It’s Saturday once again, and that means it’s time for Weekend Reading 183! As usual, we’ll be spending out weekend holed up in Stately Beat Manor, getting lost in a good book!

What will you be reading this weekend? The Beat is waiting to hear from you! Let us know in the comment section.


Weekend Reading 183
Weekend Reading 183

AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend I’m reading White Bird: A Wonder Story, written and illustrated by R.J. Palacio and inked by Kevin Czap. I was gifted this graphic novel by my spouse Rebecca Oliver Kaplan and I’m looking forward to checking it out! Then as far as prose goes, I’ll be reading Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell.

Weekend Reading 183
Weekend Reading 183

KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: In the realm of BL I’m going to try Cosmetic Playlover by Sachi Narashima, about rival beauty consultants who work at a hot cosmetic counter and their enemies-to-friends-with-benefits relationship that may become something more. There are currently three volumes available and I own them all, so I expect to zip through them this weekend. Based on the cover art and the premise, I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy myself!

D. MORRIS: I just picked up a bunch of books by the great manga master Yoshiharu Tsuge. Considered the godfather of alternative manga, it’s only recently that his works became widely available in English. This weekend I plan on starting The Man With No Talent. It’s a semi-autobiographical book about trying to escape making manga. It’s the last major work of his before he stopped making comics.

Weekend Reading 183
Weekend Reading 183

DEB AOKI: We just finished recording our Mangasplaining episode for the end of Season 4 with AKIRA Volume 5, so it was great to get a copy of Good for Health, Bad for Education, an AKIRA Risograph fanzine created by Wren McDonald and friends this past weekend. It’s mostly an illustrated fanbook, but having it printed in red and blue risograph really makes it pop visually, and also makes it a very special artifact for fans of the original manga and anime series.

Weekend Reading 183

It’s also inspired me to take another look at my other two AKIRA artbooks – GENGA: Katsuhiro Otomo Original Pictures, which is an oversized book of original manga pages from throughout Katsuhiro Otomo’s career (available from PIE Books with English translations of the interviews) and AKIRA: Art of Wall, which is a stunning fold-out artbook that recreates the AKIRA collage murals that surrounded the Shibuya Parco Department Store while it was being remodeled. I’ve had my copy for a while, but it haven’t taken the time to unwrap, unfold and read the essays in it. This weekend is as good a time as any to do that!

Weekend Reading 183
Weekend Reading 183

TAIMUR DAR: As I mentioned, I’m making really good headway with finishing the original run of Invincible by the end of the year. And with the arrival of Season 2 I’m even more pumped to continue it. Just finished the 100th issue and so I’m about to move onto Invincible Volume 19: The War at Home

DEAN SIMONS: I have made surprising progress with my 2000 AD catchup during the week by reading one or two (or three) progs before I hit the sack. I am now – finally! – up to the current run of stories with September 27’s Prog 2351 refresh. I am particularly excited to check out the long awaited return of two series: Ian Edginton & D’Israeli’s airpunk adventure Helium and Kek-W & Dave Kendall’s deliciously macabre Fall of Deadworld (from Prog 2352).

Weekend Reading 183
Weekend Reading 183

DERRICK CROW: I think it might be a foregone conclusion that for a good while some of my weekend reading is going to consist of something Doctor Who related. Right now I’m trying to finish a book I bought several months ago, Doctor Who: Regeneration by Philip Segal & Gary Russell which is a behind the scenes look at the 1996 movie. I’m also just addicted to Big Finish audio dramas so I’m beginning to listen to Sarah Jane Smith: The Complete Series 1 and 2 as performed by Elizabeth Sladen and co. before her spinoff show in 2007. I’ll try to throw in more variety in the coming weeks.

CY BELTRAN: Well I’m tempted to skip around in my crazy Stephen King readthrough and finally start the Dark Tower series, but I haven’t decided yet. In the meantime, I found some classic issues of Seth’s Palookaville at my local shop that I’m wicked excited to check out in their original format. I also might read some 90s X-Force if I find the time, but who knows!


You can peruse the 182 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.

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