I have been waiting my turn in the library holds queue quite some time for The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. It is a graphic novel by Sydney Padua. I’ve just begun it and it is so much more than I ever could have hoped for.
It is not your average graphic novel. There is as much text as there are pictures. There are footnotes. There are endnotes. The art is great and the whole thing is absolutely bonkers and laugh out loud funny.
Don’t know who Lovelace and Babbage are? Charles Babbage invented the first computer but for various reasons mostly to do with Babbage, it never got built. Ada Lovelace is the daughter of Lord Byron and the first computer programmer. Lovelace died at age thirty-six. Babbage lived to be a crotchety old man.
After writing a story about Lovelace and Babbage, Padua thought it a real shame the computer never got built and the pair didn’t get to work together for very long. So she went all wibbly wobbly timey wimey and discovered a pocket universe where Lovelace and Babbage built the computer, have thrilling adventures, and, of course, fight crime, because why not? The first adventure has to do with the person from Porlock.
As I said, I have not read much but what I have read has been pure delight and I couldn’t keep it to myself until I finished. So I am telling you about it now. Check your library. If they have the book, get yourself on the list for it. Now. Go. No dilly-dallying.
On my wishlist now!
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Yay! I hope you get a chance to read it!
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Oo this sounds so cool!
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Nikki, it is so much fun 🙂
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Heyy! I was wondering how old is your blog?
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Hi bookishlibrary, I have been blogging for 11 1/2 years 🙂
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I’m #1 in the library queue!
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Grad, woo! Are you ready for madcap? I hope you like it 😀
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Another fun -sounding graphic novel I would not have known about without reading your blog! Thanks for featuring these.
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Laila, you bet! I can’t remember where I first heard about this one, all I know if I have been waiting for it a long time and it is totally worth the wait. It’s a hoot!
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Sounds like great fun Stefanie. Wasn’t a programming language or omething named for Ada? Wibbly wobbly timey wimey IS a great addition to book review language, BTW.
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whisperinggums, yes indeed there is a programming language called Ada! As for wibbly wobbly timey wimey, I stole that from Doctor Who. I have been waiting for the moment when I might be able to use it and it finally arrived 😀
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Well you chose well … it’s certainly appropriate for Dr Who.
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Goody! This was one of my most anticipated books of 2015, so I’m excited that it’s as fun and madcap as I wanted it to be.
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Jenny, oh it is. And so far she is managing to sustain it. You are in for a treat 🙂
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First, adding it to my wishlist right away, everything’s better with footnotes and pocket universes and Ada Lovelace. Second, I’d never heard of the person from Porlock! And the wikipedia entry pointed to a LOT of references in other books! Oh, well, I guess there goes the rest of my afternoon!
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Nat, sorry to send you down the rabbit hole with the person from Porlock. Wait, no I’m not, it’s a great story/excuse/drug induced hallucination. Whatever it was, it has become legendary. 🙂
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Somehow I can’t quite see me and a graphic novel sitting on the sofa together but I love looking out for my son. Definitely one that might entertain him, I think!
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Litlove, you just never know. Consider giving it a try sometime, you might be surprised 🙂
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I had heard of Ada Lovelace–but not of Babbage! This sounds like great fun and on to my wishlist it goes! 🙂
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Danielle, it is great fun and continues to be. Padua is very funny.
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My boyfriend (who is a programmer) is reading this one right now and enjoying it. I’m not sure it’s the book for me, but I have been amused by some of the footnotes he’s shown me.
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Heather, the footnotes and the endnotes are the best part. Glad to hear your programmer boyfriend is enjoying it!
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Babbage’s computer did not get built partly because it would have required so many moving parts and would have been enormous. This was before the invention of the electronic components that made modern computers possible (and so small). I have seen a modern recreation of one small part of Babbage’s computer in the Science Museum in London. This sounds like a book I would like to read.
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Ed, yes it would have been very large and Babbage was not a very good project manager either 🙂 The book is great silly fun with the highlights being the footnotes and the endnotes.
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