Books I've read so far this year...

[nekosensei]

1. The human Christ: the search for the historical Jesus by Charlotte Allen.
2. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
5. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
7. Language death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect by Nancy C. Dorian
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
9. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Tranlated by Robert Pinsky.
10. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
11. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
12. Fray by Joss Whedon
13. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
14. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
15. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
17. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
18. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
19. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
20. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

21. The Doll's House, Dream Country, and Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman --These are actually volumes two through four of The Sandman graphic novels. Overall, I like this series, which about a group of immortals called the endless. The main character is the Dream Lord, a character who had been imprisoned in the human world for seventy years. By the way, as one of the characters discovered, there's a big difference between a cereal convention and a serial killer convention.

Finally, I couldn't help but notice that these books were in the Teen section of the library with the other graphic novels. Part of me wonders if these books have been mislabelled and if they should really be in the adult section of the library. I mean, one of them does portray an author raping a woman who is a goddess or muse of writing. Is anybody out there familiar with this series? Do you have any thoughts on this one?

Comments

[drl909.livejournal.com]

I've got the first two volumes, and I'm pretty sure that at least one of them has the words FOR MATURE AUDIENCES stamped on the cover. My assumption is that they were filed under Teens because they're comic books and therefore meant for a juvenile audience. Considering the gratuitous pre-teen female nudity towards the end of Doll's House, I'm betting whoever did the filing didn't even browse the book for content.

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Hmm...maybe I should say something to the library staff...after I'm finished reading the series.

Sandman for teens?

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

I read all the issues of "Sandman" when they first came out (starting in 1988 or 1989). They were published through DC's Vertigo line, and like most (all?) Vertigo books, were marked as being for mature readers.

I think a lot of teens could read and enjoy "Sandman" just fine-- certainly the stories are not primarily full of graphic violence or sexual content. They're like a movie that, while it might actually be rated "R", is one that I'd rate as PG-13. So I'm reluctant to prohibit access to them by teens. Nevertheless, by the standards of other such things, they probably should be in the adult section, if the library is being consistent. I'd hope that teens could still get at them with supervision, though.