Like me, Debbie Tung loves books and reading, as I’m sure you do too given that you’re reading a book review on a books site! Book Love collects Tung’s many strips on the subject and it’s an ok read.
A lot of the full page cartoons read like greeting cards, which is a feature in a number of Andrews McMeel books. “By living a reading life… I live many lives at once” she says in one and “Every day is a good day for books” and she’s sitting reading in a book-shaped tent in another. Woah, what deep, original thoughts. And that’s another thing - she says the same vapid things over and over which makes for repetitive reading.
The black and white art’s nothing special and I didn’t laugh at any of the, ahem, jokes? She likes to smell books, she points out when she sees a kid reading a book she read as a kid, she prioritises books over practically everything, she loves physical books as much as she enjoys reading them… har… har…
But I also can’t dislike the book too much as I found myself identifying with most of the stuff she’s into. I tend to prefer a night in reading over going to a dinner party or socialising in general; I love book shopping too, particularly for secondhand books; I also wig out when I notice the title of the book in the story; and I fully agree to abandoning books you’re not enjoying reading - there are far, far too many books out there to try to stick it out with something like Anna Karenina just ‘cos habit!
I’m also not a fan of publishers putting movie posters on books when they’re filmed (and I agree that most films do a piss-poor job of adapting the source material), and used to hate when there was sticker residue left on the covers after peeling them off. That was when I collected books, which is where Tung and I differ greatly. She’s really into the physicality of books whereas I moved past that a long time ago and prefer to read a book and then either return it to the library or donate it to charity - I don’t hoard the things anymore. And I actually prefer e-books as they’re easier to carry around, the devices I read on are lighter than the books and there’s never an issue with the lighting.
Anyhoo. Book Love is a mildly amusing read that most anyone who reads will see something of themselves in, though there’s as much nodding in agreement at some of the observations as there is nodding off at the banality of the others. Sarah Andersen fans will probably love this.
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