonder if a more grownup looking format (smaller, softcover) would actually have more appeal... and reach a bigger audience.

I haven't read too many books to kids so far this year. Typically slow start and cleanup/tech fixing to be done. Did the Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Spider combo, which was well received. (Need to get Diary of a Fly) Also a few back to school books, pretty well mixed into the goodreads right now. I managed to read Fireboat and The Man Who Walked Between the Towers out loud this year for the first time. I liked them enough for what they were when they came out, but this was the first year I felt ready to really present them. Man Between the Towers led me to this video, which I transferred using zamzar (presented at a work conference last spring despite its questionable legality...but is useful). It's a nice Ric Burns clip. There's also an animated version of Man Between the Towers narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Also goodreads noticers will have noticed a bunch of recent comic book reading. Identity Crisis certainly the best I've read in a while. Justice league but not for kids. So for me, basically.

I also got a new computer and portable music listening device so the emusic subscription is proving useful and I'm listening to more music on the commute than I had in a while. I'm liking the new Okkervil River well enough. Also the new Caribou is good, and I recently added the Oakley Hall and Beirut so I guess I'll have opinions on those later.

I rewatched the first two years of Veronica Mars over the last month. It held up pretty well to repeat viewing, and M. enjoyed watching it for the first time. I didn't really pay attention to the show when it was on tv, so I guess I'll pick up the suposedly-not-as-good final season when it comes out.

In other news, a 7 year old came into school today with a Tupac patch pinned to his backpack in the style of Kurt Cobain mourners circa 1994.