The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons

I think the title of this cartoon collection is a little misleading, at least to the average person. <i>The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons</i> edited by Bob Eckstein is a wonderful and amusing collection of artwork that really captures various pieces of living in a world where books and writing are the main focus of our lives. Unfortunately, I think a fair amount of it is likely to go over a number of people's heads, particularly those who tend to read more than they write. While deeply enjoyable, I don't think this book really caters to the audience of the general reader.

A lot of the humor is centered around the life of an author, the daily plights that the publishing world and having readers for one's books brings them. It's not exactly focused as much around a love of reading nor the typical things that your average reader might experience. As such, it does kind of require some prerequisite knowledge about the publishing world, what it means and feels like to be a published author, and the authors themselves who have written the comics. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, but I can definitely see the book losing its audience at various points within the collection.

A fun, hilarious take on the life of a writer and reader, <i>The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons</i> is one that I had an absolute blast reading, though I don't see myself ever picking it up again. It's the kind of book I'd appreciate seeing on a table in a library or a waiting room of some sort to read in passing but not really bother to by for myself. I definitely enjoyed my experience with it but, barring a very few choice comics, probably won't give it much thought now that I've finished reading.

<i>I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>