Lord Samper's Library

I have many weaknesses as far as books are concerned; probably far too many to be allowed anywhere near a bookshop just after I’ve been paid ;o) And one of those weaknesses is Fighting Fantasy books. Whether they’re the latest editions, sat in Waterstones, or an original copy of ‘Starship Traveller’ sat on a shelf in Brockley Books, those books are inevitably coming home with me. And did I say ‘Starship Traveller’ and Brockley Books? Funnily enough, I found a copy of ‘Starship Traveller’ in Brockley Books, the other day, and true to form, it came home with me ;o) Back in the day, ‘Starship Traveller’ was a Fighting Fantasy book that I only read the once (borrowed it from a friend, I believe) so it was a bit of an odd one to find. Of course I was always going to buy it but it had none of the emotional resonance that I got when I found an original copy of ‘The Forest of Doom’. So I bought it, read it and… Yes, I remembered just why I only read it the once… Sucked through the appaling nig

By the time you read this, I'll be knee deep in emails and 'catch-up' calls; that'll teach me to take a few days off... To be fair, I needed the time and, evil cat to one side, it was time well spent. Time for one last push before Christmas ;o) In the meantime... I rounded off my little break with a couple of movies that I'd planned on watching and one that I'd been meaning to show my daughters for a long time. It's pretty easy to guess which ones are which ;o) 'Airplane!' (1980) I needed a few laughs and my two daughters (just back from a week away and absolutely knackered) definitely needed a few laughs so... 'Airplane!' was the logical choice, especially as they've already seen 'The Naked Gun'. I'm not going to go into it too much here, we've all seen the movie. If you haven't then really, really, consider doing something about that very soon. Me and my kids got exactly the number of laughs that I was looking for, j

Yep, I've had four days of annual leave and it has been lovely :o) Well, apart from my ex's cat holding a bit of a grudge from the last time I looked after it. To be fair, the poor thing did end up sedated by the vet and had its front legs shaved, all for what turned out to be a big misunderstanding on my part but even so... You would have thought she'd have gotten over it by now but apparently not :o( Anyway... I've had four days off work with no-one to please but myself and you know what that means... Yep, my good intentions of 'no book buying' ended up trampled in the rush for me to buy even more new(ish) books. Dammit. At least I've been going down the second hand route, that's something I guess. Anyway, lets take a look shall we? I had to get rid of my 'Otherland' books, years ago, and always regretted it. I managed to find the first two books a while ago but somehow never got round to buying 'Mountain of Black Glass' and 'Sea of

This week has been a good week for reading and it’s not over yet :o) I’ve finished one book that I’ve wanted to finish for ages, got another excellent read on the go (not the one I was planning on but I’ll take it) with another couple lined up that look like they’re going to be good reads as well. I really need to take annual leave more often ;o) While all that is in play, I’ve also been reading some ‘Doctor Who’ short stories, just to fill in the gaps between reads. All of these can be found in the ‘Target Storybook’, blurb below… In this exciting collection you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and look forward too, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor. Each story expands in thrilling ways upon aspects of Doctor Who’s e

I was going to say that original posting will resume tomorrow but the way things are right now, probably safer not to promise anything ;o) In the meantime... I found this old review last night (originally posted Here ) and it feels like it fits in with what this blog is all about right now so, I thought I'd give it another shot here. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be the case today but when I was a child at primary school, the shelves were covered with books that I’m sure a teacher today wouldn’t let an eight or nine year old anywhere near. Maybe it was just my school, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining though; I had a lot of fun trawling my way through some great reads. This time round, I’m talking specifically about the ‘Pan’ and ‘Fontana’ horror series; books with the most lurid covers and stories to match inside. I only had myself to blame but at least three quarters of the nightmares that I had as a child came from reading these books and staring at covers festooned with rot

Well, this is awkward... My plan for today was to talk about my favourite stories from Stephen King's 'Night Shift' collection and I had a great time reading them yesterday. And then, well... I thought I'd double check the blog and it turns out that all my favourite stories from 'Night Shift' have already featured on the blog. Seriously... 'Graveyard Shift' and 'The Mangler'. 'Grey Matter' 'The Lawnmower Man'. Honestly, I don't know what's going on with me at the moment... Anyway. This wouldn't normally be a huge issue (flat full of books and all that) but I'm house/pet-sitting, at the moment, and I've got nothing with me that I've actually finished. So... Unless I magically come up with something else today (possible but unlikely...). 'Past Me' is stepping in again to help me out. A quick post to kick Halloween off then. Have some thoughts on H.P. Lovecraft's (very) short story 'Nyarlathote