Lord Samper's Library

As always, the plan is to keep working my way through all the unread books in my flat before buying any more. But... I end up doing things like spending the afternoon in London and diving into bookshops that I've never been in before (well, a couple that I hadn't and a couple that I definitely have...) It was kind of inevitable that I'd come home with a few books by the end of the day. I dropped my daughter off, at the train station, and once she had left, I swiftly realized that I wasn't ready to go home just yet. So... There's a bookshop called Skoob Books that I'd never been in but heard was worth a look, I decided to set out and see if I could find it. After a fair bit of walking (for me anyway), I finally found the shop and... Skoob Books looks amazing, literally a huge basement full of shelving that is all full of books; the kind of place where I could browse for hours, even on the shelves that I'm normally not that bothered about. The sci-fi/fantasy ...

  Page Count: 142 Pages When I found my copy of ‘The Twin Dilemma’, the other day, ‘The Green Death’ was sat right next to it so I thought I’d make that my next read. I love it when random chance determines what I read :o) I actually got some sleep, on Wednesday night, so was able to spend a little time with ‘The Green Death’ yesterday. I was pretty keen to get into the ‘Green Death’ as I’ve never watched the serial; I don’t think I’d read the book either, until yesterday. Let me tell you a little about it… The Green Death begins slowly. In a small Welsh mining village, a man emerges from the disused colliery covered in a green fungus. Minutes later, he is dead. UNIT, the Doctor and Jo Grant arrive on the scene to investigate, but strangely reluctant to assist their enquiries is Dr. Stevens, director of the local refinery Panorama Chemicals. Are they in time to destroy the mysterious power which threatens them all before the whole village, and possibly the world, is wiped out by a ...

Insomnia has been biting hard, these last few days, up to the point where on Tuesday night, I didn't get any sleep at all. Not quite sure what's behind it, could be a couple of thing, but reading didn't really happen yesterday (and I'm shattered today) so while I try and sort myself out, I'm 'recycling' an old review to tide things over for today ;o) I like the direction that my reading has taken me in this week (even if 'The Twin Dilemma' wasn't a great read...) so I thought I'd dig out an old 'Doctor Who' review and let it have a breath of fresh air. I posted about the 'Shada' serial, last year , so it seemed like the right time to (re)post some old thoughts on the book. If you want the whole post, click Here ; if not then keep on reading, all the important stuff is below. Normal service should resume tomorrow, fingers crossed... I absolutely had to copy and paste the blurb this time. The usual time constraints apply once mo...

  Page Count: 138 Pages This is turning into a bit of a ‘Doctor Who Old-School Target Novelizations Week’; I’m not quite sure how that happened but here we are so lets see where we end up… ;o) A large part of my book buying problems is that I am easily distracted these days. I’ll buy a book with every intention of reading it, only to spot another read, that suits my mood better, and the next thing I know, it can be anything up to years later and the original book has been left unread the whole time. It’s not the worst problem to have, I just need to stop buying books for a bit and try to catch up ;o) Anyway… I’ve been following Adam Whitehead’s coverage of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ serials and my eye was caught by his comments on Season 21, particularly ‘The Twin Dilemma’. Sure enough, there was a copy of the novelization, lurking in a box under my bed (and unread since I picked it up a few years ago ) I had to give it a read… The Doctor has regenerated, having sacrificed his fifth...

Insomnia paid me a visit on Sunday night so I wasn’t good for much yesterday, hopefully today will be a little more productive as far as my reading goes. Lets see… Yesterday wasn’t a total write-off though. I watched some half decent movies (more about those another time, I’m pretty sure you guys don’t want another ‘Movie Post’ right now…) and read a few of the comics that I picked up over the weekend. One good, one ‘not so good’, another that was OK and also prompted me to finally sort out an eye test :o) Let me tell you about them… ‘Conan the Barbarian #25’ – Zub, Horley (Titan Comics, Heroic Signatures) As King of Aquilonia, Conan welcomes a mysterious stranger to his court. This hooded wanderer has come to bestow a gift on Conan but it cannot be given, only earned. History itself waits with bated breath as Conan must face his greatest challenges all over again. This is #25 but could just as easily be #1, if you’re picking up the series for the first time, and I love how Jim Zub man...

  Page Count: 125 Pages The Doctor and Jo Grant land on a cargo ship crossing the Indian Ocean in the year 1926, or so they think… Far away on the planet Inter Minor, a travelling showman is setting up his live peepshow, watched by an eager audience of spaceport officials… On board the ship, a giant hand suddenly appears, grabs the TARDIS and withdraws. Without warning, a prehistoric monster rises from the sea to attack… What is happening? Where are they? Only the Doctor realizes, with horror, that they might be trapped… ‘The Carnival of Monsters’ was a Target novelization that I was given way back in the day, probably as a birthday or Christmas present, and it stayed on my shelves for years (along with all my other Doctor Who books) until I hit a spot of financial bother and had to sell it. I needed the money but really came to regret selling a favourite book of mine, especially when I tried to buy a replacement (damn…) Well, I was headed home the other day and stopped in Marchpan...