Back in July, Nic (from Dragon Rambles) did a post All the Series, about her tbr lists and how it looked. I'm a sucker for posts like that and it inspired me to check my own tbr and write this post.
A bit of background for anyone who might not know, I am not one of those people who see a book and automatically throw it on their tbr pile. If a book goes on my tbr, it means it WILL be read, unless I end up dnf'ing the series or author. I also limit the number of books on my tbr to 2-3 years worth of books, otherwise books get lost in the shuffle or I know I'll never get to them. If a book deserves to go on my tbr, it deserves to be read in a timely manner. Well, semi-timely, if you call 2 years timely ;-) My tbr is not a wish list, but an honest to goodness To Be Read list in actuality.
Last year I wrote a post about all the books/authors/series on my ereader, "Reading Rotation 9/25". I figured I'd combine that post idea with Nic's and create a Master TBR for your viewing pleasure. I'll be dividing this post into two sections, the first will be what is on my Pocketbook Era and the second will be what is in my Calibre digital library. So without further ado, let the deep dive begin!
Pocketbook Era List
The following are the various Lists I have on my Pocketbook Era. I go through them in alphabetical order. So when I finish a book in one list, I simply read the next. No choosing, no drama, no damned feelings, just reading. I haven't had a reading slump since '16 or '17 and it is all thanks to reading this way.
Action Man
These are the Phoenix Force books by "Gar Wilson". I added 5 to my Era and have gotten through 3. If I get through all 5, I'll be looking for more to add to my Calibre tbr list. They are the kind of mass produced books that you can only take in small doses, like 5 books at a time, hahahaha.
Asimov
I just finished this category with "I, Asimov". As soon as I get around to it, I'll delete it off the Era and add some other series or author to replace it.
Austen
Reading a Complete Collection, and I'm currently in the last legs of her juvenilia short stories. Might be a while as she wrote a lot of scraps in her teens.
Conan
A complete (chronological) compendium of the original Conan stories by Robert Howard
Cook / Herron
This is a selection of Glen Cook's Black Company alternating with Mick Herron's Slough House. Read 2-3 of one series, then switch to the other. Keeps me reading both series, albeit at a slower pace, which I'm ok with.
Dick Francis
A collection of 15 of Dick Francis's stories. I'm reading them in publication order and I believe they are all standalones. Never read Francis before so we'll see what I think.
Bond / Discworld
Same idea as the Cook/Herron slot, only for James Bond and Discworld. See my note on Discworld in the Calibre section below for more info.
Dracula / Lord of the Isles
Same idea yet again. I find it much easier to read 3 books of one series and then immediately switch to another instead of reading both. This way I'm not reading all 9 Lord of the Isles after one another, nor am I suffocating on Dracula mediocrity.
Empire / Icarus
Rise of Empire and the Icarus Saga. I read 3 Icarus to 2 Rise of Empire. See notes below in the Calibre section for more details.
Misc
I have 6 or 7 standalone or one of a series that I want to read sooner than later. Once example is Unlucky for Some, by Tom Wood, which is the latest in the Victor the Assassin series. I want to read it "now", so I'm adding it to this instead of waiting for more books in the series to come out. I've also got that Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain.
Nonfiction
I have 8 (yes, you read that right, EIGHT) books in this category. I haven't read this much nonfiction since my school days. It's good for me and I'm learning to expand my taste. Seeing as how I'm almost 50, I think it's time I read a bit more than just SF&F all the time.
Pollifax / Alphabet
This is the Emily Pollifax slot. I used to have that horrible "A is for Blah, blah" and "B is for even more Blah, blah" series but I hated the main character so much that I stopped it and just read Mrs Pollifax by herself. Emily Pollifax is worth about 100 of those pathetic Kinsey Milhone losers.
Rohmer
This is a complete collection of Sax Rohmer. It's also where I used to keep William Hope Hodgson until I read his horrible The Night Land and gave up on him. I also used to have Dumarest here until I gave up that too. Sadly, I have a feeling that the next Doctor Fu-Manchu novel or two will see Rohmer being given up on too. Just because a book is older doesn't necessarily mean it is better. Writers suck today and they sucked back then.
The Russians
- Dostoyevsky complete collection
- Tolstoy complete collection
- Turgenev complete collection
I read a Dostoyevsky, then on the next rotation I'll read a Tolstoy and then on the next rotation I'll read a Turgenev. Then on the 4th reading rotation I start the cycle all over again :-D
The Shadow
The Shadow knowz! enough said.
WH40K
This year I'm reading one book, Death & Duty, which is a compilation of Warhammer 40,000 short stories about the Astra Militarum (the ordinary humans that make up the bulk of the armies of the Empire of Mankind). I'm reading one story a month and will be done by year's end. For next year's plans, see the WH40K section down below.
Wolfe
Here we have the Nero Wolfe series, detective extraordinaire! I have been reading this series steadily since 2021 and while I won't quite wrap things up by year's end, it will wrap up near the beginning of '27. Then I'll take a year or two off to let things percolate and then I'll start the whole process all over again. Rex Stout is that good of an author.
YA
This is really more of a childrens or middle grade section, but I call it YA so that I can read something aimed at teens if the spirit moves me. Right now I have the Little House on the Prairie series here by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I've got 7 books left in the series. Plenty of time to search out another YA series when I get closer to the end of this.
Calibre Digital TBR List
(There is some overlap between this list and my Pocketbook list, because I don't load up every single book in a series or by an author onto my ereader all at once. I tend to stick to 5 or 6 at a time and then add more as I run out.
Neal Asher
- Dark Diamond
- Dark Agent
These are the latest by Asher in his massive Polity Universe and I am waiting for the third and final book to drop in this trilogy before diving in.
C.J. Box
The Joe Pickett series. Pickett is a forest ranger and one of the people I followed binged on the series and it looked quite interesting. There are around 20'ish novels/novellas and I've got the first 4 on tap. If I like them, I'll hunt down the rest of the series and add it to my tbr. But right now, there is no sense in doing all that work only to dnf the series at book 3 or something.
Jim Butcher
- The Aeronaut's Windlass
- Warriorborn
- The Olympian Affair
These are the opening books in Butcher's series "Cinderspires". Real life and that damnably horrible Dresden series have kept him from concentrating on this, so it is coming out extremely slowly. I'm going to wait until another book is released before I think about moving this over to my Era.
Glen Cook
The Black Company series. This is one I also have on my ereader and I cycle through it a few books at a time. I have 7 still in Calibre. I change it up with the Slough House series too, which is stretching out my reading time even more. It is a re-read so I'm in no rush.
Charles Dickens
The Complete Works. Next year or in '28, I am going to be making a concerted effort to read more Classics (or in the case of Dickens, re-read more Classics). I haven't decided if I'm going to give each Classic author their own spot or if I'm going to lump them together in one "Classic" category and cycle through them, like I am currently doing with my Russian authors.
David Drake
- Fortress of Glass
- The Mirror of Worlds
- The Gods Return
This is the final wrap up trilogy to Drake's Lord of the Isles series. I am alternating these books with the Dracula Files which I will mention further along.
Alexandre Dumas
The Complete Works. Another entry in my "Classics" selection.
Steven Erikson
- The God is Not Willing
- No Life Forsaken
the first two books in Erikson's latest entry into his Malazan universe. It is supposed to be a trilogy, so I am waiting for the final book to drop before reading these. The God was published in '21 and No Life in '25, so I might still have a couple of years of waiting.
P.J. Fitzsimmons
The Anty Boisjoly mystery series. The reviews I've read make it a mix of cozy mystery and PG Wodehouse, so I was sold from the get-go. I've got 9 of these on tap and more available if I end up liking them.
Ian Flemming
James Bond 7-14. I was alternating these with Discworld, but discworld has fallen by the wayside, so Bond is on his own. We will see if I get to the end of these or not.
Brian Flynn
The Anthony Bathurst mysteries. From the late 1920's to the 1950's. I have 6 available and more after that if I like the series.
Margaret Frazer
The Sister Frevisse series. I believe it is supposed to be in a similar vein to the Brother Cadfael mysteries, so a nun solves mysteries of one sort or another. I've got 6 in Calibre and more available if I like them.
William Michael Gear
The Donovan series, consisting of 6 books. This is very close to being added to the Era.
Maxwell Grant
The Shadow omnibuses. I have 10 omnibuses and then I have a complete collection, which has all 300+ stories. These are once again an old reliable that are both on my Era and in Calibre.
Brothers Grimm
The Complete Fairy Tales. Another "Classic" entry.
Non-Fiction
- The Anna Karenina Fix by Viv Groskop
- Nero Wolfe of West 35th Street by William Baring-Gould
I need to add some more non-fiction to my calibre library. Stock up for next year.
Cthulhu Mythos
I've got 8 various collections and anthologies of Cthulhu stuff just waiting for me to return to the Cosmic Horror fold. Maybe in '27, we will see how I'm feeling.
Misc
- The Truth of Carcosa by Jacob Rollinson
- Thraxas Meets His Enemies by Martin Scott
This Misc category is another one I need to stock up on. I like adding standalones or one-offs to this, not series.
Mick Herron
I have 4 more entries in the Slough House series. 3 novels and 1 short story. I'm spacing these out with the Black Company books so I never get too bored of one or the other. Read 3 of one series, then switch to 3 of the other. Keeps things fresh without burning me out.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
There are 13 more volumes available. I've been taking a break from Alfie for a bit but am thinking I'll dump him back into rotation in '27.
David Holmes
This is the "guy" who wrote the Empire Rising series, one that I am convinced he used AI to fill it up. I'm still enjoying it, just in smaller doses. I have 4 more volumes that I am interspersing with the Icarus series by Timothy Zahn. Reading some Zahn, then read 2 of the Empire Rising. Rinse and repeat
Victor Hugo
The Complete Works. Another in my "Classic" enterprise.
Andrew Klavan
I have a 5 book series, Cameron Winters, about an assassin, I think? I got some Victor the Assassin vibes from the review I read, but not quite. But I'm jonesing for some assassin style stories, so I'm hoping this will scratch the itch.
George MacDonald
A Complete works. Yet another in my "Classics" selection! As you can tell, I'm going serious on this.
Herman Melville
Moby Dick. This is the only book that has defeated me to date. That has stuck in my craw ever since I tried to read it in 2011. Reading this book is one of those literary hills I will die on. I'm sticking it in it's own category for the moment, but it might either end up in the "Classics" or in "Misc".
Fred Saberhagen
The Dracula Files, of which I have 4 in Calibre. Interspersing this with the aforementioned Lord of the Isles series by David Drake. LotI and Dracula are both barely "par" series, so changing them with each other keeps me from raising the bar very high yet keeps me from burning out when things go low.
Joel Shepherd
I have the final 4 of his Spiral Wars series. I read the previous 6 books as they came out but then he took a hiatus and extended the series and so I gave up on him until he finished it. I thought about re-reading the series, but I didn't enjoy the previous books that much, so we'll see if I can drop back into the series or not. Worst that'll happen is I dnf the series and move on, kind of like I'm currently doing to it ;-)
Michael Sullivan
I'm going to be re-reading his original Riyria Revelations series. I loved this 6 book series when I originally read it but now it is time for the acid-test. Will it survive a Bookstooge Re-read? Stay tuned and find out with me!
Phil Williams
The Ordshaw trilogy. I think somebody recommended it to me, but I'm not sure and I can't remember why it's on my tbr. A trilogy is almost as good as a standalone in these days of superlong series though, so it's going to get its chance to shine.
Dan Willis
I have the latest 2 of his Arcane Casebook series and once the 3rd (it's actually going to be #14 in the series) is released, I'll catch up. I used to read them as they came out but once it became obvious the series had no end goal in mind, I stopped.
Timothy Zahn
The Icarus saga. Good ol' space detective'ing. Reading this with the Empire Rising to give me a break from the Empire Rising's 500+ page wordiness. Zahn tells a taut story and I appreciate that.
Warhammer 40K
I've currently got 6 wh40k books in Calibre by various authors, divided into various factions. My main interest is the Astra Militarum (formerly known as the Imperial Guard, about the regular humans in the Empire) and the Necrons (a civilization of multimillion year old terminators that have gone code-crazy). I've got a novel or two about the Tau (aliens) and some about the Adeptus Mechanicus (humans who've gone the cyborg route in the Empire of Man). The problem is that WH40K is vast and its too easy to get spread out. Trying to keep my focus tight though.
Groo
The silliness of the Groo comic is a constant reminder that life is short so we should enjoy the good parts that have been given to us. As long as the artist, Sergio Aragones, isn't hammering us over the head with a "message" anyway. I just read #55 and have up to #120 in Calibre. Good times ahead!
So the numbers are a little fuzzy, but in total there are about 135 books on my tbr list in my Calibre library and 70 on my Era. So that brings the grand total to 200'ish. A bit over a year's worth of books. I'm pretty happy with this list overall. I realize this post is almost 3000 words long, about 4-6 times my usual, so thank you for sticking around to the end.
May your next book be fun and enjoyable!
