Book Recommendations IV

Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I’m able to start right away! That makes me pretty happy.

Recommendations & Responses

This will be a longer than usual list. People have really gotten into the spirit of things and so I need to up my blogging game as well.

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin was recommended to me by Film-Authority. While he had the temerity to suggest a Barbara Cartland romance novel in an earlier Book Rec post (thus earning himself the first diseased Chartreuse Flag), this was a serious recommendation. I hate Modern Lit and A Kiss is square in the midst of that time period. So I’m going to dive into it and see what I think. Added

The House on the Borderlands by William Hope Hodgson was recommended by Snapdragon. I have heard of Hodgson but never read anything by him. I’m totally up for trying out an old newtome author! And look at that cover? Is that just plain creepy or what? Added

The Mr Men series was recommended by Dave. Going to have to pass as I never experienced these as a kid and thus have no nostalgia factor to draw me to them. Pass.

Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud was recommended by Mallika. I’ve read this Trilogy and the Prequel back in 2009-2011.

The Stand by Stephen King was recommended by Firewater. Sadly for him, I’ve read that, back in 2008.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman was Mogsy’s recommendation. Now, you have to understand, Mogsy and I have a “history”, a book history that is. We read upon parallel SFF tracks and over the years have found that our tastes are VERY similar, but our bookish interests never quite converge. In fact, it’s become a running joke that if Mogsy absolutely loves something that I think sounds interesting, I’ll end up hating it. Because that’s how it has shaken out every single time. So this gets a hard Pass!

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Now we come to the part where I begin to wonder about all of you. Seriously.

Version 1.0.0

Jilly Cooper’s Polo was recommended by Nic. Based on that cover alone gets Nic a Chartreuse Flag of Shame. Good job Nic, you earned that flag! 😉

The Most Important Part

Recommend me some more books!!!! Leave a comment with your recommendation of books you think I should respond to. I have the list of all the recommendations so far, so don’t you worry, I’ll be getting to them all eventually. And I had a lot of fun doing this 🙂

• Book Recommendations I
• Book Recommendations II
• Book Recommendations III

Book Recommendations III

Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I’m able to start right away! That makes me pretty happy.

Recommendations & Responses

MarzAat recommended The Joy Makers by James Gunn. Just to be clear, this is NOT the same James Gunn who directed some of the MCU movies. I have not read anything by this Gunn and so it was Checkaroo on this. Have added it to my “new books” folder which eventually will make it into Calibre and be categorized within my TBR list. So I’ll get to this in the next year or two.

Firewater had several recommendations, but I’m going to choose just one for this post. He recommended Legend by David Gemmell. Lo and behold, I have already read it! Gave it 3.5stars back in ’19 too. Sadly, I was only able to stomach up to the third book in the series, where the faux-philosophy became too shallow for me to continue. I think I would have loved Gemmell a lot more if I’d read his stuff about 20+ years earlier.

Joelendil recommended Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, a Scarlet Pimpernel knockoff as far as I could tell. It is going to get a “Not interested” as I’m not a big fan of reading about the French Revolution, period.

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Unfortunately, you all have let everyone down. No one was brave enough to face the shame of getting a Chartreuse Flag and everyone played it safe. In one sense that is ok but really folks, people come to see Bread and Circuses and it’s hard to do so without some outrageous suggestions by you. So I need you to step up for next time and make some suggestions that you KNOW I’m going to excoriate you for. Don’t think of yourself and your sense of shame, throw all that out the window. Think of your fellow bloggers for goodness sake!
~ wrings hands~
Won’t somebody think of the children?!?

The Most Important Part

Recommend me some more books!!!! Leave a comment with your recommendation of books you think I should respond to. I have the list of all the recommendations so far, so don’t you worry, I’ll be getting to them all eventually. And I had a lot of fun doing this 🙂

• Book Recommendations I
• Book Recommendations II

Book Recommendations II

Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I’m able to start right away! That makes me pretty happy.

Recommendations & Responses

Beaton recommended Murtagh by Christopher Paolini. Now, I have read the previous books in the Inheritance Cycle, but I’d rather cut out my eyeballs with a pickle than read another book by Paolini. But just to be clear, in case you missed that subtle context, that is a N-O-.

Snapdragon recommended Merlin: The Lost Years. She was upfront that it was Young Adult. So I gave it an extra 5 seconds of thought but decided that I just wasn’t up to facing YA at this point in my life. So no-go.

Lashaan recommended the comic book Batman/The Shadow: The Murder Geniuses. Given my penchant for reading the ultra-pulpy, ultra-awesome Shadow novels, this was a no brainer. YES!

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Now we come to the S-A-D part of these Book Recommendations posts. The part where someone has recommended something so egregious, so outlandish, so beyond the pale of good taste and common decency that I am forced to respond with the Nuclear Option. No, not banning them from my blog, but something even worse. I give them the shameful Chartreuse Flag. This flag of infamy will affect future generations and possibly destroy worlds. It’s that bad.

And Jennifer Mugrage has more than earned it. She not only earned it, she brought three shovels, one for each hand and a one for her mouth, to dig her own grave. She had the unmitigated gall to suggest I read a Miss Marple Mystery, knowing how I feel about them. For those who don’t know, Miss Marple is a small town busy body who sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong and solves crimes, without even being a real part of the story. She’s almost as bad as Poirot.

The Most Important Part

Recommend me some more books!!!! Leave a comment with your recommendation of books you think I should respond to. I have the list of all the recommendations so far, so don’t you worry, I’ll be getting to them all eventually. And I had a lot of fun doing this 🙂

• Book Recommendations I

Book Recommendations I

Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I’m able to start right away! That makes me pretty happy.

Recommendations & Responses

Alex Good recommended the 23 Volume Encyclopedia Britannica. I had read a 1988 version of either Colliers or the Americana version between 1988-1997. Yes, I was one of those kids 🙂

Fraggle recommended the Jason Trapp series by Jack Slater. That’s a big fat Checkaroo and it’s already on my kindle!

Will suggested A Green and Ancient Light by Fred Durbin. I gave it some serious thought, but after reading the reviews, all of which contained key words that I dread hearing about a book, I decided to say “That’s a negatory, Ghost Rider!”.

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Eddie, otherwise known as the Film-Authority to his enemies, immediately suggested I read all 700+ romance novels by Barbara Cartland. He knew exactly what he was doing, so he immediately got One Chartreuse Flag.

Dawie mock suggested A Haunted Vagina. We’d joked about it on on Whatsapp, but even still, it gets him One Chartreuse Flag! Even Netnanny doesn’t approve…

Maddalena suggested I try the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series. Didn’t even have to think about that to assign her One Chartreuse Flag

The Most Important Part

Recommend me some more books!!!! Leave a comment with your recommendation of books you think I should respond to. I have the list of all the recommendations so far, so don’t you worry, I’ll be getting to them all eventually. And I had a lot of fun doing this 🙂

Book Recommendations - The Intro Post

I was talking with Nic from DragonRambles.com the other month and we fell to discussing recommendations. I had asked for recs from people because of dnf’ing a series that just disappointed me. So she asked if I had a spread sheet of my data and I sent it her way. She then sent me a generous handful of recommendations and I was able to almost snap respond to all of them within 5-10minutes. She suggested that maybe I should make this a regular thing. Have people give me recommendations one month and then I make snap decisions about Yay’ing or Nay’ing them the next month while collecting more in the comments.

The only issue I have is that relies on other people. Over the years, I have found that I can only count on myself when it comes to blogging. Only I write short enough posts. Only I write just the right amount of posts each month. Only I schedule just the right amount into the future. Only I, Only I, Only I. You get the idea. I don’t blame other bloggers for not being me, but I do hold them to the edge of the sword that I hold myself to. Except when I don’t of course 😉

I’ve been thinking how I can engage you all and make you part of the process without frustrating myself or you. I like plans and the farther those plans reach, the better. So starting next month, for the Months of July, August and September, I will be doing Recommend Me Some Books/Authors posts where I simply ask for recommendations. I will save those up and once I feel I have enough to schedule them as I wish, I will begin doing some Answers to Recommendations posts. Under those I hope you will continue to recommend others.

Now, certain smartass bloggers who think they are funny will probably try to suggest such things as “Madam’s Bodice Ripping Adventures”. You may suggest that but be warned, it will get you a chartreuse flag and should you accumulate 3 chartreuse flags, I will no longer consider any of your recommendations in the future. In fact, I will take your recommendations as anti-recommendations and act accordingly.

An example of the Dreaded Chartreuse Flag

Now, if I can get enough suggestions sooner, I will begin my answering sooner. Your recommendations need not be books you have read. They can be books you are curious about and want some other sucker to try first. Maybe it’s your favorite book and you need validation by another blogger. Or maybe you just hate me and want me to suffer with your suggestion. Or you can be serious and try to tempt me with something. I will take them all. In your recommendation, please write the title, the author and if it is part of a series or standalone and why you are suggesting it. If I choose your suggestion, I will link to your blog and then answer your suggestion in a future post.

I will not actually be reading your recommendations. I will be making a gut level instinct about your suggestions and replying in an answering post. Just want to make that clear. But if a recommendation really clicks with me, I’ll be sure to add it to my TBR pile. It takes me a while to get to a book, but once it is in the tbr, I’d going to read it.

And just for the fun of it, there will be a section with a running count of those who get chartreuse flags. Your literary sins will not be hidden or forgiven. The Chartreuse Emperor is Mad after all and his wrath knows no limits of time or space.