“Hellboy: Seed of Destruction and Strange Places” by Mike Mignola
I loved Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy films when I was a kid. I only recently knew that they were based on a comic book series, which is actually a lot darker and borrows more heavily from folk literature — and it also has a more overt existential angle.
If you’re not familiar with the basic premise, it’s about a demon raised by humans, who works as a paranormal investigator. As he protects humanity from supernatural threats, he is forced to confront the difficult questions of his true identity, and his destiny — which he persistently rejects, hence why he files his horns.
I read the first two volumes last month, which were Seed of Destruction and Strange Places. Here’s to more Hellboy in the upcoming months.
Working by Robert Caro
Had my second read of this book, and it was even better than I remembered. It’s definitely one of, if not the best, book on writing I’ve read. Robert Caro is known for his detailed (and very long) accounts of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, in which he sought to expose how political power truly worked.
In this book, he takes us behind the scenes to show how and why he writes his biographies. The writing advice that he details are already incredibly valuable, but there’s a lot to unpack by observing on your own how he applies his advice into his own writing. With this book, for example, it forces you to slow down because it’s just so good. You can tell he put a lot of thought and care into every line, making sure that the entire book is as best as it could possibly be.
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate” by Robert Caro
This is the third volume in Robert Caro’s Years of Lyndon Johnson series, in which he uncovers how Lyndon Johnson, or LBJ, was able to build his political power and influence in the Senate. I’ve written about LBJ several times, but if you aren’t familiar with him, he’s a hallmark example of how someone could be so empathic and altruistic, yet also cunning and ruthless at the same time.
This behemoth of a book is about 1000 pages long, and I’m only a little over halfway done with it. But so far, it’s been a very sobering read, especially as I learned about how LBJ knew just how to play on other people’s weaknesses and insecurities, as he either charmed or coerced them into giving him what he wanted. It felt horrible too as I read about the lives he ruined, like how he orchestrated a smear campaign to bring down one of his political opponent’s reputation and entire career. After LBJ brought him down, he still had the cheek to tell him, “We’re still friends aren’t we? It’s only politics.”
Izzat Zailan 