Bought today at the HUGE Metcalf Mall library sale.

I liked it. Can't quite explain why, but I did. I'll be looking for more of the Jim's Journal books.

~~~ edited 8/30/08, putting in Yummy Yummy VBB.

These books are sort of hard to describe. Here is a good review from Amazon.com:

Jim's Journal was not meant to have a punchline. And that's part of what makes it so funny. It's just a guy drawing little scenes out of his life. He's not documenting the historic moments, but the little silliness that we all go through. When I read "I Went to College..." I would crack up in the middle of a frame because it reminded me so much of myself in college.

There are lots of cartoons out there that don't make you laugh at the last frame, like Zippy the Pinhead or Family Circus. This is one that makes you feel good, make you giggle, and somehow manages to completely engross you even though the topic is nothing.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Headed to Azuki - happy reading!

Thanks it's here. And thanks so much for the bonus book "I went to college..." by the same artist. Guess I should read that first.
When I opened the package I started reading a few pages of the book, and was a bit baffled by the lack of a punchline. I'd reach the fourth panel, and an inconclusive ending, so I thought the story continues on to the bottom four panels, but it is a fresh story. Now reading terrafreak's entry I understand this is the artist's style. Not bad, and the artstyle is adorable, just take some getting used to, after I have been so trained to expect something happening in the fourth panel, whether it be funny or witty.

When I journaled the book, I was surprised to see the author's name is not Jim. I thought it would be an autobiographical journal of someone named Jim, because it feels so much this is an honest, unedited version of someone's day to day life.

While reading this, I was in turn bored by the mundane life of the characters (and he could make money writing about it???) and charmed by how the author captures those little ordinary moments that we often pass by.

According to Wikipedia: Dikkers' purpose was to parody the typical four-panel comic strip, creating a character-driven strip with a main character who had no discernible personality, observational humor that provided no insights, and no comic timing, just strips that ended without a gag, or sometimes without even a conclusion. Dikkers calls this style anti-humor, "creating humor by poking fun at other humor".

Sorry to have kept this for so long, this book will now go into Gory's graphic novel book.

This book arrived safely in the bookbox today - and it looks very sweet! (I might hang onto it for next March's Wine + Food challenge. Mmmm, brownies!)

Later: It took me a while to get into the rhythm of this slice-of-life/not-much-happening strip, but when I did I found myself enjoying it. Not a laugh-riot for the most part, but lots of "yeah, I've felt like that" moments. And there were some gentle laughs here and there, such as the strip in which Jim offers a glass of water to his curious cat, only to have her begin to lap at it. Most of my cats show no interest in my drinking glasses, but I did have one who'd sneak a lick now and then, so that particular item charmed me. (Many of the cat-related strips did that, come to think of it; cats are cool even when they're just sitting there {grin}.)

I enjoyed the "reading" strips, too: "So far, I think it's a pretty good book." That's more than we get in some journal entries! And there's one in which he's organizing his bookshelf, with the cat watching - and is thwarted because "I kept stopping to read things". That one definitely sounds familiar!

[You can see Jim's work at the GoComics site here.]

I left this book in the Little Free Library at around 2:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it! (It's a bit of a challenge getting to the LFL over the mounds of frozen snow, but it's possible!)

*** Released for the 2014 Wine + Food + BookCrossing challenge, for "brownies". ***

I stopped by the Chelmsford LFL today to drop off more books, and found this one still there, and showing signs of minor water damage - possibly the windblown snow got through cracks in the LFL's cover flap. I placed this one in the fairly new Little Free Library in Westford at around 4:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!