Year 7 of our challenge. My favorites this year were probably Stiletto and A Dance With Dragons.
Here' the list:
- Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt (Recommended if you: 1. Like Patton Oswalt, 2. Like movies. 3. Like obsessing about stuff.).
- Dredd: The Illustrated Movie Script and Visuals by Alex Garland and Jock (Really nice book if you’re a fan of the film, great artwork).
- Armada by Ernest Cline (Not a great as Ready Player One, but that’s not really fair. I enjoyed it. If you liked RP1, you’d most likely dig this.)
- Death Without Company by Craig Johnson (Planning to read through the entire series. Second book was good).
- The Quick and the Dead, Borden Chantry, Silveri Canyon by Louis L'Amour (Continuing my streak of liking every L’Amour book)
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (Been wanting to read one of her books for a while, this was a great start)
- A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson (Different from the movie, loved it)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (Been meaning to read this one for years. Sad at times but it kept the pages turning.)
- Kindness Goes Unpunished: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Since this one took place in Philly, not usual Montana, I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as the others, but I still did)
- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Volume 1 by Greg Pak, Bart Sears, Mirko Colak, Cory Smith (Liked it)
- Tank Girl 2 by Alan Martin, Jamie Hewlett (Always fun, great art)
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard By J.K. Rowling (You can read this in a sitting. It was okay. Don’t spend money on it. Get it from the library like I did)
- A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (Definitely my least favorite of the series so far, but I think a lot of people had the same complaint I did. Half the characters being absent in this book and then opposite in the next book. Still, even with that, it’s better than a lot of books out the there.)
- Gateway by Frederik Poh (I had never heard of this book before and learned about it on Jeopardy. I enjoyed it. Jumped back and forth in time, which I usually like.)
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (My first Vonnegut, very good. Already added two more to my list to read)
- Planet of the Apes: Lord of the Apes By George Alec Effinger (Only for die-hard Apes fans)
- A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin (Much better than the previous one, now if Martin would just write the next one)
- Graphic Ink: The DC Comics Art of Darwyn Cooke (I was torn reading this one. Loved the art and stories of course, but felt sad knowing there’s never going to be new stuff from the guy).
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High by Cameron Crowe (Book is out of print and super expensive. Found a free PDF of it. Great read. All the stuff form the movie and more).
- Big John Buscema: Comics & Drawings by Florentino Flórez (Awesome book. Buscemi was a huge influence on me as a kid, highly recommend it.)
- Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture: A Career Retrospective by Jack Davis (Another high recommendation if your an illustration fan)
- Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley (Great follow up to one of my favorite books, The Rook. Read this series if you’d a love mix of X-Men, Hellboy, MI5, X-Files, Buffy and Harry Potter)
- Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon Death Machine by Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston (Kind of a die-hard fan read, an adaptation of a two-part episode)
- Dexter is Dead by Jeff Lindsay (Disappointing, much like the previous book in the series. Liked reading the characters again but just not up to par.)
- Gunslinger by Stephen King (This was a re-read for me. I read it twenty something years ago and didn’t remember much about it. I do remember not liking it as much as his other books. It was okay this time around. I wouldn’t rave about it.)
- Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (Another re-read for me which I also didn’t remember much about. An improvement from The Gunslinger.)
- The Wastelands by Stephen King (Getting into the Dark Towers that I haven’t read. I enjoyed it about the same as these second one)
- Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean (Great book about the end of the Shuttle era. Part travel log, part NASA history lesson).
- The Warlord: The Savage Empire by Mike Grell (A reread of these issues for me but I’ve never owned this TPB)
- Silver Surfer Volume 1: New Dawn and Vol. 2: Worlds Apart by Dan Slott and Mike Allred. (Loved Allred’s art on this. The stories were great too.)
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Hollow City and Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (Great series. Spoiler alert: Was disappointed that Miss Peregrine was relegated to the background for most of it though)
- Tales from the Haunted Mansion: Volume I by Amicus Arcane (We got this from the library for our kid but he decided not to read it. Being the Haunted Mansion fan that I am, I read it. Fun, but aimed more at kids. Some nice Haunted Mansion references sprinkled throughout, not a Haunted Mansion story per se)
- Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Cool and original, I wished Volume 2 was out)
- The Walking Dead Book 9 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (I had stopped reading the series after Negan’s big moment. It had gotten too bleak for me at the time. Decided to pick it back up)
- Ghost Story by Peter Straub (A little confusing at first, but then all the characters and pieces of the plot fall in place).
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (The movie of this book was always a favorite of mine when I worked in a video store in college. Finally got around to reading the book.)
- Hell House by Richard Matheson (Inspired by The Haunting of Hill House, but the evil is cranked way up)
- Johnny Halloween:Tales of the Dark Season by Norman Partridge - Cool collection of short stories, perfect October reading.
- Halloween by Curtis Richards, John Carpenter, Debra Hill (Pretty much sticks to the script except at the beginning. Worth reading if you’re a big fan of the film.)
- Lost Boys by Craig Shaw Gardner (A movie I watch at least once every year around Halloween. Finally read the novelization. It was great because it had all the deleted scenes in place and expanded on some elements)
- Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday by Scott Lobdell, Jim Lee and other (Nice trip down late 90s memory lane)
- Conan the Buccaneer by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter (First of these Conan books I’ve that was a full novel instead of short stories. loved it.)
- Conan the Warrior By Robert E. Howard (Another good one.)
- Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson (Series is staying consistently good).
- The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (You have to let some stuff go but I liked it. I was worried that the resolution would be overly kooky but it wasn’t too bad)
- Comic Book Fever: A Celebration of Comics: 1976-1986 by George Khoury (Must-have book for any fans of Bronze Age comics and culture)
- Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (Enjoyable start to the series, a longer read but worth it.)
