Brilliant Corners

Yes, I saved that much by visiting the local library today, and that's not including tax! That's what it would have cost if I went to the comic store and bought the five graphic novels that I checked out today.

Since I first got my library card I've checked out 56 items, most of which are graphic novels/comics. I don't feel like adding the cost up from all of those, but I know it's several hundred dollars. Now, I'm grateful to have saved all that money, but at the same time I'm sad I'm not contributing to the wallets of those certainly-deserving writers and artists. How can I resolve this quandary? Well, maybe my mind can be put a little at ease thanks to the cost of graphic novels. Something just seems wrong paying $20 for something that can be read in 15 minutes, great art or not. Still I feel a little bad about it, but that's what libraries are for, right?

Well, maybe I can't completely justify it, especially since I don't plan on stopping my visits to the library to check out more books and comics. However, there have been many that I enjoyed so much that I do plan on buying and adding them to the bookshelf:

• The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

  Gorgeous art and a wordless, yet moving and powerful narrative. I had seen this mentioned on a couple of "best of the year" lists, but it just took a look inside to see the reason why.

• Skim, by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

  The story is great, but it's Jillian Tamaki's art that really grabs me. It reminds me a lot of Dave McKean's Cages for some reason, which I loved tremendously.

• La Perdida, by Jessica Abel

  I had read the first issue or two of La Perdida many years ago, but thanks to the library carrying the collected comic, I've been able to read the entire story (almost in a single sitting).

• Persepolis 1 & 2, by Marjane Satrapi

  These are some of the first graphic novels I checked out from the library. I still haven't seen the film, but if it is anywhere near as good as these then it should be fantastic.

• The entire Lone Wolf and Cub series, by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima

  A Zen-like assassin and his infant son travel from job to job, often without saying but just a few words. Yeah, it can be quite violent at times, but it isn't overly graphic or gruesome. The beautiful art is what grabs me the most.

I really have enjoyed reading everything that I've checked out of the library, but those above are the ones that really stood out. I can also thank the library for getting me hooked on Iain M. Banks' sci-fi books. They had an old beat-up copy of Consider Phlebas which I loved. Sadly, many of his earlier SF books are still not yet available in the US (although they are being released, slowly) so I've had to resort to buying some from overseas in order to feed my Culture fix.

The Red Tape Chronicles over at MSNBC has a great list of money and privacy tips to tackle for the new year. I don't think I'll make a true list of new year resolutions (other than the things over here), but getting more in charge of our finances is definitely something I need to focus on more this year.

From the article:

You’ve heard it all before. Shred or burn your privacy documents. Jealously guard your credit card numbers. Only do business with people you trust. Don’t give out your Social Security number to anyone.

Those tips are a bit like cotton candy. They look good, but when you bite in, there's not much substance.

Via Kokogiak.

You may have seen the stupid commercials where there's some sort of important meeting--I think one is supposed to be a congressional hearing--and someone gets a note passed to them or a whisper in their ear. Then they stop the meeting to announce something like "Wow, I just saved a bundle on my auto insurance!" Well, that was me just a few days ago. Although I wasn't in any important meeting, or in a stupid commercial.

For a while I've been thinking that our auto insurance premiums were too high, but I had no idea how high they were. My current policy was due for renewal on the 26th, so I thought it would be a good time to start looking around to see if I could find something better. I did find something much, much better. 425 dollars better.

I called up my current insurance agent and asked him what was going on and wondering why my premiums were so high compared to everywhere else. He couldn't really answer, but said he'd "run some numbers" and see if he could get me a better deal himself. He couldn't. He came kind of close, but nowhere near what Progressive and Geico and the like were offering.

So, I went with Progressive, who are going to save me about 850 dollars a year, and with much better coverage to boot.