Nikon d70s: ISO 200, f/3.5, 10s @18mm
I picked up two neat books the other month on daring photography. Now I don’t know how daring photography can be (unless you’re a combat photographer) but the ideas and the techniques really gave me some neat ideas to play around with. And since digital imaging is so much cheaper than film, it doesn’t matter if it comes out crappy.
I have nothing against popular history books. I enjoy it when I see people in the history section of a book store. Several times I have helped wayward souls pick up the right books and put down the poorly researched, poorly written histories that are available.
Much like many subjects there is a separation between popular books and scholarly works. At times scholarly works cross over into the popular and become best sellers. But it is rare that really well done history on the scholarly level become NY Times bestsellers. Or even sell a few hundred copies to students that need it for class.
There is nothing wrong with popular history. And, to tell you the truth, more times than not, scholarly works in history are not great narratives. There are exceptions, of course. And on the other hand there are popular history books that are well researched and explain the past and are well supported and documented. Those are usually the exceptions.
» Read more: Which Historians to Read
I was going to write a entry about Green Lantern: Rebirth
Rebirth is the beginning of this long overlapping story that moves through The Sinestro Corps War and Green Lantern: Blackest Night
What I guess I can write about in this essay is how DC tends to screw up the Green Lantern titles after great stories like this. Being par for the course, after this final story in Brightest Day is finished, the Green Lantern books will be written by some hack and eventually will dwindle in sales and then be canceled only to be resurrected again (much like Jordan has done twice, if you count his stint as The Specter). I believe the Green Lantern books are on their fourth volume. I remember reading them way back in the mid 80s and during the Emerald Dawn mini series. They were pretty damn good.
Then somewhere along the way they got crappy and I stopped.
I blame Guy Gardner.
Anyway, Rebirth is worth reading as is Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War collections. I can’t wait for the Blackest Night collections to be released this summer.
But ultimately I think that the Green Lantern titles will once again languish and then fall to the wayside. So take advantage of the good writing and artwork in the current iteration. Who knows how long it will last.
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