If Weekend Reading 198 is here, that must mean it’s Saturday! Be sure and share your reading plans with us in the comment section.
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’m going to be reading the Mad Golden Collection of Garbage by “The Usual Gang of Idiots.” You’d think a “reissue of a special edition” would choose a recycling theme, but hey, what do I know about comedy? Then as far as prose goes, I’m checking out Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. I don’t know anything about this book, which is apparently the first in a series. But the same friend who gifted me the fascinating Night of the Living Dead soundtrack is reading it, and she has good taste. Plus: pretty cool cover, right?
TAIMUR DAR: As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to broaden by manga reading. I recently discovered a delightful slice of life series entitled My Dress-Up Darling written and illustrated by Shinichi Fukuda so I’ll be enjoying that this weekend. Additionally, the new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer has me falling back in love with the character. I somewhat fell out of reading Deadpool comics a decade ago despite people raving about stories during this time. So I figure I’ll start with the first from writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn.
KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: I’m giving The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl by Miyuki Tonogaya a try this weekend. I actually bought the first volume at Tsutaya while I still lived in Japan, but didn’t have enough of an ability to read it, so I mostly skimmed it. I’m happy to learn it’s available in English! It’s up to three volumes right now with more forthcoming, and is an office romance about the descendant of a snow spirit who falls for a cool, aloof, oblivious girl. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun and a bit on the sweet side, so I look forward to reading it.
REBECCA OLIVER KAPLAN: I really miss writing for PanelxPanel with Tiffany Babb and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, so I asked Deb Aoki to help me with a piece on early BL culture. It was supposed to be for Valentine’s Day, but unfortunately, my resources are just arriving. Unfortunately (but also super excitingly), the first book to arrive was one I ordered over the holidays, By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga by Erica Friedman—and it turns out that I misremembered what it was about…Yuri instead yaoi. Oops! Still, I’m eager to learn about yuri as well (and so far, there have been helpful mentions to the rise of fan conventions that are relevant to my piece).
You can peruse the 197 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.