As I told you not too very long ago, I’ve just finished another set of 100 books (not counting the comic books and graphic novels (of which latter there was only one, sort of, and it was one of the very rare books so bad that I gave it a single star in my rating system—only the third time I’ve given my ultimate thumbs down to a book), which is my usual methodology of counting books towards each set of 100 … though I do track them as well, and will list them herebelow), and I’ve already told you about the first book in these hundred books, An Experiment In Criticism, so I’m not going to go into that again, and will only mention that this lit crit work of C. S. Lewis is Book #1501.
Also as usual, I’m going to highlight some of my favorite reads in each set of ten … when possible. (Sometimes I can no more resist dishing on a bad book than I can resist the urge to make parenthetical statements.) Unfortunately, there really wasn’t a lot to write home about in this first set of ten books. My favorites were the Book of Genesis and the Tales From The Crypt, but I’d gone on about the Pocket Canons in the last Book Listing, and I also harped about a different 32-page reprint of classic 50’s comics. But Algis Budrys’s Rogue Moon is of some interest, even if I don’t think it’s anything like a must-read. I found it surprisingly compelling, though in a bizarre, manly men who face death sort of way. Budrys buries the lede, or rather, never gives any clue about it. The book (originally published in 1960) is sort of like a Lem concept if written for a mid-20th Century men’s magazine.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1501 | 6/31/25 | C. S. Lewis | An Experiment In Criticism | Literary Criticism |
| 1502 | 6/31/25 | Matthew Zapruder | Why Poetry | Literary Criticism |
| 6/2/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #31 | Comics | |
| 6/2/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #32 | Comics | |
| 1503 | 6/3/25 | Steven Rose, intro. | The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) | Christian & Bibles |
| 1504 | 6/4/25 | Algis Budrys | Rogue Moon | SF & Fantasy |
| 1505 | 6/5/25 | Han Fei Tzu; Burton Watson, trans. | Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings | Religion & Spirituality |
| 6/6/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Tales From The Crypt #12 | Comics | |
| 1506 | 6/7/25 | John Buchan | The Three Hostages | Mystery |
| 1507 | 6/10/25 | Dennis King | Art Of Modern Rock – Mini #2: Poster Girls | Art |
| 1508 | 6/11/25 | Ra Page & Magda Raczyńska, eds. | Lemistry: A Celebration of the Work of Stanislaw Lem | SF & Fantasy |
| 1509 | 6/13/25 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | Pirates Of Venus | SF & Fantasy |
| 1510 | 6/14/25 | Michael Kurland | Ten Little Wizards | SF & Fantasy |
This one hooked me good and proper, and though I had my suspicions early on, I soon became gobsmacked by the progressive unfolding of the plot, and ended up reading Inverted World in a single, spellbound day. My only criticism is that I wished the ending had been longer. I was reminded of both Hal Clement and John Brunner, a duo that I rarely if ever contemplate together. I really don’t want to say too much about the story itself, as the surprises that Christopher Priest builds for his readers are best uncovered as the author intended them to be, but I will say this one word: The cover of the New English Library paperback I read turned out to be much more literal an interpretation of the novel than I ever would have imagined.
The other great winner of this next set of ten books was the first book in the famous series by René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo, Astérix le Gaulois. Reading this got me some practice with my French (which is terrible), and also reminded me just how much fun these kooky Gauls are fighting the Roman Empire. (Well, technically, this would have still been the Republic we’re speaking of here, just as future historians will have to draw their own indelible (as we tend to think) lines in the sands of time.) And this book still holds up, by Toutatis! Indeed, my biggest challenge lay in re-apprehending the ‘real’ names of the characters, so used to the translated names in English have I become. (Similarly, Professor Snape becomes “Severus Rogue” in French translations of the Harry Potter books.)
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1511 | 6/15/25 | Michael Bonner, ed. | Uncut Magazine June 2024 | Music |
| 1512 | 6/17/25 | Agatha Christie; Michel Le Houbie, trans. | Cinq petits cochons [Five Little Pigs] | Foreign Language |
| 1513 | 6/18/25 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | The Eternal Savage | SF & Fantasy |
| 1514 | 6/18/25 | Christopher Priest | Inverted World | SF & Fantasy |
| 1515 | 6/19/25 | John Brunner | Give Warning To The World | SF & Fantasy |
| 6/20/25 | Garrett Romines & Christopher Miko | The Unofficial Holy Bible for Minecrafters: A Children’s Guide to the Old and New Testament | Comics | |
| 1516 | 6/20/25 | Christianna Brand | Heads You Lose | Mystery |
| 1517 | 6/21/25 | ‘A Lounger at the Clubs’ | The Gentleman’s Art of Dressing, with Economy | Essays |
| 1518 | 6/22/25 | Charlotte Armstrong | Incident At A Corner / The Unsuspected [Ace Double G-501] | Mystery |
| 6/23/25 | Reynald Secher & René Le Honzec | Histoire de Bretagne, Tome 1 : Les origines (French Edition) | Comics | |
| 6/23/25 | Goscinny & Uderzo | Astérix le Gaulois | Comics | |
| 1519 | 6/23/25 | Graham Marsh & Tony Nourmand | X-Rated: Adult Movie Posters Of The 60s And 70s, Volume One | Erotica & Pornography |
| 1520 | 6/24/25 | Charlotte Armstrong | The Better To Eat You / Mischief [Ace Double G-521] | Mystery |
An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman is a truly excellent mystery by a real Oxford don, with hints of Iain Pear’s Fingerpost or a really good Eco or Borges (well, maybe not Borges). Once again my suspicions were as nothing to the actuality behind the strange events in the navel-gazing college. The only flaw in Masterman’s tale is the techne of the denouement, but I suppose it was inevitable that he’d have to go that way. But the whole book is a delight, and beats No Country For Old Men all to hell for books about men getting old. (You can see in the picture that my copy was once used as a coaster, but I must aver that this happened before I got this copy, and that I would never do such a thing.)
Ingri and Edgar d’Aulaire were a couple of very gifted children’s book artists, and D’Aulaires’ Book Of Greek Myths is among their masterworks. This large book is a truly remarkable retelling of these old tales, made suitable for young children by removing all references to fucking. (Daedalus makes Pasiphaë a female wooden cow, “so she could hide in it and enjoy the beauty of the bull at close range.” Indeed!) We still get to hear about Tantalus chopping up his own son and feeding him to the gods, however, as well as many other family murders. The diagrams detailing the various family trees of gods and heroes only crown the gorgeous art accompanying the text. Maybe the best Greek mythology before the kids are ready for Edith Hamilton.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1521 | 6/25/25 | Laurens Van Der Post | Flamingo Feather | Thriller |
| 1522 | 6/26/25 | Elmore Leonard | 52 Pickup | Mystery |
| 1523 | 6/27/25 | L. Frank Baum | John Dough And The Cherub | Children’s |
| 1524 | 6/27/25 | Darkness at Pemberley | T. H. White | Mystery |
| 1525 | 6/27/25 | Michael Bonner, ed. | Uncut Magazine July 2024 | Music |
| 1526 | 6/28/25 | J. C. Masterman | An Oxford Tragedy | Mystery |
| 1527 | 6/28/25 | Anthony Wynne | Murder of a Lady: A Scottish Mystery | Mystery |
| 1528 | 6/29/25 | L. Frank Baum | Ozma of Oz | Children’s |
| 6/29/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Tales From The Crypt #8 | Comics | |
| 6/30/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Tales From The Crypt #7 | Comics | |
| 1529 | 6/30/25 | Ingri d’Aulaire & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire | D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths | Children’s |
| 6/30/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Tales From The Crypt #6 | Comics | |
| 1530 | 6/30/25 | William Burroughs & Allen Ginsberg | The Yage Letters | Drugs |
Most—rather, let’s say: Many people are aware of the preternaturally gifted liar Baron Munchausen, most likely from the Terry Gilliam movie (and not that awful Nazi film), though the Czech version by Karel Zeman is likely the best ever put on celluloid. But the original tales by R. E. Raspe which spawned all sorts of imitators and sequels are well worth reading as well. In this great Dover book, Singular Travels, Campaigns, And Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, John Carswell brings together all the early tales in the Munchausen series in this wonderfully complete edition. There are later tales but who cares? In this set of stories, only the last section—the ‘Sequel’—is of lesser quality. The original tales—which make up only 26 pages in this edition—are both uniquely humorous and more benign and plausible than one expects with all the accretions to the Munchausen name. The introduction, also by Carswell, is delightfully informative: Who knew that there really was a Baron Munchausen? Or that he told such tales as these until the book came out and turned him from a rollicking talespinner into a bitter taciturn man? The biography of Herr Raspe is also illustrative, as well. Well, it illustrates something. Sort of like O. Henry but without the redemption arc.
Now it’s likely true that The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective is a flawed work, and some of these short stories are mere trifles, as if Encyclopedia Brown were a Victorian lady detective. But Catherine Louisa Pirkis crafted a very fine set of tales, and her protagonist—the titular Loveday Brooke—has a real personality. The manner in which she sees clearly what others ignore reminded me often of another favorite detective of mine, Isidro Parodi. So, yes, the stories have their flaws, and the unravelling of the final tale took from me much of the goodwill the first half had engendered, but one can’t help wondering where Ms. Pirkis might have taken her character if she’d gone on to write more and more, working out the issues just as Doyle and others were having to do. (Please don’t get me started on that strange Mormon interlude in A Study In Scarlet.)
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1531 | 6/30/25 | Tim Burton | The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories: And Other Stories | Fiction |
| 1532 | 7/1/25 | Dick King-Smith | Sophie’s Snail | Children’s |
| 1533 | 7/1/25 | E. Phillips Oppenheim | The Great Impersonation | History |
| 1534 | 7/2/25 | Dick King-Smith | Harry’s Mad | Children’s |
| 1535 | 7/3/25 | R. E. Raspe; John Carswell, intro. | Singular Travels, Campaigns, And Adventures of Baron Munchausen | Fiction |
| 1536 | 7/3/25 | Dick King-Smith | Pigs Might Fly | Children’s |
| 1537 | 7/3/25 | Norman Dodge | The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop May 1933, Vol. IV No. 9 | Books |
| 1538 | 7/5/25 | Travis Tea | Atlanta Nights | Fiction |
| 1539 | 7/5/25 | Catherine Louisa Pirkis | The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective | Mystery |
| 1540 | 7/6/25 | Michael Bonner, ed. | Uncut Magazine August 2024 | Music |
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie. I had read his A Rose For Winter and found that book well written enough, but had no urge to read it a second time. Also, I’m not one who likes to read much autobiography, nor biography for that matter. Thus I was languorously startled to find myself so enjoying Mr. Lee’s evocative and poetic tale of growing up as the youngest boy in a large family of women in a poor land in once-upon-a-time England as The Great War and the future it engendered changed the face of that country and the world forever. The narrative is surprisingly pleasant reading, and evokes a blessed healthymindedness that was a palliative for much of the news of today. I was—and still am—very grateful to the author for his humane vision, particularly when he limned his mother in such accurate yet loving tones.
Hmm … I see I’m going to have to use the word ‘humane’ again, but so be it. Rudyard Kipling’s first collection of short stories, Plain Tales From The Hills, proved to be wonderfully crafted tales filled with surprising humane insights. There, I said it. Kipling himself turned out to be a very different writer than I was led to expect, given his fights with Tennyson and the whole “jingo imperialist” accusation of George Orwell. But (especially in the first half of the book), very few of these stories are merely good; most are much better than that. He displays veritable insights into human character at the same time that he recognizes the ineluctable social milieu of the British in occupied India.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1541 | 7/8/25 | Julian Hawthorne, ed. | Modern French Stories | Mysteries |
| 1542 | 7/9/25 | Norman Dodge | The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop June 1933, Vol. IV No. 10 | Books |
| 1543 | 7/10/25 | Norman Dodge | The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop November 1933, Vol. V No. 3 | Books |
| 1544 | 7/11/25 | Claudio Naranjo & Robert E. Ornstein | On the Psychology of Meditation | Psychology |
| 1545 | 7/12/25 | Laurent De Brunhoff | Babar’s French Lessons : Les Lecons de Francais de Babar | Children’s |
| 1546 | 7/13/25 | Laurie Lee | Cider With Rosie | Biography |
| 7/14/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Tales From The Crypt #6 [Gladstone] | Comics | |
| 1547 | 7/14/25 | Michael Bonner, ed. | Uncut Magazine September 2024 | Music |
| 1548 | 7/15/25 | Lloyd Alexander | The Wizard in the Tree | Children’s |
| 1549 | 7/16/25 | Alan Burt Akers | Talons of Scorpio (Dray Prescot #30) | SF & Fantasy |
| 7/17/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Shock SuspenStories #13 | Comics | |
| 1550 | 7/19/25 | Rudyard Kipling | Plain Tales From The Hills | Fiction |
During this last hundred books, specifically the last half century, I started re-reading Philip K. Dick, in desperate hopes that I would still love my favorite Science Fiction author, and … I do. I grabbed The Zap Gun because, well, it was there in my hand, and it was great. Not perfect, but then again, there are perhaps only three or maybe four perfect PKD novels. But this one is brilliant and muddled, but the muddled parts are used to further the complicated and likely compromised plot. For me the best parts were the self-reflective musings of the ‘cog’ Mr. Lars on the futility of his existence. ‘Cog’, of course, is short for ‘cognoscenti’, one of several terms Dick uses to demarcate the line between those ‘in the know’ and the rest of us poor schlubs who haven’t a clue about what’s really going on. (Another fave term is Geheimnisträger, as opposed to we mere Befehlsträger—which latter word he translates as “carriers out of orders”.) In any event, like much (even most) of his work, The Zap Gun now seems very prescient, though whatever happened to all those ‘cogs’ is a mystery we shall ponder in the dark future. We sure could use ’em now.
“How naïve people were when they were our parents!” Jim Devito once said. True or not, how would a man like Art Buchwald exist today? My re-reading of And Then I Told The President, some of his collected columns from 1964 & 1965, necessitated not a few retreats to the Interwebs to learn, for example, just who the various Republican presidential candidates had been, among other facts lost in the uncaring dust bunnies of discarded time. But the columnist knows his stuff, knows how to limn the fine line between biting humor and just mean carping. This book is political nostalgia of the best sort, though of course Buchwald was always working for The Man.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1551 | 7/19/25 | Lao Tzu; R. B. Blakney, trans. | The Way Of Life, Lao Tzu – Tao Te Ching: A New Interpretation | Religion & Spirituality |
| 7/20/25 | Russ Cochran, ed. | Shock SuspenStories #1 | Comics | |
| 7/20/25 | Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., ed. | Seduction of the Innocent #6 | Comics | |
| 7/20/25 | Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., ed. | Seduction of the Innocent #5 | Comics | |
| 1552 | 7/21/25 | Philip K. Dick | The Zap Gun | SF & Fantasy |
| 1553 | 7/22/25 | John Weber, ed. | And Then I Told The President | Humor |
| 1554 | 7/23/25 | Ursula Curtiss | The Forbidden Garden / Hours To Kill [Ace Double G-523] | Mystery |
| 1555 | 7/25/25 | A. A. Milne | The Red House Mystery | Mystery |
| 1556 | 7/26/25 | Ursula Curtiss | Voice Out of Darkness | Mystery |
| 1557 | 7/26/25 | Philip K. Dick | We Can Build You | SF & Fantasy |
| 7/27/25 | Kamala Chandrakant | Sudama: The Story of a Divine Friendship | Comics | |
| 7/27/25 | Anant Pai, ed. | Sultana Razia: The Only Queen Who Ruled From The Throne of Delhi | Comics | |
| 1558 | 7/28/25 | Freeman Wills Crofts | The Sea Mystery | Mystery |
| 7/29/25 | Mayah Balse | Surya: Retold from the Markandeya Purana | Comics | |
| 1559 | 7/29/25 | Lois B. Wilson | Lois Remembers: Memoirs of the Co-Founder of Al-Anon and Wife of the Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous | AA |
| 1560 | 7/29/25 | W. E. Scarelli | The Brother | Fiction |
Likely when The Cosmic Puppets was first published in 1957, it might have been read as wistful nostalgia for a lost innocent America. Nowadays, of course, it reads in exactly the same way. Sure we may not recognize many elements of the old, ‘good’ small town beneath the surface in this strange novel, or may be busy erasing them ourselves, but Philip K. Dick somehow engenders a wistful yet vicious battle of good and evil in a backwoods little village of no consequence. Yes, the basic myth story is a tetch silly, and of course PKD has to either throw away women or idolize women like a stupid man, but this novel actually works very well on its own terms, and is a believable fantasy, with few of his more habitual tropes.
Carlo M. Cipolla stakes out an interesting thesis, more interesting in its negative formulation, positing in Guns, Sails and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion 1400–1700 that the political groupings—let’s call them nations—of Europe were defeated on every front by all other countries they encountered into the 14th Century, losing to the Moors in Spain and the Holy Land, and only surviving the Huns and the Golden Horde from lack of interest in what the Europeans had to offer. Cipolla posits that advances in the West in the technology of cannon and sailing possible made the Western world conquest during his time period. This is an excellent history, and an investigator into early armaments could hardly do better than to start here and dive into the sources Cipolla cites. His information about changing sailing technology is not so profound, but still he makes a strong case for his thesis.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1561 | 7/29/25 | Philip K. Dick | The Cosmic Puppets | SF & Fantasy |
| 7/29/25 | Anant Pai, ed. | The Syamantaka Gem | Comics | |
| 7/30/25 | Lopamudra | Tales of Arjuna | Comics | |
| 1562 | 7/30/25 | Norman L. Dodge | The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop June 1948, Vol. XIX No. 9 | Books |
| 1563 | 7/30/25 | John Kenneth Galbraith | The McLandress Dimension | Humor |
| 1564 | 7/31/25 | Philip K. Dick | A Handful of Darkness | SF & Fantasy |
| 7/31/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #33 | Comics | |
| 7/31/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #34 | Comics | |
| 1565 | 7/31/25 | George Gamow | Mr Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life | Science |
| 1566 | 7/31/25 | Phyllis Diller | Phyllis Diller’s Marriage Manual | Humor |
| 1567 | 8/1/25 | Philip K. Dick | The World Jones Made | SF & Fantasy |
| 1568 | 8/2/25 | Carlo M. Cipolla | Guns, Sails and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion 1400–1700 | History |
| 1569 | 8/3/25 | Michael Bonner, ed. | Uncut Magazine October 2024 | Music |
| 1570 | 8/4/25 | Philip K. Dick | World of Chance | SF & Fantasy |
After reading and comparing the two versions (US & UK) of Solar Lottery (released as World Of Chance in the UK), I continued my PKD re-reads with this copy of The Unteleported Man. This is a famously incomplete novel, expanded from an earlier publication as a novella (32k words) in Fantastic, but—allegedly—a whole heap of the expanded material was lost, and then later found, and there’s a later release of this with more material (there’s two versions even of that, if you’re keeping score (I am; I don’t have the new new release with even more)). But, to my mind, the brevity of the work … ahem … works in favor of the flaws, as the typically Dickian elements (the dunning balloons, the truncated words (and women’s fashions) of the future) are highlighted while we’re not given too much time to see if any of this makes any sense. The flaws, and PKD’s usual (at this time) focus on Germans (the original story was written only a couple of years after the High Castle), make some of the underlying philosophy a bit … strained, but the hyper-patriotic-inspiring finish still made me cry in spite of myself.
And in continuing to attempt to fool myself into telling myself that I’ll ever learn a language, I read the classic (and rightfully so!) Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. And—whee!—I am able to read this most basic and deceptively simple tale by a French flyer who had a lot of time to think deep thoughts while flying and managed to get some of them on paper. Another book which made me cry, this is the best writing about what cannot be written that I know of.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1571 | 8/5/25 | Philip K. Dick | Solar Lottery [Ace G-718] | SF & Fantasy |
| 1572 | 8/6/25 | Philip K. Dick | The Unteleported Man | SF & Fantasy |
| 1573 | 8/8/25 | K. W. Jeter | Noir | SF & Fantasy |
| 1574 | 8/9/25 | Marie-Louise Sjoestedt; Myles Dillon, trans. | Gods and Heroes of the Celts | Mythology |
| 1575 | 8/9/25 | Charles Bukowski, Philip Lamantia, Harold Norse | Penguin Modern Poets 13: Bukowski Lamantia Norse | Poetry |
| 1576 | 8/9/25 | Philip K. Dick | In Milton Lumky Territory | Fiction |
| 1577 | 8/10/25 | E. E. Milligan, ed. | Beginning Readings in French | Foreign Language |
| 1578 | 8/12/25 | Lawrence Block | Deadly Honeymoon | Thriller |
| 1579 | 8/13/25 | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Le Petit Prince | Foreign Language |
| 1580 | 8/14/25 | Philip K. Dick | Puttering About in a Small Land | Fiction |
Okay, I should admit up front that the problematic aspects of Charles G. Finney’s work are not solely confined to Tony Randall’s dubious turn in The Circus Of Dr. Lao. Much as I’d love to blame the prissy half of the Odd Couple—I mean, look what Randall did to M. Poirot!—the modern age with its higher-than-thou evolution has made much of Finney’s thoughts crass and racist and all that. But when I read The Magician Out Of Manchuria, my only thought was … Wow! Just wow! Despite its obvious polemic bent—the Great Leap Forward is specifically called out as bad, bad, bad—this is a wonderful fantasy about the loss of magic (or I’d call it poetry) in a materialistic world. Likely not for everyone, but it was perfect to me! [CW: Sexism, racism, anti-communism, and surely much more]
At this point you’re likely getting tired of hearing about Philip K. Dick. (More likely you’re not reading these words at all by this point. Statistically, you don’t even know they exist.) But here I am, and here we are. By this time I decided to re-read all the PKD novels in publication order, or thereabouts (no need for foolish consistency). Which brought me back to Eye In The Sky. Which reminded me of just what Dick is so expert at that no-one else seems ever to do as well: getting inside the head (or seeming to) of multiple characters. Though this book also highlights that this ability, his specialty, seems best when applied to deeply flawed psyches. A wonderfully realized conceit, for all the obvious rough edges and compromises with the 1950s.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1581 | 8/15/25 | Philip K. Dick / E.C. Tubb | The Man Who Japed / The Space-Born [Ace Double D-193] | SF & Fantasy |
| 1582 | 8/16/25 | Charles G. Finney | The Magician Out of Manchuria | SF & Fantasy |
| 1583 | 8/17/25 | Norman Dodge | The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop March 1934, Vol. V No. 7 | Books |
| 1584 | 8/19/25 | Arsidious The Great Writer & Zarqnon The Embarrassed | The Epic Saga of Razzle, Dazzle and Gustov. Vol 2: an Experiment in Error | Fiction |
| 1585 | 8/20/25 | Nachman Ben-Yehuda | Deviance and Moral Boundaries: Witchcraft, the Occult, Science Fiction, Deviant Sciences and Scientists | Sociology |
| 1586 | 8/20/25 | Norman Dodge | The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop January 1934, Vol. V No. 5 | Books |
| 1587 | 8/20/25 | Arthur Braverman | Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-Hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shōsan | Religion & Spirituality |
| 1588 | 8/23/25 | Philip K. Dick | Eye In The Sky [Ace H-39] | SF & Fantasy |
| 1589 | 8/24/25 | Michael Bonner, ed. | Uncut Magazine November 2024 | Music |
| 1590 | 8/25/25 | J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter et le prisonnier d’Azkaban | Foreign Language |
Speaking of books that aren’t for everyone, Dr. Adder. This sick sick sick cyberpunk novel published in 1984 by K. W. Jeter turns out to not have been cyberpunk at all (I guess I didn’t read the ancillary material too closely the first time), but was rather a student effort written in 1972. And it is great! Just as good as I remembered, one of the Top 3 Post-Apocalyptic LA novels. During this re-read I was more aware of the flaws, the juvenile high school focus, but … write what you know, I think they always say. But this is awesome stuff, even if the perversion is offputting (as it should be). I won’t bother with a Content Warning, as it would be too lengthy, and also because if you alert to those at all, you should not read this book. (Nor Kathy Acker. Nor Brian Evenson.) 9/10
I had very few expectations when I opened The Cacahuatl Eater: Ruminations of an Unabashed Chocolate Addict, but I found this to be simply one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Erudite and entertaining in equal measure, somehow the author Jonathan Ott also delivers an inspirational tome (inspired me to imbibe more chocolate, at least). A work by a monomaniac who both knows well his subject and can also write with humor to match his insight is always a delight, and this is such a book.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1591 | 8/26/25 | K. W. Jeter | Dr. Adder | SF & Fantasy |
| 1592 | 8/26/25 | P. B. Yuill | Hazell Plays Solomon | Mystery |
| 1593 | 8/28/25 | Philip K. Dick | Time Out of Joint | SF & Fantasy |
| 8/28/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #35 | Comics | |
| 1594 | 8/28/25 | Evelyne Amon | C’est la vie!, A French Reader | Foreign Language |
| 8/28/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #36 | Comics | |
| 1595 | 8/28/25 | Wilkie Collins | A Rogue’s Life: From His Birth to His Marriage | Fiction |
| 1596 | 8/29/25 | Malaclypse the Elder | Principia Discordia, or How I Found the Goddess and What I Did To Her When I Found Her | Humor |
| 1597 | 8/30/25 | Eugene Ionesco | Story Number 2 | Children’s |
| 1598 | 8/30/25 | A. Merritt | The Face In The Abyss | SF & Fantasy |
| 1599 | 8/31/25 | Jonathan Ott | The Cacahuatl Eater: Ruminations of an Unabashed Chocolate Addict | Drugs |
| 8/31/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #37 | Comics | |
| 8/31/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #38 | Comics | |
| 8/31/25 | Mike Baron | Badger #39 | Comics | |
| 1600 | 9/3/25 | John Milton | Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Edition) | Poetry |
And voilà, the book list for the last 100 books is finished, and only two weeks after I read Book #1600! As I may have said at the top of the page, I’ve slowed my pace considerably, and so am only up to Book #1605. So may be a while before the next lengthy list like this one. Until then: Good reading!
The lists of previously read books may be found by following the links: