The Year in Books, So Far
I am just not doing well with the whole "keeping up with a journal" thing. Ever since I moved to California, it's been months and months of no drive, the occasional "hey, I'm not dead" post, a few quick catch-ups, a month of NaNoWriMo, and the cycle repeats.
So hey, I'm not dead!
I've been reading, off and on. My Amazon Prime membership lets me download video content to my Fire to watch offline, so I've been immersed in various half-hour shows (and a bit of Doctor Who, if we're being honest) over the last few months. I've watched the entire Adventures of Sarah Jane Who spin-off, the three seasons of Legend of Korra that are on Prime (Need to watch my DVDs to get the 4th, I guess), and now its predecessor, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have also watched a few Amazon originals.
I bring this up right after mentioning reading by way of explaining that I have been doing less reading than before, because on my bus ride home, I am watching these things instead of cracking open a book and reading for an hour straight. I still crack open the books, but after the watching is done.
That said, here is what I have read so far in 2016:
Book 1 of 2016:
The Never Hero, by T. Ellery Hodges -- Book One of "The Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs" starts with our protagonist being accosted in his home by an unknown assailant. As he is recovering emotionally from what he thinks is an attack, a strange event unfolds, and before he knows it, Jonathan Tibbs is in the middle of an alien invasion -- one alien at a time. It has some alternate reality elements that hurt my brain a little, but overall I really enjoyed this book and fully intend to read the second when it comes out. I don't remember if this was a Kindle Lending Library choice or a Kindle First pick.
Book 2 of 2016:
Ciritcal Failures, by Robert Bevan -- Definitely a Lending Library selection. A group of gamers have invited a new game master (Mordred) to their weekly Caverns and Creatures meeting. Unfortunately for them, he takes this game a lot more seriously than they do, and when they cross the line of blatant disrespect, they find themselves in the world of the game -- in full character. Once you get past the strings of profanity and rather disgusting bodily functions (Cooper is a half-orc with the lowest possible charisma score there is), it's an entertaining look at a game system that may look and feel very familiar to fans of a certain classic fantasy role playing game.
Book 3 of 2016:
Critical Failures II: Fail Harder, by Robert Bevan -- Tim and his friends have survived in the Caverns and Creatures world for a little while now, and it looks like there is hope to make it back to the real world! Just one thing: They are not the only ones Mordred has sent to the game world -- and some actually want to be there. Bevan found his story's footing with this one. While the first book was entertaining and humorous, this one seemed like it was actually headed somewhere and offered some direct antagonists that could prove to pose a threat to our motley crew.
Book 4 of 2016:
Horror 101: The Way Forward, by various authors (edited by Joe Mynhardt) -- This book, billed as advice for horror writers on how to further a career, was a jumbled mess of essays. Well, "jumbled mess" may be too strong, because it was actually organized quite nicely. Unfortunately, the essays themselves were vague, contradictory, self-congratulatory, or just plain discouraging. And for a writing book, that's not a good thing. This book had so little to offer me on a personal level that I am not able to tell you one specific piece of advice that was offered up -- and I just finished the blamed thing less than two weeks ago! (Granted, it took me a little over five months to read it...) Normally I would be looking for the sequel pair, Horror 201: The Silver Scream volumes 1 & 2, with essays by Wes Craven, John Carpenter, George Romero, Ramsey Campbell, and other legends of horror, but to be honest, I feel like I would just be wasting my time.
Book 5 of 2016:
Critical Failures III: A Storm of S-words, by Robert Bevan -- Can't go into too much synopsis, or it will spoil the end of book II... but Tim and crew's adventures continue, this time adding a few new players to the game. Some are... less willing than others. The quest to find Mordred reaches a fever pitch in the climax of the book, and... I guess I need to read book IV now...
In truth, at the moment I am torn between getting Critical Failures IV as my June Lending Library choice or starting House of Secrets, as recommended(ish) by Tanya. (It was two bucks -- why not?)
And that is pretty much all there is to report at the moment. Gaming happens, work happens, the occasional movie happens, but there not much of anything specific I can think of that would be of particular interest to the journal. (Full disclosure: There is not much specific I can think of at all -- my brain isn't retaining things very well these days, if it ever was.)