If you have followed me for a couple of weeks, you'll have noticed that each Monday I post a picture of a Magic the Gathering card and usually some of my thoughts on it. Today there is the internet which will tell you all you need to know about the various cards, from price to all the info about it. However back in the 90's the internet was just getting off the ground and we still relied on magazines to give us previews of upcoming cards, sets and any price changes.
I used the magazine Scrye as my fount of knowledge. It came out a couple of times a year and it was usually a pretty thick publication. It had to be, since it was a big old price guide. If you look at the cover featuring the Star Wars cards, you can see the blurb in the upper left corner "Complete Price List for Mirage", which was the latest MtG set. Scrye also covered a multitude of other CCG's (collectable card games), as you can see from the cover. There was Star Wars, X-Files, Middle Earth, Legends of the Five Rings, Star Trek, Netrunner, DC comics and other various card games that came and then usually went. It was the Wild West time of the CCG's.
While the price list part of the magazine was the biggest draw for me (it did take up about 3/4's of the magazine), the articles were a good read too, especially if you weren't into a particular other card game. You could learn about the game, see some of the cards and in most issues, get some promo cards. They were all mass produced junk, but it still gave you an idea of what the game was like and how it differed from Magic.
I think I only ever bought two, maybe three of these magazines. They were expensive (compared to a comic book that cost you $1.25) and only came out every couple of months. I know I bought the one in the featured image (the greenman impression) and I'm pretty sure I also bought this Star Wars one. So I bought two in a row and realized Magic prices didn't change THAT much in a couple of months and the articles didn't really apply to the type of Magic me and my friends played, ie, casual kitchen table Magic while the articles were more about Competitive Magic. I didn't want to dominate my gaming circle, I just wanted to have fun. And when all you focus on is winning, the fun goes right out the door.
I do remember though seeing one of my cards having gone up 5 or 10 cents and that I had like 10 of them. I was elated! I had just made a whole dollar without doing anything. Man, the sky was the limit at that point, hahahahahaa. I hadn't yet realized that those prices were what the cards were selling for in a store, not what "I" could sell them for. But what it did do was help me and my friends when we were trading. It was not a 1 for 1 trade. The prices took into account how good the cards were and since we didn't really understand that, it helped us to keep parity.
That is about all I have to write here. Enjoy your weekend :-)
This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
Doctor No Series: James Bond #6 Author:
Ian Fleming Rating: 3,5 of 5 Stars Genre:
Thriller Pages: 205 Words:
79K Publish: 1958
This
was the best Bond story that I’ve read so far. Bond goes on an
easy assignment to recover from his time during “From
Russia with Love” and ends up fighting against a
megalomaniac who is paying to grow his little personal empire with
bird guano.
Things
actually move along at a decent clip here. Bond does things instead
of just sitting around on a flipping train considering the future
morosely. A couple of British agents are kidnapped and killed. Bond
and an old friend kayak to a forbidden island. Dr No’s minions
shoot up the beach where the kayak is stored with big ol’ machine
guns and then use a modified dune buggy with a flame thrower and guns
to track Bond and his most recent female acquaintance and capture
them. Bond is put through a torture obstacle course and ends up
fighting a giant squid, and pokes its eye out with a homemade spear
(atta boy Bond!) and then he buries Dr No in tons of dried guano.
That’s almost more action that what was in the previous 5 books
combined! Also, beyond a light seasoning of Communists helping Doctor
No with his missile control program, there is no cold war antics.
Thank goodness for that!
My
only issue is that Dr No’s master plan about either holding
American cities hostage by controlling American missiles or just
outright destroying them, didn’t seem to actually take into account
Russia. If Dr No had done that, he still wouldn’t be able to take
over a large chunk of real estate and become an absolute Dictator.
The Russkies would have moved in and swept him aside. For someone so
smart, it seemed like a glaring oversight. But that’s a pretty
small quibble considering he died by asphyxiating in bird poop,
hahahahaa.
I
like the cover that Devilreads had for this ebook version (as seen in
the featured image) but I couldn’t find a high quality version of
it, so I looked around and found the first edition for the hardcover.
It’s a good quality cover that hadn’t bought into the movie
franchise just yet, so it is distinctly its own thing. I approve of
books staying their own thing and not whoring themselves out to the
movie versions.
★★★✬☆
From
Wikipedia
After recovering from serious
poisoning inflicted by the SMERSH agent Rosa
Klebb (in From Russia, with Love) the Secret
Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M,
on an undemanding mission to the British colony of Jamaica. He
is instructed to investigate the disappearance of Commander John
Strangways, the head of MI6's Station J in Kingston, and his
secretary. Bond is briefed that Strangways had been investigating the
activities of Doctor Julius No, a reclusive Chinese-German who
lives on the fictional island of Crab Key and runs a guano mine.
The island has a colony of roseate spoonbills at one end
while local rumour is that a vicious dragon also lives there. The
spoonbills are protected by the American National Audubon
Society, two of whose representatives died when their plane crashed
on No's airstrip.
On his arrival in Jamaica, Bond
soon realises that he is being watched. His hotel room is searched, a
basket of poisoned fruit is delivered to the room—supposedly a gift
from the colonial governor—and a deadly centipede is
placed in his bed while he is sleeping. With the help of an old
friend, Quarrel, Bond surreptitiously visits Crab Key to
establish whether there is a connection between No and the
disappearance of the MI6 personnel. Bond and Quarrel meet Honeychile
Rider, who is there to collect valuable shells. Bond and Rider are
captured by No's men after Quarrel is burned to death by the doctor's
"dragon"—a flamethrowing, armoured swamp
buggy designed to keep away trespassers. Bond and Rider are
taken to a luxurious facility carved into the mountain.
No tells Bond that he is working
with the Russians and has built an elaborate underground facility
from which he can sabotage US test missiles launched from Cape
Canaveral. He had previously been a member of a Chinese tong,
but after he stole a large sum of money from their treasury, he was
captured by the organisation. The tong's leaders had No's hands cut
off as a warning to others, and then shot him. Because No's heart
was on the right side of his body, the bullet missed it and he
survived.
Interested in the ability of the
human body to withstand and survive pain, No forces Bond to navigate
his way through an obstacle course constructed in the facility's
ventilation system. Bond is kept under observation as he suffers
electric shocks, burns and an encounter with large, venomous spiders.
Bond's ordeal ends in a fight with a captive giant squid, which
he defeats by using improvised weapons. After his escape he
encounters Rider, who had been pegged out to be eaten by crabs; they
had ignored her and she managed to escape.
Bond
kills No by taking over the guano-loading machine at the docks and
diverting the flow of guano to bury him alive. Bond and Rider then
escape from No's complex in the "dragon" buggy, sail back
to Jamaica and notify the colonial authorities.
Monsters Inc was a fun movie, but definitely for the kids. Glad I rewatched it on dvd so I won't waste any money upgrading to bluray. I don't plan on ever watching it again.
First off, can we just stop for a moment and appreciate that I read TWO 5star books, in one month? That is practically hitting the book lottery. and that bumped my monthly average up to 3.63. Talk about moving in the rarified circles of Bookdom!
September was yet another discombobulating month. Work was topsy turvy, what with my coworker being out for 2 weeks due to his wife having their first kid. Throw in a new crew chief getting trained for our Northern office and everyone wondering when SlowBoy2.0 was going to get the axe and well, we came in each day not knowing what the day held. It must have been hellacious on the office manager as he had to schedule all that chaos!
Mrs B and I celebrated 18 years of marriage and ate like there was no tomorrow! We have had our various ups and downs during those 18 years, but I wouldn't trade a day of them if it meant it was with someone else.
Of course, 2 weeks later we both were sick, with different things. I had some sort of seasonal allergies and exhaustion going on while Mrs B ran a temperature and was throwing up. That made for a thoroughly miserable couple of days. But we got through it and that was that.
Some summers September is very summerlike. This time around, it was leaning into the whole Autumn thing. It was much cooler than expected, it rained a bit more, the leaves started changing colors and the ragwort was pollinating all over the place (hence my seasonal allergies this year). I would like Autumn a lot more if Spring came after it ;-)
Cover Love:
Those Without Mercydefinitely takes the cake when it comes to cover love this month. Grim and creepy!
Plans for Next Month:
October is the Pumpkin Festival. I plan to have a post on that the second Saturday of the month.
Now that we are approaching the end of the year, it is time I begin catching up on my book reviews, so expect Wednesdays to be filled again. In fact, I suspect that my calendar will be full up to make sure I am all caught up by year's end. That means you can expect more book reviews each month. Aren't you so lucky!
This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
Dead Cert Series: Standalone Author:
Dick Francis Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre:
Mystery Pages: 218 Words:
86K Publish: 1962
First
off, that has got to be one of the world’s ugliest, most uncreative
covers ever. I don’t like it and the publishers should be totally
ashamed of themselves. In fact, if the publishers were standing right
in front of me now, I’d punch them in their ugly face and tell them
that cover hurts me more than me mashing their schnozzes did them.
#metoo
I
saw Dick Francis books all through my growing up years. He was at the
library. He was at K-Mart. He was at Barnes & Noble. He was at
the airport. He was everywhere. Most of the time the covers just had
his name in HUGE letters and then a small title and no picture. I was
not interested in a book styled that way (of course, what I’m
showcasing here is even worse, so be careful what you wish for,
right?). Fast forward 30+ years to today when I was on the hunt for
new to me old books. I think somebody recommended Dick Francis to me
as an author in one of my “Book
Recommendations” posts. So I knew the name, I just didn’t
know anything about him or the stories he wrote. My interested was
piqued when I found out that most of his stuff was standalone
stories. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind multi-volume stories or
even series that are self-contained stories, but there is a part of
me that just wants to read ONE book and have that be it. Francis
filled that niche. It has taken me almost 18months to start, but
given my TBR
Reading List, is actually quite a reasonable time frame. I also
knew that horses and equestrian racing formed the nucleus of the
stories, so I prepared myself for all sorts of horsey things.
This
was an enjoyable murder mystery that at times left me scratching my
head as to why the main character was doing what he was doing instead
of going to the police. Then I realized it was 1962 and things were a
little different in Merry Old England than they are today. Seriously
though, that was the part of the story that made this 3stars and not
any higher. It also brought out just how much the speed of
communication changes things. Walking somewhere to get to a
telephone. Leaving messages. Crime was slower because life itself was
slower because it was going as fast as it could but it just wasn’t
as fast as today. Now that I’ve gotten this first book under my
belt I expect to be a little better prepared for next time. I’m not
sure that if the main character in the next book tries to be super
detective man that that will go over any better than it did here
though. Our guy has to play detective because the police aren’t
doing anything, but man, it just didn’t ring true. Even with the
“Oh, it’s 1962”. It’s probably as realistic though as those
filthy casual cozy murder mysteries where some bleeping blonde bimbo
baker solves a mystery with her friends instead of actually running
her bakery.
I
learned about steeple chasing (the specific kind of horse racing
featured here in the story) and am now an expert. Ask me anything
about it and I’ll give you the answer. It probably won’t be the
correct answer, but that’s on you for asking some random guy on the
internet questions about horse racing.
While
I enjoyed this book overall, it did feel like the kind of popcorn
summer book that people who only read a book a year would read. What
I am hoping for is that each book will be different enough to set it
apart from its predecessors.
★★★☆☆
From
Wikipedia
Admiral
should have won his race at Maidenhead, but an unexpected fall and
the accidental death of top jockey Bill Davidson gave his friend,
Alan York, the win instead. But Alan recognised a trip wire when he
saw one and was not about to let a murderous act go unpunished. The
trouble was that he left drawing it to the attention of the
authorities too late and the evidence had disappeared. Only the
efficient Police Inspector Lodge is prepared to believe that it was a
deliberate killing - and at first is inclined to suspect Alan's
involvement.
Alan
is persuaded to ride a novice hunter in another race and is surprised
to find it belongs to the glamorous Kate Ellery-Penn, whose Uncle
George has given her the horse as a birthday present. Alan is
attracted to her from the start, but unfortunately so is another of
his jockey friends, Dane.
As
he leaves the course, Alan comes across two gangs of taxi drivers,
from London and Brighton, brutally fighting it out with knives and
knuckle-dusters. Not long afterwards he recognises some of them when
he is roughed up as a warning not to pursue his enquiries, but this
only spurs him on to investigate what is obviously an organised
attempt to interfere with horse racing on a wider scale than he had
first thought. Some of his jockey colleagues have already come under
suspicion for deliberately slowing down their mounts: the popular and
experienced Sandy Mason, for example, and the cocky but easily
panicked youngster, Joe Nantwich.
From
now on Alan sets out on a double pursuit, of the gang responsible for
the death of his friend, and of Kate. The latter lives in a stately
house in Sussex with her upper-crust Uncle and her Aunt Deb, who does
her best to discourage Alan from taking his interest in Kate further
when he pays a weekend stay. While there he visits Brighton with Kate
and comes across an ex-military pub landlord who has organised his
fellow owners of small businesses in resisting a protection racket.
Taxi drivers from one of the local firms were involved with this and
Alan traces some of those he recognises from his earlier run-in with
them to Marconicars.
Before he can take things much
further, Alan's own horse is tripped during a race. As he lies on the
ground helpless, one of those who had helped rig the wire comes over
and kicks him unconscious. When he comes round in hospital, he
is concussed and there are gaps in his memory. Back at Bill
Davidson's house, where he continues to live for the time being, he
discovers that one of Bill's young sons routinely listens to incoming
phone calls. From him he learns that Bill had received a phone
instruction to pull the race in which he died. Having had such a call
too, Alan had forewarned Inspector Lodge of what might happen and is
visited by him as he recovers. Suspicion seems to point to
a bookmaker who has an office above Marconicars and to one
of their principal customers.
Joe
Nantwich has discovered a clue to who might be rigging the races but
before he can hand it over to Alan, he is stabbed to death at the
West Sussex races. Next the killers come after Alan, posing as police
officers, but he manages to escape them on Admiral (which he has
inherited from Bill) and jumps over the wayside hedges into the
fields and then a fir plantation, with the fake officers and the
Marconicars fleet combing all the nearby roads.
Overcoming
one of their drivers, Alan heads for the main office and finds Uncle
George at the radio microphone, furiously insisting that Alan be
killed. Rather than be arrested, Uncle George shoots himself and
consequently Kate rejects Alan, only relenting later and agreeing to
marry him. When Alan's memory returns fully, he realises it was Sandy
Mason who had been passing on information about his enquiries to the
gang and had kicked him after his fall. With Dane's magnanimous help,
Alan gets his revenge by unseating Sandy from his horse mid-race.
This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
London Rules Series: Slough House #5 Author:
Mick Herron Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre:
Thriller Pages: 264 Words:
101K Publish: 2018
None
of the crew die in this story. I kept waiting for someone to die, the
last person I’d expect. So when someone didn’t die, I’d think
to myself, ok, who don’t I expect next? And then someone else
wouldn’t die. Right until the end of the book. I was simultaneously
happy and disappointed :-D
There
was also a chapter where Jackson Lamb was just on a roll with his his
un-pc remarks and I was in stitches for paragraph after paragraph. I
think I was laughing for a solid 30minutes. The one instance that
really made me laugh was when Jackson Lamb mansplains “mansplaining”
to one of the female characters. I just about died, hahahahahahaa.
The
story itself was a bit confusing and I still don’t understand WHY
North Korea running a non-secret UK Government sanctioned op would
cause “embarrassment”. Honestly, when I was done I felt exactly
how I did when I finished up From
Russia with Love, the last
James Bond novel I read. There are bits of spycraft in James Bond and
here in Slough House that I simply do not understand. The whole
“appearance” thing has to be pretty blunt (as it is in most
instances here in Slough House) for it to make sense to me. That’s
not a brag, more admitting a weakness.
So
I had a rollicking good time and would continue to recommend this
series to anyone wanting some modern day spycraft story without the
more typical kabooms and super action heroes.
I
did reach out to Dictator Xi Jinping to see if he had read this book,
but sadly, his schedule was full of goat humping, so he hadn’t
gotten around to it. So you’ll have to survive without his thoughts
on it.
★★★★☆
From
Supersummary.com
The
fifth novel in the Slough House series is set against post-Brexit
political turmoil in Britain. Slough House is a decrepit London
office building where MI5 (Britain's domestic intelligence agency)
dumps agents who have disgraced themselves or botched assignments.
These agents, known as "slow horses," are given pointless
busywork designed to bore them into quitting. Their boss, Jackson
Lamb, is a slovenly, foul-mouthed contrarian who delights in
tormenting his staff while covertly protecting them from the
Service's main headquarters at Regent's Park.
The novel
opens with five armed men massacring the residents of Abbotsfield, a
small village in the Derbyshire hills, killing twelve people in a
two-minute assault. The attack is claimed by the so-called Islamic
State and plunges the country into crisis. At Regent's Park, First
Desk (head of MI5) Claude Whelan faces pressure from the Prime
Minister, who is politically besieged by Dennis Gimball, a
Brexit-championing MP planning to rejoin the governing party and
challenge for the leadership.
The plot
accelerates when Shirley witnesses a silver Honda deliberately mount
the pavement, heading straight for Ho. She tackles him out of the
way, but Ho, engrossed in his phone, does not notice. Lamb privately
believes Shirley but refuses to notify Regent's Park, invoking
"London Rules, rule one," one of his informal survival
maxims for MI5 operatives: Cover your arse. Reporting the threat
would invite scrutiny from Diana Taverner, the Park's ambitious
Second Desk (head of Operations), who might use the opportunity to
dismantle Slough House. That night, Lamb stakes out Ho's house while
Shirley, Louisa, and River independently trail Ho to a nightclub.
There, his girlfriend Kim sends him home alone, then calls someone to
confirm he is home, adding, "Make it quick? He's harmless."
An intruder enters Ho's house in the small hours, but Lamb, waiting
inside, attacks the man. A silver car fires at Shirley outside. The
car is later found burnt out, its bullets matching weapons used at
Abbotsfield.
Two more attacks follow: A pipe bomb
detonates in a penguin enclosure called "The Watering Hole"
at a zoo near Chester, and a bomb is found and disabled on a train
into Paddington station. Taverner orders a lockdown of Slough House
and sends Emma Flyte, head of MI5's internal police (the Dogs), to
guard the slow horses. During lockdown, Coe identifies a critical
pattern: The attacks follow stages from an old British Intelligence
document designed as a template for destabilizing a developing
nation. "Destroy the village, poison the watering hole, cripple
the railway" match the attacks precisely. The document was
digitized onto the Service database, where Ho could have accessed it.
The devastating implication is that when the perpetrators reveal they
followed a British-authored blueprint, the scandal will be
catastrophic. The remaining stages are to assassinate a populist
leader and seize control of the media.
The slow horses
suspect Ho was honeytrapped into stealing the document by Kim, who
drugged Ho and convinced him he had already revealed secrets, making
him willing to steal it from the Service database. Lamb pulls a gun
on Flyte, has Shirley handcuff her, and dispatches his agents: River
and Coe to Slough, where Gimball is holding a constituency meeting,
and Louisa and Shirley to Birmingham, where Zafar Jaffrey, a Muslim
politician favored to become Mayor of the West Midlands, is speaking
at a library.
Whelan blackmails Gimball into cancelling
his speech using compromising photographs. Gimball capitulates but
later steps outside, where Tyson Bowman, Jaffrey's aide, confronts
him. River intervenes and fights Bowman. Coe, positioned on
scaffolding above, accidentally kicks a heavy tin of paint that
strikes Gimball on the head and kills him. In Birmingham, when
Gimball's death breaks on social media, a suspicious van near the
library pulls away. The narrative reveals the attackers are North
Korean agents planted in the UK years earlier as students, operating
under the SSD (North Korea's State Security Department). They decide
the assassination stage is complete without their intervention.
The
slow horses capture Kim at Ho's house. Flyte interrogates her, and
Kim reveals the attackers are North Korean operatives. She mentions
that their leader Shin spoke of "the snake eating its own tail,"
suggesting the final attack will circle back to the beginning. The
group deduces that "seize the media" means staging an
assault at a heavily covered event, likely the Abbotsfield memorial
service at Westminster Abbey. The PM orders maximum security but
insists the service proceed. Taverner privately insists the attackers
must be killed to prevent them from revealing the British origins of
their plan.
Coe concludes the real target is the
simultaneous, smaller memorial at Abbotsfield village, a soft target
with media coverage but minimal security. He and Shirley drive to
Derbyshire; she takes Marcus's Glock from Lamb's desk. Inside the
attackers' van, An, one of the operatives, shoots the most fanatical
member, Danny, dead after Danny accuses Shin of betrayal. The
remaining three attackers assault Abbotsfield for a second time.
Their van strikes and kills a police officer. Chris, the driver, is
killed by police after exiting the van. Coe picks up a fallen
officer's rifle and shoots one gunman at close range. Shin enters the
church with a semi-automatic weapon. Shirley, who has locked the
front door to prevent a stampede, draws Marcus's Glock and walks down
the aisle toward him. He whispers that he deliberately missed during
the original massacre and surrenders. Shin is later reported dead at
the hospital, though the circumstances imply he was killed in
custody.
In the aftermath, Lamb meets Molly Doran, the
keeper of Regent's Park's physical archives who uses a wheelchair.
Doran traces the history of the stolen destabilization template,
called the Watering Hole Paper. It was declassified nineteen years
earlier by then-First Desk Charles Partner as part of "Operation
Shopping List," a sting operation conceived by a young Whelan to
catch a traitor in the Service by feeding him impressive-sounding
declassified documents as bait for foreign buyers. The operation was
aborted when the traitor died by suicide, but the document had
already been circulated to foreign parties, including the SSD.
Because it was officially declassified, Ho technically did not commit
treason. Lamb uses this leverage to deal with Taverner: In exchange
for the information to force Whelan out and claim the First Desk
position, she must leave Slough House untouched, return Ho, and keep
Doran in her post. Gimball's death is ruled an accident. Whelan
arrests Jaffrey after discovering that Jaffrey's younger brother
survived a drone strike in Syria and that Jaffrey used an underworld
fixer to obtain a false passport for him.
Before leaving
Slough House, Taverner tells Catherine that Lamb murdered Charles
Partner in his bathtub and that Partner's death was not a suicide.
Catherine receives this in silence. In the closing passages, Shirley
breaks her clean streak by snorting her cocaine, River receives a
mysterious phone call that cuts off after a single word, and
Catherine continues buying bottles of wine each evening. Dusk settles
over Slough House, Lamb departs alone into the night, and the
building waits in darkness.
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.
