Lord Samper's Library

  Page Count: 211 Pages I’ll be honest… I’m very much a ‘dog person’ (although Cats 1 & 2 are growing on me) and that’s the reason I haven’t read ‘Red’ up until now. If you’ve read the book, or even just the blurb, you know what happens and I just wasn’t ready to go there. And then I saw a copy of ‘Red’ for sale (Greenwich Oxfam, I love that shop...), the other day, and couldn’t very well leave it there. And once I’d brought it home, I couldn’t very well not read it; not when I’m trying to be a little more disciplined about reading the books that I buy… I’ll warn you now, there’s an absolutely massive spoiler in the blurb, below, and if you’re a dog person, you might not want to read the blurb at all. I get it :o) It all started with a simple act of brutality. Three boys shot and killed an old man’s dog. No reason, just plain meanness. But the dog was the best thing in the old man’s world, and he wasn’t about to let it pass. He wanted justice, and he’d make sure the kids paid f...

  Page Count: 211 Pages Now, here is a book that I really should have read a long time before now… Nothing to do with how good the book is (it’s not bad but we’ll get onto that a little later), more that I put it in my work backpack a year ago, for a ‘commute read’, and then spent most of the last year either off sick or working from home. ‘Typical me’ really, I completely forgot it was there until a few days ago. Due to, erm… reasons, my ‘work backpack’ is now ‘just a regular backpack’ and I found ‘Luther’ nestled inside, looking slightly reproachful but ready to be read. I’m just starting out on a week of cat-sitting so thought that yesterday would be the ideal moment to finally read it… Knight of the Angelicasta. Saviour of the Lion. Grand Master of the Order. Lord of the Dark Angels. Protector of Caliban. Chaos Heretic. Destroyer of Caliban. Sorcerer of the Abyss. Arch-traitor. Dark Oracle. First of the Fallen. Can one man be all of these things? Kept alive and imprisoned f...

So, I’m back at my ex-partner’s place, looking after house and cats while her and my daughters are away. And… I don’t want to jinx it but here goes… I think I may have finally got the hang of this cat-sitting business :o) Cat Number 1 still isn’t too keen on me but knows that ‘Graeme = Being Fed’ so I’m tolerated. Cat Number 2… I’m pretty sure I saw her, from the bathroom window, trying to catch a sparrow, the little psycho. And just to clarify… If I see her with a bird, that bird will be rescued. Anyway, the cats being cats, yesterday was quite a nice one actually. While they were doing their thing, I did mine; that being just sitting there and working my way through a couple of comic books that I’ve been meaning to get to. One re-read, one ‘first time read’. Today will be more of the same :o) While I do that, have some quick thoughts on yesterday’s comic book reading… ‘The Walking Dead: Volume 3, Safety Behind Bars’ – Kirkman, Adlard, Rathburn (Image) Page Count: 136 Pages Last week...

  So, we’ve already established that I’m a sucker for a title that has a pun in it. Not only that, I’ve also got a real soft spot for any horror book with a garish cover (takes me right back to the eighties, that does). That is all it took for me to take a chance on ‘Splasher’, the other day. I keep telling you, there is absolutely nothing scientific about how I choose what to read next ;o) It’s a little bit of a relief then to know that I’m not just drawn to a shiny cover etc; the words, in between the cover art and the blurb, still determine how much I get out of a book. Unfortunately for ‘Splasher’, I ended up putting the book down after a hundred and thirty pages. These days though, I’m a lot more forgiving about ‘DNFs’. The way I see it, as the reader, I’m as much a part of the experience as the book so I’ll happily shoulder some of the responsibility for a read that didn’t quite work out. Right book, wrong reader? Something like that ;o) Have some blurb… Autumn 2006. Low-rise...

  Page Count: 29 Pages It’s all starting to get a little intense over here… It’s mostly work related. to be honest, and that’s fair enough, given that my job is coming to an end at the end of the month. There’s still a fair bit to hand over and I’m right in the middle of not wanting to leave (it’s a good company to work for) but really looking forward to the holiday that I’m planning on taking in September. I’ll have earned it ;o) Anyway… That was a roundabout way of saying that while three books read isn’t a bad return for this week, I ran out of time (and steam) to finish off a fourth. That’s ok though, that’s what the weekend is for ;o) I did have a few minutes spare though and ‘Ushers’ looked like it could be an interesting read so… Martin Lorensen is a twenty-three-year-old counselor for disturbed teenagers. He’s bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing. He’s also—and this is the most interesting thing—not dead. Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disa...

Today was meant to be a 'book review post' but as you can see, I'll be aiming to do that tomorrow instead... Yesterday was many things but unfortunately, it wasn't a day for reading, let alone writing about what I'd been reading. It was more of a day for tying up loose ends at work and then watching a lot of 'Community' with my daughters; I enjoyed one much more than the other ;o) Anyway... So, while I try and carve a little time, out of the day, to catch up on my reading, why don't we take a little look at what I'm trying to make time to read? I've got no time for taking a chance, on books that might not work out, so it's a sweet little pile of books that I have here... It's early days for 'Splasher' but I have a weakness for puns so I've got high hopes for this book. It's certainly very readable so far :o) And my daughter and I finally finished Season 11 of 'The Walking Dead' the other day. This reminded me that...

  Page Count: 368 Pages This week has been a real week for reading horror, so much so that I don’t want to break the streak now. I’m making it official; I don’t know whether it will be another novel, or some short stories, but I’ll be keeping it ‘horror related’ for the rest of the week (or until something else catches my eye, whichever comes first). Lets see how it goes… Anyway :o) I last read ‘Outpost’ (just over) fifteen years ago so when I saw a copy on the shelf, at Waterstones, not so long ago, I thought it was time for a re-read. I had vague memories of an oil rig, a world shattering virus and… that was it :o) That was all I needed though, I was in the mood for something apocalyptic and the blurb certainly promised that… They took the job to escape the world, they didn’t expect the world to end… Kasker Rampart is a derelict refinery platform moored in the Arctic Ocean. A skeleton crew of fifteen fight boredom and despair as their wait for a relief ship to take them home. But...

  Page Count: 293 Pages I told you that I was all excited about reading ‘Offspring’… :o) Excited enough that after another ‘one of those days’ at work yesterday (there’ll be a few more of those this month, I think), I stepped away from my work laptop and settled down for a read.  And…? I should have picked something different to read, last night, but not for the reasons you’re probably thinking… The former sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he had killed them off ten years ago – a primitive cave-dwelling tribe of cannibalistic savages. But somehow, the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And now, the peaceful residents of this isolated town are fighting for their lives… If it ain’t broke and all that… ;o) In ‘Off Season’, Jack Ketchum struck gold and discovered the formula for telling a gripping tale of survival horror; one that turns your stomach while really showing you just what a person will do to make it through the night. Well, time may have passed in D...

  Page Count: 308 Pages (incorporating the short story ‘Winter Child’, included with this edition) I came across this copy in Greenwich Oxfam on Saturday afternoon, no surprise, that shop is being very good to me at the moment :o) After a brief internal discussion over whether I already had a copy (bloody ‘chemo-brain’…), I chanced it and… I didn’t already have a copy after all. All’s well that ends well. Yesterday was a designated ‘reading in the comfy chair day’, and ‘Off Season’ was right there in front of me, so I thought I’d give it a go. In case you hadn’t realised, there is nothing scientific about how I choose my ‘next read’. It’s very much a case of fancying a certain genre and then seeing which book catches my eye first ;o) Anyway… September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River – off season – awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family, with a taste for flesh, lurks in the darkenin...