Storybook Favorites

The first storybook I read was Japanese Samurai Tales, a book about swordsmanship, spirit, death, and of course the almighty samurai. It was written in letter form making it feel very special. There weren't much details about the actual fighting but there was a poetic feel to the stories that lined together through letters. It covered four samurais (Yagyu Tajima no Kami, Miyamoto Musashi, Sasaki Kojiro, Hattori Hanzo), each important to Japanese history and culture. I enjoy samurais as they are considered perhaps the most skillful warriors of all time.

The second storybook was Mythology's Most Wanted, one highlighting Egypt's Set (God of chaos, confusion and storms), Loki (Norse god of trickery and wrong doing), and Medusa (Greek monster, a female with snakes for hair). Monster are of interest to me. Mix mythology and monsters and we have a match, no tinder. I'm a real boy if you can't tell, action, violence, swords, and monsters interest me like a little skipper playing with army men. I am also a designer so thus far I have not been too impressed with the physical look or feel of the pages. I have learned through my studies and design experience that clean, readable design lets the content take front stage. I plane to have a fairly simple layout like my blog, and black type on white background, because white type on black backgrounds are a little harder to read. Besides that small critique, I enjoyed the storybook and its content.

The third storybook I read was The Monsters of the Twelve Labors, which was about, you guessed it, the monster Hercules fought in his daunting twelve labors. One particular section intrigued me the most in this storybook - the Lernean Hydra part. The author broke the story up into three sections, the search, the clash, the victory. He goes into great detail about how Herc defeats the Hydra by cauterizing its wounds before more heads sprung up out of the many decapitated necks. I love descriptive writing of action and the Hydra in the below pic is dope.

Hydra