Books Acquired: Sex Criminals: Volume 1 by Matt Fraction The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham The Outward Urge by John Wyndham Consider Her Ways and Others by John Wyndham A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction by Terry Pratchett Books Read: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi The Captain and the Enemy by Graham Greene Sex Criminals: Volume 1 by Matt Fraction The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld #32) by Terry Pratchett Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov I found a bunch of John Wyndham novels at a used bookstore, what was I supposed to do? I want to eventually read everything of…

Books Acquired: None. Books Read: Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan A Brief History of the Celts by Peter Berresford Ellis A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson This was a decent reading month, full of mostly short but quality reads. Also I finally, finally, finished A Brief History of the Celts, which if you follow me on Goodreads you may have noticed had been marked as Currently Reading since last November. Every time I nearly dropped it, something interesting would pop up and keep me reading. No books purchased! How’s that for self-control?…

If you click on ‘My Books’ in Goodreads and have a look at the bottom of the left hand menu, you can see a link to your most read authors. I thought instead of listing the top 10, I’d break it down by number of books read. I excluded comics for this, as they tend to skew the numbers. 23 – Terry Pratchett 14 – Robert Lynn Asprin, Christopher Moore 9 – Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Robert Jordan 8 – Robin Hobb 6 – Chuck Palahniuk 5 – William Shakespeare, John Scalzi, George R.R. Martin, J.K. Rowling, John Wyndham 4 – Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Coupland, Stephen Fry, Margaret Weis 3…

Books Acquired: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund Books Read: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield Dracula by Bram Stoker Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin This was a quality reading month. I really enjoyed every book, and it was an interesting mix as well – Astronaut memoir, classic horror, contemporary mystery (ish), and a classic Russian novel in verse. The more I read about reading, the fewer disappointments…

The year is over, and it’s time for a quick look back. Last year had some great moments, but overall it was a bit of a rough one on a personal level, the aftermath of a horrendous previous year. As such, I’ve let myself get behind on a lot, so if I have one resolution for 2015 it’s to try a bit harder to stay on top of things and enjoy myself rather than becoming overwhelmed and procrastinating. This last year was better than the year before it, so here’s hoping that 2015 will be better still. The Weblog In my head, I think of this weblog as if it’s…

Books Acquired: Dracula by Bram Stoker (audiobook) Books Read: More Baths, Less Talking by Nick Hornby Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris Aquaman, Vol. 1: The Trench by Geoff Johns The People Look Like Flowers at Last by Charles Bukowski No physical books for Christmas! That might be a first actually. I’m not complaining, as I have a huge number of unread novels on the shelf (and currently no more shelf), but it’s just a strange feeling. My family is currently putting money towards selling the childhood home, so we decided not to buy gifts this year and just spent the day together, playing with the dogs and having a…

Books Acquired: A Brief History of the Celts by Peter Berresford Ellis Books Read: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie Lock In by John Scalzi The Stranger by Albert Camus I am so behind. I spent a few weeks away this month, partly back in my hometown visiting my mum and partly in Hawaii, and I get surprisingly little reading and writing done when I’m traveling. I say surprisingly because it seems like that’s prime reading time for most people, but that never seems to be the case with me. Most of my beach time was spent in the water, and most of my home time was spent working or…

Books Acquired: Jingo by Terry Pratchett Books Read: A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde More Fool Me by Stephen Fry Cannery Row by John Steinbeck I read more than I bought, so I consider that a good month. I also really enjoyed the books I finished, so that’s an even better month. There are quite a few unread Pratchett novels on my shelf already, but I like to read them in the order they were published for the most part, so I thought I’d pick up Jingo to unblock my Discworld progress. I then immediately…

Books Acquired: None! Books Read: The Scar by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Volume 4 by John Layman September was not a very bookish month for me – two novels and one graphic novel. I’m not breaking any records right now. Meanwhile my girlfriend is burning through those chunky Diana Gabaldon novels like she’s planning to head back in time herself soon. She should probably be the one with the book blog. I held off buying any new books for the month, which is a small victory I think. Movies watched: Welcome Aboard – Sometimes you just want to watch a…

Books Acquired: Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Volume 4 by John Layman Books Read: Slam by Nick Hornby Saga, Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley My two purchases this month were comics despite having told myself I wasn’t going to buy any more until I finished the ones I already own, as I really have to start conserving shelf space. I had to order the new Bryan Lee O’Malley book, however, almost purely out of curiosity to see what he’d come up with now that the Scott Pilgrim madness has died down. The other…