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Back to the paperback

For all their wonders, e-readers still can't deliver these worthwhile summer reads.

By Jonathan Messinger
Published: May 26, 2010

Wilson by Daniel Clowes. Here’s the best reason you can’t read the new graphic novel from Clowes (Ghost World) on one of those newfangled contraptions: They’re too small. The new giga-sized graphic novel from Clowes checks in at a foot long and nine inches wide and contains about a metric ton of self-loathing. The titular Wilson is a loner who thinks his desolation is not by choice. When his dad dies, he decides the best thing to do is to try to reconnect with his ex-wife. Told with Clowes’s trademark self-deprecating humor, it’s the most beautiful book about misanthropy you’ll read this year. That’s the Time Out Chicago guarantee! Drawn & Quarterly, May. $21.95.

Moonfire by Norman Mailer. When the moon landing happened, Life magazine asked Mailer to remark on the historic event, and that classic essay is reprinted here. Actually, it’s re-reprinted, because Taschen released this book last year in a gold-standard edition, priced high enough ($1,500) that a young lover of space would have to choose between mortgage payments or Mailer payments. But this new, slightly scaled-down version is still a gorgeous compendium of photographs and notes from the landing, including jaw-dropping spreads. Taschen, June. $39.99.

There Are Many of Us by Spike Jonze. In the spring, a strange movie popped up: It was a short film by director Jonze that had received a fair amount of buzz at Sundance. But the only way us plebes could watch it was through an Absolut Vodka–sponsored site. The movie, I’m Here, concerned a young robot in love. In this book from McSweeney’s—which collaborated with Jonze on a Where the Wild Things Are book—Jonze fanatics get behind-the-scenes stories, gorgeous photographs and insight into the gonzo director’s M.O. McSweeney’s, June. $35.

E-readers | Electronic summer reads | Bound summer reads | E-book innovators | What are you reading? | E-reader sun test


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