Lord Samper's Library

So yesterday was rather shitty. Nothing major and certainly nothing that can be easily sorted but nevertheless, particularly soul-destroying to be caught in the middle of and have to work your way through. It happens and I'm really hoping that today will do me a favour and just be full of good stuff instead. There wasn't a lot of time for reading by the time I made it home last night but luckily for me, I have a habit of leaving books lying around and forgetting they are there. Given the size of my flat (not particularly large, if you were wondering...) this is harder to do than you'd think but I somehow manage all the same and last night, I found a copy of Robert McCammon's 'Blue World' that I totally forgot was there. This was a timely find as 'Blue World' has some great short stories and I was in the mood for something familiar. It's also a great time of year to read great horror fiction so off I went... From the battlefields of a Vietnam veter

I know October is just round the corner now and everyone is going to be reading horror and ghost stories until Halloween appears but the hell with it; sometimes it's great to be doing what everyone else is doing :o) No promises then but I'm going to try and make October, and this last little bit of September, all about reading great horror fiction (and maybe some not so great horror fiction as well but it does feel like life is just too short for that at the moment). Right now, my reading is looping round for a mad dash back into comfort reading territory (it's been one of those weeks). Comfort reading and horror don't sound like they should go together but... I think they do. If the right memories are associated with a book then I think any read can be a comfort read and that goes doubly so for horror if the tropes on display are handled well. There's nothing like watching the bad guy/school bully/whoever get set up to have something truly nauseating happen to the

So I’ve got three books on the go, in  varying stages of completion and none likely to be reviewed today. What does a Graeme do in a situation like this? What he always does, put all the books to one side and revisit an old favourite on DVD instead. This time, it’s ‘Bite’, a really icky slice of ‘body horror’… While partying on a bachelorette getaway with her friends, bride-to-be Casey is bitten by a mysterious, unseen bug. On returning home what first appears to be a nasty infection rapidly mutates into something far more sinister as Casey takes on an horrific insect-like transformation. Shedding skin, vomiting acidic bile, biting off nails and excreting slime drenched eggs all over her newly created nest, Casey must now find flesh to feed on. Back in the days when there was no coronavirus and I could go to our Wimbledon offices, I used to spend my lunchtimes in HMV, looking through the horror DVDs and on occasion, treating myself to a random purchase to watch that evening. ‘Bite’

It's been a long time since I posted about a classic Doctor Who story (a quick look at the blog confirms that the last one of these posts was back in June for 'Paradise Towers' , hardly a classic but you know what I mean...) and I've still got a few, that I haven't posted about, so figured it was about time that I got back into it. Not the best introduction to one of these posts then but it's all I have at the moment, I'll try and do better next time ;o) 'The Talons of Weng Chiang' is one of those stories that I missed when it first came out (to be fair, I wasn't quite one and a half years old by that point...) but read the novelisation quite a few years later. I never quite managed to watch the story though, even though my mate's Dad had them all on VHS, so when I saw it on DVD last week, well... couldn't say no really... I watched 'The Talons of Weng Chiang' last night and while there's a lot to recommend it, in other ways

So I had a couple of books arrive through the post yesterday, which you will see in a minute, and I took them back upstairs to my flat. As I walked through the door, I caught a glimpse of a massive pile of unread books (not counting all the unread books that I've hidden, in plain sight, on my shelves) and thought, 'You know what...? How about you actually read some of these books first before buying any more. Do you think that's a good idea...?' I had to nod shamefacedly, especially as I'd been adding even more books to my Amazon wishlist yesterday morning... And lets not even mention the small pile of books that has suddenly appeared under the bed... So... I've quit smoking, I'm (fairly) sure that I can lay off the book buying until Christmas. Maybe... Lets see how close to Christmas I can get before folding... This means no more 'TBR Pile Updates', I'll have to see if I can come up with any decent alternatives to post. In the meantime though, m

Over the last few years in particular, I've been absolutely awful at reading all the cool books that everyone is talking about, preferring instead to get all cosy with my favourite comfort reads. Better to re-read something than not read anything at all, I guess. Look, it got me through ;o) The upshot of that is that now I'm in a better state to tackle the new stuff... Well, the new stuff isn't exactly new any more and I'm playing catch-up all of a sudden. It takes the pressure off, to be honest. I can read whatever I like without the pressure to turn around a quick review, just what I'm after. Which kind of leads me round to Mark Lawrence's 'Road Brothers', an added extra to the 'Broken Empire' series. Here's a series where I've been nibbling at the edges for some time but never got into for one reason or another (nothing to do with the books funnily enough, I loved 'Prince of Thorns' but fate has somehow conspired to keep me

I'm always up for watching a zombie movie and that goes double for any that I haven't seen yet. The classics are, well... classic but there's always something a bit special about trying a new zombie movie for the first time. That's a big ol' hint by the way, feel more than free to chuck any recommendations my way, they will all be gratefully received ;o) So when @Oretinker said it would be worth checking out 'Versus', that's exactly what I did. I finished watching a little while ago (yep, it's another 'middle of the night' review...) and it was so intense that I actually can't get to sleep. And like all the best zombie movies, 'Versus' is about more than just zombies although I never thought I'd see a zombie movie go in the direction that 'Versus' did. It's a very cool direction though, don't worry... ;o) A group of ruthless gangsters, an unknown woman and an escaped convict have met, in The Forest of Resurr

In this little corner of the internet, the name 'Guy Haley' is fast becoming synonymous with 'writes bloody good Warhammer 40K books'. I suspect there are many more books, of his, that I still have to read but the ones that I have read (like this one and also this one ) point to a writer who knows the setting inside out and knows how to tell a gripping tale in it. So it was then that when I saw 'Titandeath', when I was out shopping last week, I knew that I had to pick it up and get reading. My 'Horus Heresy' reading pretty much follows the 'forget the reading order, is it in mass market paperback yet?' order and that was a key factor in my buying it, as was the fact that it's all about Titans, super massive giant war machines that can really ruin an infantryman's day. Titans are mentioned across the series but I think this is the first 'Horus Heresy' book that really focuses on them and the people who crew them (it's been ye

Because yesterday was my first day back at work, after annual leave, and I was trying to get my head round all the stuff that had happened (while I was away) as well as trying to work out what to do first. I was also trying to get my head round a book that I'd just finished and will be reviewing tomorrow (apparently, middle age means that I need more of a run up to writing reviews, for fucks sake...) With all of that going on then, I needed to put some movies on and they very much needed to be movies that wouldn't make me think at all . Movies that were literally the equivalent of watching paint dry so I could let my mind just switch off for a bit. And so, 'Bad Movie Night' was born! :o) Just to clarify, 'Bad Movie Night' is not to be confused with 'So bad, it makes me laugh.. Movie Night' which is entirely different and something that you will see a lot of round here ;o) I will fight anyone who questions the cinematic value of 'Mongolian Death Worm

While I have other books that I want to talk about (at least one of which I've actually finished...), there's something about this series that when I'm properly into it, I can't (or won't, either is good) stop reading until I'm done. That's what happened over the last week, anyway, and I'm hoping that at least some of my ramblings have shed a little light on just why you need to be reading this series, even if you don't normally read comic books (actually, especially if you don't normally read comic books, 'I Hate Fairyland' is a great example of how much fun comic books can be if you give them a chance). But anyway, all good things come to an end (well, until the next re-read) so lets settle down one more time and see what Gertrude's been up to, shall we...? Just a couple of things before we begin... As with the last review, I'm not going to go on loads about Skottie Young's amazing artwork because I'll just be repe

Now I'm back in the saddle with 'I Hate Fairyland' (and am finding it hard to get into anything else but that's another story...) it's like I've got my second wind with this series. That's volume 3 read then and I'm looking to read volume 4 by the end of the week; if only I could read everything else so quickly but anyway... It'll probably be a shorter review than normal though as I'm reaching that point where you struggle to find something new to say about a series that is comfortably in it's own groove, by now, and is cruising along nicely thanks very much for asking ;o) That's not to say that 'I Hate Fairyland' is getting dull though. Skottie Young does have a couple of little tricks up his sleeve to keep things fresh, for a few pages. Let me tell you about one of them at least (if I tell you about the other one... well, that's the ending well and truly spoilt) Before I do kick off, I'm not going to talk about the art

Today, in an event that I totally saw coming, I somehow managed to spend more on 'Build-A-Bear' clothes, for my youngest daughter's bear, than I've probably spent on clothes for myself in the last year... How did that happen? Well, I'm a total soft touch and I'm also a bit of an idiot for mentioning that payday was almost here. My youngest daughter put these two facts together and totally took advantage... ;o) It's not the worst thing in the world, she's really happy and her bear looks quite sweet to be fair, but it's going to be a long time before I let her go anywhere near a 'Build-A-Bear' store... Now, how do I link that to me buying more books and showing them off here...? Erm... To be honest, I don't think I can. It's been a long day and my gout has been playing up like a bastard (middle-aged blogger ahoy!), lets just say that the monster book hunt I went on, the other day, had a couple of final surprises for me when I went back

I 've done a lot of reading, this week, and it's been great to get into some good books. What hasn't been so great though is that I haven't been able to finish any of them... I'm not going to beat myself up about it, it happens and all it really means is that next week should hopefully be full of me talking about the great books that I've enjoyed ;o) What's a chap to do in the meantime though? Well, if you're me, there's always zombie movies old and new to watch (or re-watch) and natter about here. Simple, right?  I watched 'Redcon-1' when it was released on DVD last year (I have a suspicion that it probably went straight to DVD...) and thought that today would be a good opportunity to give it another go. It's a fun zombie movie but your mileage there will depend on just how far you are willing to suspend your disbelief (which sounds weird, given that we're talking about zombies, but let me explain...) After a zombie apocalypse spr

 I had a pretty awesome birthday yesterday, thanks very much :o) I didn't have any big plans other than to hang out with my daughters, during the bits where they weren't at school, so after I'd dropped them off in the morning I decided to go for a little walk and see where the day took me. As it happened, the day took to places where there were loads of books for me to buy :o) Sometimes, you just can't argue with destiny... Let me show what I got... So, first of all, I took a wander into Deptford as I knew the market would be on. Wednesday is one of the days where the house clearance people sell all the stuff they've cleared out, you never quite know what you're going to find so it's always worth a look if in you're in the area. It's never really been a place for books though, until yesterday when I found all of this stuff (all incredibly well looked after, it's sad to think that the original owner isn't there to look after these books now, I

 It's my birthday! Ok, I'm 45 now so should probably be a little more adult about this but... it's my birthday! :o) No book post today then. Nope, I'm going to be out and about; looking in book shops, drinking coffee and eating cake. I'm properly middle aged now though so I may try and squeeze a mid life crisis in there somewhere if there's time. Only a small one though, browsing through books, and eating loads of sugar, is a lot more fun ;o) I'll see you guys tomorrow then, have a good one...

Because sometimes, things happen just when you need them to. I did have reading plans for today but that all had to take a back seat to my real job (because apparently, you have to finish all your work before going on leave...) and my kids (a very cute pair of occupational hazards...) The good news is that I got all my work done and totally knocked it out of the park with my bedtime reading of 'Dirty Bertie' but what was I going to post...? Well, I got home to a trailer for Season 2 of 'The Mandalorian', problem solved :o) Go on, have a look... I loved Season 1 and am excited about Season 2 in a way that I haven't been since seeing 'Rogue 1'. The new 'Star Wars' films are ok but they're not for me and that's fine, they're aimed at an audience that I'm not part of anymore, it happens. 'The Mandalorian' though, that's exactly my kind of 'Star Wars' these days, a little bit lawless and off the beaten track. Also, Baby

It's funny how time can get away from you, isn't it? One minute, it's January and I've just posted my review for Volume One of 'I Hate Fairyland' . The next thing, it's September and I'm just getting round to reading Volume Two. Seriously, I feel like I blinked and nine months just happened which is just plain weird as most of that has been Lockdown and that just dragged... Anyway... What's also funny, and says a lot about my relationship with this series, is that just like in January, it's the start of a crappy week (trying to squeeze five days of work into two days before I go on leave) and my first thought was to pick up 'Fluff My Life' and get a few laughs back into the day. And it worked, of course it worked. There's nothing new here but to be honest, I was giggling too much to really care.. All hail Gertrude, the new Queen of Fairyland. After thirty years of wreaking havoc across this magical world to find her way back home, s