Lesbian Lit.: Suburban Style

I might have just stumbled across a new side project for myself -- and I have the local library to thank for it.

I was reflecting this evening on the utter awesomeness our local library has added to their collection. This awesomeness is known in the vernacular as "MANGA." I realize I've been hammering this point home for quite a few weeks now, but I cannot stress how progressive this is for a proper, buttoned-down town to list manga on its public library records.

I mean, if you have even a passing interest in graphic novels and manga in general, the collection is impressive. Titles include massive hits like Nana and Bleach, Naruto and Death Note. Heck, I even saw that the first 20th Century Boys title is on order. Whoever became the head librarian here gets MASSIVE points from me, let me tell you.

I let my thoughts wander and lo, I arrived at the inevitable: What about their lesbian-themed literature? How do those titles measure up?

The keyword "lesbian" yields 118 titles. Huh. It's quite the improvement from the ol' high school days. Can you imagine it? In the first few years of the 2000s, our local library had FOUR titles. Yeah. FOUR. All of them were books written for parents of queer youth (the whole "Your kid just came out, take a deep breath because it's all going to be alright" vibe).

I'm so glad that diversity reigns in the year 2010.

So yes, I propose a new challenge for myself -- I'd like to read and review a number of those texts for the purpose of said blog. Seems fitting. I'm a former English major, I've just been bitten by that reading bug again (I've got four books on the go at the moment -- it's like I've returned to the undergrad years), and I've now got a platform where readers could benefit from learning about the titles.

Book-induced coma, here I come.