Lord Samper's Library

  Page Count: 128 Pages Despite all my best intentions, my reading plans pretty much collapsed, over the last few days, and there was only one thing left to do… Rip up all my plans and start again! It’s not like I don’t have plenty of other books to choose from when I hit a slump ;o) And where better a place to pick myself up and start again than another old ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelisation? Nope, me neither ;o) For far too many years, ‘The Power of Kroll’ had sat, filed under ‘Hadn’t read it since I was a very young Graeme, vague memories of not being that impressed’ but I saw a cheap copy and had to give it another go. I mean, it couldn’t have been that bad… Could it? Well… ‘Six or seven year old me’ was a far harsher critic than ‘middle-aged, just wants a little fun with his reading’ me but I can kind of see where he was coming from… The huge, octopus-like Kroll lived deep in the swamps of the humid, steamy planet. To the native swamp-warriors, Kroll was an angry, mythical god. ...

My reading has kind of stalled over the last few days; there’s a few reasons for it but honestly, nothing that you’d be interested in hearing about. I’m just going to dust myself down and take another shot at it this week instead; that’s all you can do sometimes ;o) As is often the case here; when I’m not finishing books, I tend to watch more movies instead. That’s what happened over the last week and it ended up being a bit of a mixed bag. Let me tell you all about it… ‘Society’ (1989) A Beverley Hills teen feels increasingly alienated from his wealthy family but there’s far more to it than even he realizes. I love ‘body horror’ and I’ve been meaning to watch ‘Society’ for years now, so when I saw the movie was on ‘Shudder’, watching it was inevitable ;o) Now that I’ve seen it, I have to say… erm… You watch ‘body horror’ movies for the practical effects (well, I do) and ‘Society’ does not disappoint. I got what I came for, that’s the bottom line. Plot-wise though, that’s where the fi...

It been quiet on the 'Books for the TBR Pile' front just recently but like the title says, all it took was last week's payday (and a rough week at work, mustn't forget that) to kickstart the whole thing again :o) At least for now that is, I've actually been having fun 're-discovering' books and don't want to lose that. Anyway... The blog was all quiet yesterday, mostly because I made a concerted effort to sleep as long as possible (didn't set any records but that's ok) but also because I took myself into Greenwich for a little book browsing that inevitably became book-shopping. Lets have a little look at what came home with me... Three books from the Greenwich Oxfam and one from the Waterstones over the road :o)  Regular visitors to the blog will know that I already have a copy of 'The House On The Borderland' but what I didn't have was a copy of 'The House On The Borderland' with cover art by Ian Miller. I will never pass up...

I'll be honest... At this point, I'm so far behind with the MCU that I don't think I'll ever catch up. There are just too many movies now to get my head round (do the ones with Kang in them even count any more?) and that's before we get to all the stuff on Disney+... And that's a bit of a shame really because it always looks amazing when you see it in a trailer (although that's kind of the whole point of trailers, isn't it...) And 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' looks pretty cool in the trailer (maybe more so because of the Punisher, that's just me though) so, maybe, I'll jump back in. We'll see...

  Page Count: 144 Pages NOT ALL MONSTERS HIDE IN THE DARK. Archer’s Peak is in lockdown, as Erica Slaughter has lost control of the situation and news of the killings has spread outside the town. But as the House of Slaughter arrives to clean up the situation by any means necessary, Erica will find that the true threat to those around her isn’t who - or what - she ever expected. And the cost of saving the day may be too high for anyone to pay... So I didn’t quite make a ‘short story a day’ but given the way that this week has panned out, I think I did well spnning it out as long as I did. Work has just got very ‘interesting’ (and not in a good way, dammit) but last night balanced things out a little. I didn’t get any reading done but I did get to hang out with my youngest daughter and that is always a lot of fun (she absolutely has my weird sense of humour). Anyway… I had a great time with volumes one and two of ‘Something is Killing the Children’ and didn’t wait too long before ...

  Page Count: 17 Pages My journey, through this week, continues with another short story that I managed to squeeze in, last night, between bouts of looking for my youngest daughter’s Geography school book. I finished off ‘The Lesser Horsemen’ but I’ve got no idea where her school book is; oh well.. That’s a 50% success rate, I’ll take it. Anyway. Sometimes you can go for ages, reading books that are perfectly fine (even brilliant) but aren’t quite the right book at the right time. And sometimes… Sometimes you find yourself reading a short story that turns out to be exactly the right story at exactly the right time. And that’s what happened to me when I picked up ‘Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons: Stories’, opened it up and started reading ‘The Lesser Horsemen’. Three out of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can’t stand each other, the fourth is off pursuing an inevitable solo career but God really needs the other three to buckle down and work together. It’s time for a week’s cruise...