Category: Calendar Items Page 3 of 21

Second Quarter Check-In: 2023 Plans and Challenges

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On July 4, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

This is not as promising as I wanted it to be.

2023 Plans and Challenges
My plans this year focused on the two series that I’ve started—Literary Locals and Grandpappy’s Corner–both of which are going okay (frequently in fits and starts, but making steady progress). Then there’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own.” How am I doing on that?

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
End of 1st Quarter 4 44 54 142
End of 2nd Quarter 5 50 56 145

Not Great, Bob

Let’s see how I’m doing with the rest of my plans and move on to the Reading Challenges…
2023 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

At the end of June, I was at:
Goodreads Challenge

12 Books
I got behind in March, and I haven’t been able to get back on track. But I really want to read these, I’m not too worried about it. But it’s not looking good.
12 Books Challenge

2023 While I was Reading
While I Was Reading
I could be doing a little better on this—as usual, I’m not really planning the books for this challenge. I do have a few picked out that will fit the categories. When October hits, if I haven’t read everything on the list, I’ll get serious about hunting.

  1. A book with a protagonist over 40.: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
  2. A book considered a classic.:
  3. A graphic novel.:
  4. A book that has been banned or challenged.:
  5. A book set in a place on your bucket list.:
  6. A book published before you were born.:
  7. A book related to a goal you have for 2023.: Church History in Plain Language, Fifth Edition by Bruce Shelley, Revision Editor Marshall Shelley\
  8. A book by an author of color.: The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian
  9. A book with a clever title.: Kneading Journalism: Essays on Baking Bread and Breaking Down the News by Tony Ganzer
  10. A book by a famous author you’ve never read:
  11. A non-fiction book about a topic you love.: The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman
  12. A novella: Bad Memory by Jim Cliff

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I’m on-target for this one (as much as I can be), and have even got a couple of the Stretch Goals accomplished.
January – End to end temptation I give you permission to read the most recent book you have got on top of your TBR. For many this is one we only get to read eventually but for now I want you to pick up the newest book in Mount TBR and read it. Can you remember the last time you did that? It’s a good habit to get into and January is all about starting good habits: The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
February – Short steps For the shortest month of the year I want you to read 28 short stories. This can be a TBR collection, anthology or even backlog of magazines that you have. Life is fast but use this challenge to appreciate the skill of the short story writer. Play your skills right you may get more than one book read this way. eh…I get partial credit for this, Noirville contained every short story I had unread, but it’s only fifteen stories. I did read extra novellas for the Stretch Goal, though. So I’m calling this okay?
Stretch Goal – Read four novellas one for each week of the month. Bad Memory by Jim Cliff, Anna and the Vampire Prince by Jeanne C. Stein, and Broken by Don Winslow (which is six novellas).
March – Fresh Starts This time for the beginning of spring you need to start a series you have never read before. Release this work from Mount TBR! Justice Calling by Annie Belletstr
April – Open and Shut Case For the month named after the latin for ‘to open’ you need to read a standalone book with no sequel or links to any other book. Something new and something you can let go after reading it: The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow
May – Crowning Glory? the UK has a lot of bank holidays including a coronation this month so suitably let’s pick a book about revolution or a change of those in power. Questland by Carrie Vaughn
June – long reading days or longest nights Irrespective of your hemisphere you have time for reading either in the joys of summer or depths of winter. Your challenge here is to find the largest tale on Mount TBR and finish it. Let that monster get off your back: Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;
Beat the Backlist Reading Challengee
I’ve got 2 of the 24 categories taken care of. So, I guess I’m behind–but I do have many of the rest picked out. I just need to set some time aside to knock those out.

  • five word title (only 5 words, count ’em up!)
  • won an award (the book won an award. any award!)
  • meant to read it last year (a book you planned to get to in 2022 and didn’t) The Night Watch by Neil Lancaster
  • giving an author a second chance (an author (or specific book) you previously didn’t jive with )
  • an author writing under a pseudonym (the author(s) is not writing under their real name) Cutthroat Cupcakes by Cate Lawley
  • 2022 debut novel (an author’s first book that released in 2022)
  • standalone (the book has no prequels/sequels)
  • bought and forgot it (a book you bought (or borrowed) and forgot about it)
  • plants on the cover (any kind of plant on the cover is fair game) The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
  • first in a trilogy (the book is the first of three)
  • name in the title (the title has a character name in it)
  • set on a continent you don’t live on (the story is set on a continent (or heavily inspired by a place on a continent) you do NOT live on)
  • it’s a trope! (your favorite) (pick your favorite trope and read a book featuring it)
  • less than 170 pages (make sure it’s a short one!) – Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
  • released at least 23 years ago (that’s right, we’re taking it back to the 90’s (release dates in 1999 or before))
  • protagonist name starts with “M” (the main character has a name beginning with “M”)
  • graphic novel outside your fave genre (find a graphic novel that isn’t in one of your favorite genres)
  • recommended by a bookseller (ask your local bookseller for a recommendation! if you don’t have a local store, there are plenty with social media accounts to reach out to)
  • letter “z” in the title (the letter “z” appears somewhere in the title)
  • all about music or the arts (the story revolves around music or the arts in some way)
  • protagonist has a pet (any pet will do) A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames
  • more than 450 pages (grab a tome and get reading!)
  • your favorite genre (a book that falls in your favorite genre)
  • main cover color is your least favorite color (find a book prominently featuring your least favorite color on the cover)

Looking over this, it’s good that I take these on for fun, if I was serious about these things, I think I’d be getting a little worried. More than anything, the number of books I listed above that I don’t have linked to a particular post tells me how far behind I am on writing.
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

June 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

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On July 3, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I finished 31 titles (13 up/down from last month, 5 up/down from last June), with an equivalent of 7,780 pages or the equivalent (2,146 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.66 stars (.01 down from last month). Obviously, it’s important to note that 8 of these were children’s/picture books—once again, I realize that I need to find a new way to track those things.

I did manage to post a decent variety of things (not as much as I intended to, but, since when do I?). Overall, it was a busy and good month around here.

So, here’s what happened here in June.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Iron Gold Real Tigers Sophie and the Heidelberg Cat
4 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars
A Necromancer Called Gam Gam The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
4 Stars 4 Stars 3.5 Stars
Strong Female Character The Knight Revenant Little Aiden - A Love Book for Toddlers
3 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Little Aiden - A Feelings Book for Toddlers It's Great to Suck at Something The Ink Black Heart
4 Stars 2 Stars 3.5 Stars
Flop Dead Gorgeous If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence
4 Stars 3.5 Stars 3.5 Stars
The Worst Man Toby and the Silver Blood Witches Secrets of the Wild
2 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
Murder Your Employer The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind Killing Me
3.5 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Cutthroat Cupcakes. Posthumous Education What's in Your Howl
3.5 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
How the Dinosaurs Went Extinct How Big is Zadnodd? A Geerhardus Vos Anthology
3 Stars 4 1/2 Stars 5 Stars
The Beginning and End of All Things Sleepless City George the Bannana: Book 2
4 Stars 4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars
The Worst We Can Find
4 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God God to Us Dark Age
Pure of Heart

Ratings

5 Stars 2 2 1/2 Stars 1
4 1/2 Stars 2 2 Stars 1
4 Stars 12 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 6 1 Star 0
3 Stars 7
Average = 3.66

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 5 49 52 145
Added 1 8 11 1
Read/
Listened		 1 7 7 1
Current Total 5 50 56 145

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 20
Self-/Independent Published: 12

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 8 (26%) 19 (13%)
Fantasy 2 (6%) 14 (9%)
General Fiction/ Literature 2 (6%) 12 (8%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 8 (26%) 44 (29%)
Non-Fiction 4 (13%) 13 (9%)
Science Fiction 3 (10%) 15 (10%)
Theology/ Christian Living 2 (6%) 15 (10%)
Urban Fantasy 2 (6%) 15 (10%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 0 (0%) 4 (3%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month? Hope it was as good as mine.

June Calendar

May 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

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On June 5, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I read 18 titles (9 down from April, 6 down from last May), with an equivalent of 5,634+ pages or the equivalent (1,160 down from last month), and gave them an average of 3.67 stars (.08 up from last month). Not the best stats, but…whatever. I read some really good books and had a lot of fun.

I posted a lot of non-review-ish posts this month, which is nice, and something I need to do more of. But man…I’m so far behind on the review-ish front that I don’t even know how far I’m behind. I have some ideas to help (at least one of them semi-creative), but mostly I just need to take the time to get it done. I’m not too bothered by it, but I’d be fibbing if I said it didn’t bug me.

Basically, I was satisfied—even pleased—with the month. Here’s what happened here in May.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology Iron Gold
Real Tigers

Ratings

5 Stars 1 2 1/2 Stars 1
4 1/2 Stars 4 2 Stars 0
4 Stars 5 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 3 1 Star 1
3 Stars 3
Average = 3.67

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 3 45 54 144
Added 4 5 1 2
Read/
Listened		 2 1 3 1
Current Total 5 49 52 145

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 15
Self-/Independent Published: 3

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 0 (0%) 11 (9%)
Fantasy 3 (13%) 12 (10%)
General Fiction/ Literature 3 (13%) 10 (8%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 5 (21%) 36 (30%)
Non-Fiction 2 (8%) 9 (8%)
Science Fiction 2 (8%) 12 (10%)
Theology/ Christian Living 2 (8%) 13 (11%)
Urban Fantasy 1 (4%) 13 (11%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

May Calendar

How Has Book Blogging Changed the Way I Read? (Blogiversary ruminations)

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On May 29, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, News/Misc.

This was originally published for my 8th Blogiversary, and I liked it enough that I figured it was worth reposting today. There’s some unfortunate overlap with other posts from today, but I’m feeling self-indulgent enough to do it anyway.


I started this thing on May 29, 2013, with no real idea of what I was doing—or getting myself into. At this point, I’m still not sure what I’m doing. But, I’m apparently doing it for a while.

A few months ago, one of the blogger prompt/meme things asked “How has book blogging changed the way you read?” As per my norm, I over-thought it and didn’t get around to writing anything for that particular day/week’s prompt. But that question has lingered in the back of my mind. So here are some thoughts about it—I’d have preferred to polish this some more. But I’m pretty sure if I polished/reworked this to the extend I want, there’s no way it’d go up today. It might be ready for my 9th Blogiversary (almost certainly my 10th).

How Has Book Blogging Changed the Way I Read?

I think about what I’m going to read more

I decide to read a book largely by whim (or I picked a book in a series or by an author months/years/decades ago by whim and have to keep going), but the question of when is given thought. But it’s kind of the same thing—did I just read something in a similar genre? Do I have time due to library due dates, blog tour, publication date?

Pros: Thinking about reading is almost as good as actually reading, and I generally enjoy the thinking.
Cons: I feel a little silly when I think about how much effort I put into this. Also, I can slip into spending too much time on this to the neglect of other things—like a youtube hole. I’m not talking about hours or anything. But I can spend a ridiculous amount of time on it. Deciding what to put for the “What are You Going to Read Next” part of a WWW Wednesday post can easily take 3-5x longer than assembling the post itself.

I’m better informed about selecting what I read

I almost never go into a book blind anymore—I know something about the book, the author, or the publisher. Someone—not an algorithm—has done something to bring it to my attention.

Pros:  Forewarned is forearmed, right?
Cons: Even before the pandemic eliminated this possibility, it’s been forever since I just browsed my library’s New Release shelf (or any other shelf) just to see if something caught my eye. I’ve stumbled onto real gems that way.

I think about what I read more

The origin story of this blog focuses on this point. I used to just read constantly, one book from the next, and would barely give what I read any thought. Just put one book down and pick up the next. It bugged me, but I couldn’t do much about it. My family would only put up with so much book talk from me—my eldest was a young teen when I started this and my youngest was in early elementary school, just not the right ages to talk about most of what I read, and my wife did/does listen to me prattle on, but even her eyes glaze over at a point. So writing about every (or almost every) book I read helped me stop, think about, consider, evaluate, and spend more time in each book.

I should note that there are now four people in “Real Life” I can chat with about books—which is nice. Thanks, Paul, Nicole, Tony, and Adrianne.

Pros: I stopped feeling like I was short-changing myself and the effort the authors put into what I read. Sure, I’d think about what I read a little, but not much—at least not enough to satisfy myself. I know I’m getting a lot more out of what I read.

I read more widely

Sure, if you look at my genre breakdowns, it may not look like it. But from my point of view, I’m reading a greater variety of things than I think I would’ve. For example, I can’t imagine I’d have heard of, much less purchased from, 95% of the indie presses/authors I follow now. That goes for a lot of non-indie authors, too. This goes along with the being better informed—I’m reading other readers’ blogs/tweets and whatnot, and people I’ve never heard of are asking me to read their stuff (I’m still getting used to this idea, and that’s been happening for 7 years). Sub-genres, perspectives, settings, you name it—there’s a greater variety to my menu. (even bigger if I throw in the “I should get into that one day” list)

I re-read less

I have a hard time spending time with a book unless I can think of something to do with it for the blog. Which means fewer re-reads. No one wants to read bi-annual posts about Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout—and I probably can’t find things to say about it every few months.

Pros: I’m sure there are some.
Cons: I miss re-reading. I’d do it because I love the world, the characters, the author, whatever. And I like revisiting them. I like getting to know them better, understanding more, finding details I’d missed and/or forgotten. It used to be when I got sick, I’d grab a random Nero Wolfe book for some comfort to go along with the chicken soup, but I haven’t done that in, well at least 6 years (hmmm, that’s 2 Wolfe references on this point, I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something).

The best part

When I actually get to the reading. When I get the couple of minutes-a few hours to read, all of the above stops mattering. I don’t think about blogging, I don’t think about my reading schedule, or any of the other paraphernalia. I’m just lost in a book, I’m really no different than the seven-year-old kid on his first out-of-state road trip with his parents who didn’t realize how mind-numbingly dull riding in a car would be so didn’t bring anything to read. He ended up complaining so much that his parents stopped, bought a couple of books at a grocery store, and shut him up for the next week or so as he read the two books—Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective and Sugar Creek Gang: Screams in the Night*—multiple times, perfectly content to be lost in the worlds created by Donald J. Sobol and Paul Hutchens**, while his family was having fun in this one***.

At the end of the day, that’s what counts, right?

* More than four decades later I still have both of those books.
** Mysteries and a thriller. Pretty easy to see the effect of that on me, isn’t it?
*** Make no mistake, when we got to Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc.—I put the books down and had fun. Even I’m not that strange.

TEN(!!!!!) YEARS of The Irresponsible Reader. (or, Happy Blogiversary to me.)

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On May 29, 2023

In Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Several years ago, back when (to borrow from Douglas Adams)

spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri

I found myself reading too quickly, without any reflection, or really thinking about it. I was practically binging non-stop. I’d end up checking out the same book from the library multiple times and wouldn’t understand why it felt so familiar (that’s when I started keeping a log). I didn’t like that. Authors deserved a reader who would take a beat and think about the book, who’d really appreciate their work. Also, what was the point of reading like I was just going through them like Pringles? What was the benefit to me (other than keeping me occupied)?

So I plunged into Goodreads, resolving to post something about every book I read, as a way to force myself to ruminate at least a little on what I was consuming. I wanted to soak it all in. But I largely didn’t have any Friends or Followers there and wasn’t good about finding people to interact with, so it was easy to take breaks from it and fall into old, sloppy habits.

I’d been blogging for over a decade in a few places—some related to theology and whatnot, and I had a personal blog about everything—I thought about putting my Goodreads reviews there, but no one seemed to read/care about any blog post I had about books. So why go to the trouble?

But I’d heard about book bloggers. It’s important for me to say this—I had never read a book blog at this point. But I liked the idea. If I’m just one voice in thousands on Goodreads, who notices if I don’t say anything? But if I’m the voice on a blog (even if only 3 people see it), it’ll be noticed that I stop.

I played around with a few templates, copied over a handful of my most recent Goodreads posts, and dug in with this post. After posting pretty regularly for a month or so, I started to tell people that I’d done it. But not many—I think I was up and running for about three months before I showed my wife! I just wanted to make sure I could do it regularly.

Then I started reading book blogs and tried to up my game.

10 years and 4,455 posts, 2 template facelifts, 2 webhosts, and thousands and thousands of pages read later, here we are.

More important than the numbers—I’ve had a blast doing this. I’ve read so many great things—many, many things I’d never have even heard of without this blog. I’ve corresponded with more great authors than I can think of—and best of all, there’s you readers.

I want to thank all of you for your time, your comments, your encouragement—and occasionally, your editing (I always appreciate it, I just regret the necessity). I assure you that every view, every like, every comment, every retweet, every email is encouraging and I can’t thank you enough. Hopefully, I’m saying that often enough.

(So I don’t get accused of plagiarism, or preparing myself…I borrowed some of this from my post Book Blogger Hop: My Book Blogger Origin Story)

Towel Day ’23: Scattered Thoughts about Reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy

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On May 25, 2023

In A-B, Authors, Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, Fiction, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


I’ve been trying for a few years now to come up with a tribute to Adams. This isn’t quite what I had in mind, but it’s a start. In my mind, this is a work in progress, but I’m posting it anyway. Next year’s version will be better—or at least more complete.

Some time in 7th or 8th grade (I believe), I was at a friend’s house and his brother let us try his copy of the text-based Hitchhiker’s Guide game, and we were no good at it at all. Really, it was embarrassing. However, his brother had a copy of the first novel, and we all figured that the novel held the keys we needed for success with the game (alas, it did not help us one whit). My friends all decided that I’d be the one to read the book and come back in a few days as an expert.

I fell in love with the book almost instantly and I quickly forgot about the game. Adams’ irreverent style rocked my world—could people actually get away with saying some of these things? His skewed take on the world, his style, his humor…and a depressed robot, too! It was truly love at first read. As I recall, I started re-reading it as soon as I finished it—the only time in my life I’ve done that sort of thing.

It was one of those experiences that, looking back, I can say shaped my reading and thinking for the rest of my life (make of that what you will). Were my life the subject of a Doctor Who or Legends of Tomorrow episode, it’d be one of those immutable fixed points. I got my hands on the next three books as quickly as I could (the idea of a four-volume trilogy was one of the funniest ideas I’d encountered up to that point), and devoured them. I do know that I didn’t understand all of the humor, several of the references shot past me at the speed of light, and I couldn’t appreciate everything that was being satirized. But what I did understand I thought was brilliant. Not only did I find it funny, the series taught me about comedy—how to construct a joke, how to twist it in ways a reader wouldn’t always expect, and when not to twist but to go for the obviously funny idea. The trilogy also helped me to learn to see the absurdity in life.

I read the books (particularly the first) so many times that I can quote significant portions of them, and frequently do so without noticing that I’m doing that. I have (at this time) two literary-inspired tattoos, one of which is the planet logo* featured on the original US covers. In essence, I’m saying that Adams and the series that made him famous have had an outsized influence on my life and are probably my biggest enduring fandom. If carrying around a (massively useful) piece of cloth for a day in some small way honors his memory? Sure, I’m in.

So, Happy Towel Day You Hoopy Froods.

* I didn’t know it at the time, but Adams didn’t like that guy. Whoops.

Towel Day ’23: Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?

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On May 25, 2023

In A-B, Authors, Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, Fiction, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(updated and revised this 5/25/23)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Towel Day, for the few who don’t know, is the annual celebration of Douglas Adams’ life and work. It was first held two weeks after his death, fans were to carry a towel with them for the day to use as a talking point to encourage those who have never read HHGTTG to do so, or to just converse with someone about Adams. Adams is one of that handful of authors that I can’t imagine I’d be the same without having encountered/read/re-read/re-re-re-re-read, and so I do my best to pay a little tribute to him each year, even if it’s just carrying around a towel.

In commemoration of this date, here’s most of what I’ve written about Adams. I’ve struggled to come up with new material to share for Towel Day over the years, mostly sticking with updating and revising existing posts. But I do have a couple of new things coming today. But let’s start with the old material. A few years back, I did a re-read of all of Adams’ (completed) fiction. For reasons beyond my ken (or recollection), I didn’t get around to blogging about the Dirk Gently books, but I did do the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy:
bullet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
bullet The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
bullet Life, The Universe and Everything
bullet So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish
bullet Mostly Harmless
bullet I had a thing or two to say about the 40th Anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
bullet I took a look at the 42nd Anniversary Illustrated Edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Also, I should mention the one book Adams/Hitchhiker’s aficionado needs to read is Don’t Panic by Neil Gaiman, David K. Dickson and MJ Simpson. If you’re more in the mood for a podcast, I’d suggest The Waterstones Podcast How We Made: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—I’ve listened to several podcast episodes about this book, and generally roll my eyes at them. But this is just fantastic. Were it available, I’d listen to a Peter Jackson-length version of the episode.

I’ve only been able to get one of my sons into Adams, he’s the taller, thinner one in the picture from a few years ago.
(although I did get he and his younger siblings to use their towels to make themselves safe from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal a few years earlier:)

You really need to check out this comic from Sheldon Comics—part of the Anatomy of Authors series: The Anatomy of Douglas Adams.

Lit in a Nutshell gives this quick explanation of The Hitchiiker’s Guide:

TowelDay.org is the best collection of resources on the day. One of my favorite posts there is this pretty cool video, shot on the ISS by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Even better—here’s an appearance by Douglas Adams himself from the old Letterman show—I’m so glad someone preserved this:

Love the anecdote (Also, I want this tie.)

April 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By

On May 5, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

Okay, I’m a little late with this, but let’s look at my April. I read 27 titles (2 down from March, 4 up from last April), with an equivalent of 6,792+ pages or the equivalent (23 pages up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.59 stars (.17 down from last month). Largely, I’ve felt behind the whole month and didn’t get as much written as I’d planned on or expected to—I’ve kept up on the reading part of book blogging, but the whole blogging part has taken a hit. I’ll get back on top, I trust, but it’s bugging me a bit. Still—I can’t complain with the reading (quantity or quality).

So, here’s what happened here in April.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Vanished Backpacking Through Bedlam All Systems Red
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
The Book That No One Wanted To Read All Our Wrong Todays Hard Rain
4 1/2 Stars 5 Stars 4 Stars
On the Apostolic Preaching The Widower's Two-Step The Raven Thief
5 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
Self Help How to Examine a Wolverine Ozark Dogs
3 Stars 3 Stars 5 Stars
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation Bait Teen Titans: Robin
2 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
The Nicene Creed: An Introduction The Deal Goes Down The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
4 1/2 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
Swamp Story Sacred The Stench of Honolulu
4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars
Farmhouse God Never Changes Kneading Journalism
3.5 Stars 3 Stars Still deciding
Morning Star Chain Gang All Stars This Book Will Get You to Sleep!
5 Stars 4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology Church History in Plain Language
Non-Toxic Masculinity

Ratings

5 Stars 4 2 1/2 Stars 0
4 1/2 Stars 3 2 Stars 2
4 Stars 3 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 5 1 Star 0
3 Stars 10
Average = 3.59

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 4 44 43 145
Added 3 6 13 0
Read/
Listened		 4 5 2 1
Current Total 3 45 54 144

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 24
Self-/Independent Published: 4

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 4 (15%) 11 (11%)
Fantasy 0 (0%) 9 (9%)
General Fiction/ Literature 2 (7%) 7 (7%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 9 (33%) 31 (30%)
Non-Fiction 2 (7%) 7 (7%)
Science Fiction 5 (19%) 10 (10%)
Theology/ Christian Living 2 (7%) 11 (11%)
Urban Fantasy 3 (11%) 12 (12%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 0 (0%) 4 (4%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how was your April?

April Calendar

First Quarter Check-In: 2023 Plans and Challenges

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On April 4, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

The amount of dread I’m feeling around starting this post is…okay, I’m not sure how to end this sentence. I’m dreading this. I’m pretty sure I’m not in good shape here.

2023 Plans and Challenges
My plans this year focused on the two series that I’ve started–Literary Locals and Grandpappy’s Corner–both of which are doing okay (sure, there’s the Classic Spenser series that I meant to get back to–I still have time). Then there’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own.” How am I doing on that?

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
Current Total 4 44 54 142

Kind of So-so

Let’s see how I’m doing with the rest of my plans and move on to the Reading Challenges…
2023 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge
Goodreads Challenge

12 Books
This year’s selections are still looking good–I’m a little behind on the reading, and more behind on the writing. Still, I think I’m doing okay on this.
12 Books Challenge

2023 While I was Reading
While I Was Reading
I could be doing a little better on this—as usual, I’m not really planning the books for this challenge. When October hits, if I haven’t read everything on the list, I’ll get serious about hunting.

  1. A book with a protagonist over 40.:
  2. A book considered a classic.:
  3. A graphic novel.:
  4. A book that has been banned or challenged.:
  5. A book set in a place on your bucket list.:
  6. A book published before you were born.:
  7. A book related to a goal you have for 2023.:
  8. A book by an author of color.:
  9. A book with a clever title.:
  10. A book by a famous author you’ve never read:
  11. A non-fiction book about a topic you love.:
  12. A novella: Bad Memory by Jim Cliff

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I’m on-target for this one (as much as I can be), and have even got a couple of the Stretch Goals accomplished.
January – End to end temptation I give you permission to read the most recent book you have got on top of your TBR. For many this is one we only get to read eventually but for now I want you to pick up the newest book in Mount TBR and read it. Can you remember the last time you did that? It’s a good habit to get into and January is all about starting good habits: The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
February – Short steps For the shortest month of the year I want you to read 28 short stories. This can be a TBR collection, anthology or even backlog of magazines that you have. Life is fast but use this challenge to appreciate the skill of the short story writer. Play your skills right you may get more than one book read this way. eh…I get partial credit for this, Noirville contained every short story I had unread, but it’s only fifteen stories. I did read extra novellas for the Stretch Goal, though. So I’m calling this okay?
Stretch Goal – Read four novellas one for each week of the month. Bad Memory by Jim Cliff, Anna and the Vampire Prince by Jeanne C. Stein, and Broken by Don Winslow (which is six novellas).
March – Fresh Starts This time for the beginning of spring you need to start a series you have never read before. Release this work from Mount TBR! Justice Calling by Annie Bellet

Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;
Beat the Backlist Reading Challengee
I’ve got 2 of the 24 categories taken care of. So, I guess I’m behind–but I do have many of the rest picked out. I just need to set some time aside to knock those out.

  • five word title (only 5 words, count ’em up!)
  • won an award (the book won an award. any award!)
  • meant to read it last year (a book you planned to get to in 2022 and didn’t) The Night Watch by Neil Lancaster
  • giving an author a second chance (an author (or specific book) you previously didn’t jive with )
  • an author writing under a pseudonym (the author(s) is not writing under their real name)
  • 2022 debut novel (an author’s first book that released in 2022)
  • standalone (the book has no prequels/sequels)
  • bought and forgot it (a book you bought (or borrowed) and forgot about it)
  • plants on the cover (any kind of plant on the cover is fair game)
  • first in a trilogy (the book is the first of three)
  • name in the title (the title has a character name in it)
  • set on a continent you don’t live on (the story is set on a continent (or heavily inspired by a place on a continent) you do NOT live on)
  • it’s a trope! (your favorite) (pick your favorite trope and read a book featuring it)
  • less than 170 pages (make sure it’s a short one!) – Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
  • released at least 23 years ago (that’s right, we’re taking it back to the 90’s (release dates in 1999 or before))
  • protagonist name starts with “M” (the main character has a name beginning with “M”)
  • graphic novel outside your fave genre (find a graphic novel that isn’t in one of your favorite genres)
  • recommended by a bookseller (ask your local bookseller for a recommendation! if you don’t have a local store, there are plenty with social media accounts to reach out to)
  • letter “z” in the title (the letter “z” appears somewhere in the title)
  • all about music or the arts (the story revolves around music or the arts in some way)
  • protagonist has a pet (any pet will do)
  • more than 450 pages (grab a tome and get reading!)
  • your favorite genre (a book that falls in your favorite genre)
  • main cover color is your least favorite color (find a book prominently featuring your least favorite color on the cover)

20 Books of Summer
I’ve got about half of my list for this drafted, but I’ll save the details until later. Besides, knowing me, I’ll go through four more drafts anyway.

Basically, I’ve got my work cut out for me here.
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

March 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By

On April 3, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I read 29 titles (3 up/down from last month, 7 up from March), with 6,769+ pages or the equivalent—I don’t have page numbers on a couple of them (more than 200 pages up from last month)—and gave them an average of 3.76 stars (.04 up/down from last month). Those numbers do include 4 kids books, which helps the title count, but doesn’t do much for the page count. I need to start counting those separately as I’m just getting started with those, and the numbers should be climbing.

As I expected, attending the Nampa Library’s Indie Book Festival and then a signing the next week didn’t do my Mt. TBR any favors. I’m honestly not sure when I last had this kind of backlog of physical books to get through. I don’t regret it…yet. But those numbers are ugly.

Somehow, I keep getting further and further behind on my writing—while I never do as much as I want to, I’m getting worse at keeping up with my plans (and distracting myself to try new things). Still, I got a few great Q&As posted, a couple of other posts that I’m particularly pleased with, and read/listened to some great books! I’m putting March down as a modest win.

So, here’s what happened here in March.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

The Bandit Queens Good Dog, Bad Cop Darkness, Take My Hand
4 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers Justice Calling The Wonky Donkey
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
The Devotion of Suspect X Semicolon Mrs. Covington's
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
The Dead Will Tell Profiles in Ignorance Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons)
3 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
The Green Ember Death at Paradise Palms George the Bannana
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
Deadly Ever After Flood and Fury Fearless
3.5 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars
Golden Son Please Return to the Lands of Luxury Billy in Space
5 Stars 3.5 Stars Still deciding
Lulu and the Missing Tooth Fairy Trouble With Truffles 5 Puritan Women
Still deciding Still deciding 3.5 Stars
Red Stripes VS Miles the Mutant Mouse Adult Assembly Required You Took the Last Bus Home
3 Stars 5 Stars 4 1/2 Stars
Tower of Babel Space: 1969
Still deciding 2 1/2 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology Church History in Plain Language
Backpacking Through Bedlam Vanished

Ratings

5 Stars 4 2 1/2 Stars 1
4 1/2 Stars 2 2 Stars 0
4 Stars 8 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 7 1 Star 0
3 Stars 7
Average = 3.76

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 5 44 43 145
Added 1 5 19 0
Read/
Listened		 1 5 8 3
Current Total 4 44 54 142

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 16
Self-/Independent Published: 13

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 5 (17%) 7 (9%)
Fantasy 3 (10%) 9 (12%)
General Fiction/ Literature 1 (3%) 5 (7%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 9 (31%) 22 (29%)
Non-Fiction 3 (10%) 5 (7%)
Science Fiction 4 (14%) 5 (7%)
Theology/ Christian Living 1 (3%) 9 (12%)
Urban Fantasy 2 (7%) 9 (12%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western/etc.) 1 (3%) 4 (5%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 11th, 18th, and 25th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how was your March?

March Calendar

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