Books for the TBR Pile... 'Big Birthday' Edition

It doesn't take a lot for me to buy a book (if the day has a 'y' in it for example...) but when I'm enjoying a milestone birthday (it feels like one, after the way most of my forties went), it's only right that I take a step up from buying a book... to full on book shopping. So that's exactly what I did :o) 

I didn't have a lot of time, in town, yesterday so book shops were chosen on the likelihood of yielding results rather than 'ooh, I've never been there before...' There was nothing to be had in Hatchards but it's such a lovely looking book shop that I didn't mind too much :o) The Piccadilly Waterstones and Forbidden Planet were a different story though. Let me show you what I came back with...


This feels more like a Halloween TBR but there's time in September yet...

'The Babysitter Lives' feels like it's giving the game away far too early (at least let me open the book first...) but on the other hand, Stephen Graham Jones is an author that I will always make time for.

I've read a couple of Poe's short stories, but not many, and I also had it in mind to treat myself to a nice hardback of something; 'Tales of Mystery and Terror'; was the answer to both of those questions. I'm looking forward to finally reading a little more Poe.

And I've been missing a little 'eldritch' in my reading, recently, so 'The Necronomicon' was another easy purchase. It looks like there are some interesting stories inside.


'Wild Blue Yonder' was purchased with half an eye on the commute to the office and funnily enough, I've to go into the office on Thursday. Make of that what you will ;o)

I'll be honest, my 'Siege of Terra' reading has gone really slowly but I've also learned to grab these books, when I see them, otherwise the prices get extortionate. I still need to read Parts 1 & 2 of 'The End and the Death' but when I do, I'll have volume 3 all ready to go ;o)

'Luther' looks like it may finally spill some secrets about the Dark Angels so another easy purchase as well as short enough to read quickly. Like I said, I'm in the office on Thursday.
I think that Stephen King's short stories are superb (better than his novels in some cases) so I've been waiting on 'You Like It Darker'. I'm quietly confident that I've found another good read here :o)

And 'The Great When'... I know nothing about this book, not one little thing, so picked it up. The blurb says 'alternate London, with magic' though and that's all I needed to hear.


And last but by no means least... You know me by now so you must know that I have a bit of a weakness for Sword & Sorcery as well as cover art that screams 'Guardians of the Galaxy', and possibly 'The Usual Suspects' too. 'Swords and Larceny' has me covered on both counts ;o) 

And that's it for this week. Anything here catch your eye? Leave a comment and let me know.

Comments

  1. Bookstooge17 September 2025 at 08:34

    yeah, I don't blame you for grabbing that SoT while you can. I was looking on amazon recently for what I consider a "recent" book (under 5 years old) by BL and the only paperback option was over 100. That was ridiculous. I follow another blogger who has been collecting various hardcover WH40K books and he has stories like you wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) about how they are really collectors items first and books second.

    When it comes to wh40k, do you have any particular faction you like to read about? or do you just kind of grab whatever and hope it works for you?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Graeme17 September 2025 at 23:04

    It's crazy and Black Library/Games Workshop really don't care. So long as the books/models sell, they don't mind if it all goes to scalpers who resell and mark the price up. It's a shame but I stick with the paperbacks and that has worked so far ;o)

    As far as factions go, I'm partial to Imperial Guard and Inquisitors and some Space Marine stuff (depends on the Chapter though, Traitor Marine stories actually work better than the Loyalist books from where I'm sat). Warhammer Crime and Horror collections are also worth a look if you find any. Generally though, I'll give anything a go if it looks interesting.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth’ (1992)

Image
Every time Halloween comes round, I promise myself that I’ll watch more horror films and read more horror fiction; we’re halfway through the month and you can see how that’s going so far… There’s still plenty of October left though so lets see how I do from now until the end of the month ;o) First up is ‘Hellraiser 3’ which I watched last night, mostly because I love it (you can tell how this post is going to go, sorry…) but also because it was cheap on Prime and I’m still just on the wrong side of payday. Here goes… TV reporter Joey Summerskill’s life is changed forever when she witnesses the horrific death of a teenager, torn apart by bloody chains. Joey’s search for a story leads her to the Lament Configuration Box but it has already been opened, waking an old evil from its slumber… Now Pinhead walks the earth once more, creating a new army of Cenobites from the transmuted flesh of his victims; his one desire to reclaim the Box. Even with help from an unexpected source, Joey Summers...
Read more

'Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone’ – Zub, Scharf, Canola (Titan Comics, Heroic Signatures)

Image
It’s starting to look like this could be the week where I make a half decent dent in my ‘Comics TBR Pile’, lets see how we do... I’ve really been struggling with the ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ collection just recently (more than one reason but I want to finish the collection first before I talk about it) and I thought that I’d have to take a little step back from ‘Conan’ comics and come back when I was in a better mood for it. Until I realized that there was another ‘Conan’ comic lurking in the TBR pile and maybe I could give that a go instead. So that’s what I did. I’ve caught little glimpses of the ‘Black Stone’ storyline, in other ‘Conan’ comics, but I can’t help but feel that the event has kind of passed me by a little. That’s on me though to be fair, I’ve got the attention span of a goldfish right now and there are so many books that I just haven’t been able to focus on; I suspect a couple of them talk about a Black Stone… Oh well, I’m here now. Where better a place to catch up on ‘B...
Read more

‘The Pan Book of Horror Stories’ – Herbert Van Thal (Pan Macmillan)

Image
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...
Read more