Books I've picked up and really liked
Physical books I own and have made an impact on me life.
Fiction
As you can probably tell, i love me a good graphic novel.
Amulet book 7; The whole series hits a nostalgic spot of like fantasy.
The backgrounds and sprawling landscapes of this world inspire me to no end.
Blankets; Made me fall in love with journal-esque graphic novels. Also really like the brush-style.
House of Five Leaves; A manga that opened my eyes with its art style of being pretty minimal penwork.
Shane; After watching the movie and stumbling on the book, I just had to purchase the pulp fiction book.
A memoir graphic novel with a super striking art style.
The art style hooked me and the attention and care to the small town makes me feel like I lived there.
A collection of dark fairy tales that paint a Eyvind Earle-like world while reading.
Indie Books
Nothing beats the rush when going to an artist market and finding homemade\self published books or zines.
One of the first self published comics I stumbled upon. Took like 3 artist alleys and raised my spirits.
A collection of poems found at a Pride.
I'm always a sucker for white haired characters, and it being indie with a cute art style helped. I bought books 1&2 and always gives me sunny fever dream. In the best way.
First light novel author\book I found on my artist alley travels. Renewed the feeling of whats possible as this author was primarily living off of their works.
Nonfiction & Reference Books
Seems like the older I get, the more nonfiction starts being very apealing to me.
Wasn't granted the ability to write well, but having books like this feels like watching a high quality youtube course.
Learning the small details of frontier life really puts perspective on what all was gone through to trek across the freshly stolen land.
I believe there's no secret method to learn to draw, but this hits a lot of what you learn in community college. After this, its really just up to you to level up.
There's just something a bit more interesting, to read about events in history, NOT through textbooks; Maybe it's just because I have more lived experience to appreciate history now.
I'm not a talented writer, but this is basically a framework to tell/write stories with a theme.
One of my favorite art styles, found it in a bin at an anime con. Just has a nice blend of fantasy and jrpg.
Lotsa thoughts 'bout comics and digital. I'd love to read something like this by a prolific webtoon\manwha maker.
A lovely illustrated book on medieval life; I picked it up to copy\steal its layouts for a magazine.