Amazon Includes Graphic Novels on Lifetime Reading Lists
Amazon last week released “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime“, a wide-ranging suggested reading list. They wanted to cover a full life, so it includes fiction, non-fiction, classics, modern works, and even children’s books.
As for graphic art, it includes the following comic titles and related works:
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, a graphic memoir about growing up in Iran
- Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware, a design-heavy work steeped in loneliness
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, a faux-diary book that combines text and images in a way different from comics
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel by Michael Chabon that retells stories set in the early days of the comic book industry
(Notice that there’s some bad design on this page. On my laptop screen, at first, I only saw 60 books, 15 rows of four titles each. You have to zoom out to get the final three columns to appear and see the entire 100. Some programmers have gotten too used to their giant screens to consider full usability for a variety of devices.)
There are also specialty lists, Young Adult list which repeats Persepolis and adds
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, a much-awarded work about adapting to a new culture while dealing with the stereotypes of heritage
- Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman, an exploration of the Holocaust through family history
- The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg
This list appears to have been affected by the incorrect idea that comics are for young people, as the latter two are more suitable for adults, who can better relate to the subject matter and/or cope with the violence. Plus, I’d have selected a later Sandman volume, since those are better than the rough start. But I’m glad to see that comics are now an established, recognized part of literature to be included on lists like these.