Monday Book Report: Fear to Tread

Fear to Tread, by Michael Gilbert Michael Gilbert has proven to be one of the most consistent, most versatile, and most surprising writers of thrillers and suchlike dark fiction. Not that his books are dark—far from it. At their core is an almost quaint sensibility of the power of human goodness, even as recognition that …

Analysis: The 6th Hundred Books

Many months have now passed since I promised some sort of data analysis of the most recent hundred books read, and that promise itself was in a listing of those selfsame books, posted more than a month after my initial notification that I had passed the self-imposed milestone of having finished 600 books. What can …

Monday Book Report: The Real Middle Earth

I Read It So You Don’t Have To Dept. The Real Middle Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages, by Brian Bates Though this book is a muddled cornucopia of flaccid ideas masquerading as history, anthropology, mythology, psychology, and spirituality, I am not going to spend much time outlining just why this book is …

Monday Book Report: Sir Nigel

Sir Nigel, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Almost all readers know that Arthur Conan Doyle created the immortal Sherlock Holmes, the seminal precursor to all the idiosyncratic detectives which have since become a welcome (mostly) plague upon all our houses and libraries. And those readers more familiar with the creator of the duo of Holmes …