100 Books in 366 Days - June Recap

Bookshelf (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This month, I have more than a recap.  Yes, that’s right, I have managed to read one hundred books this year… already.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The Assessment

The best book of the month was the last book I finished this month.  Shada by Gareth Roberts is the novelization of the lost Douglas Adams serial.  Reading this book was just like watching one of the classic Doctor Who series, and Roberts actually manages to channel Adams many times throughout the book.

Also good was Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye.  This book was more than just a history of the comic book, but a history of the multimedia icon.  It pulled no punches, shedding light on the dark behind the scenes mechanization of the creating of the Man of Steel, from his inception in the early part of the twentieth century to the legal wranglings of the twenty-first.

Not faring so well were The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar and The Torchwood Archives.  The Bookman was an alternate history piece which never really seemed to come together for me.  With its mishmash of literary characters, factual authors, and reptilians, I felt the author was trying to put far too much into the book.  Almost the opposite is true of The Torchwood Archives.  In this case, there is little added to the information that fans can gleam from the British series, making the book little more than a poor episode guide.

Writing Your Way: Creating A Writing Process That Works For You by Don Fry seemed like it had some possibilities.  The only reason why I did not rate it higher is that most of the techniques offered in the book feel less for a fiction writer than for someone who writes articles or more fact based projects.

The most interesting book I read this month had to be New Stories From The Twilight Zone by Rod Serling.  This has nothing to do with the great stories that show why Serling, and Twilight Zone, was so popular.  It has to do with the book itself, printed in 1982.  This book is actually older than some of the people I work with.

The June Book List

1. Thank You Notes 2 by Jimmy Fallon
2. Screaming Science Fiction: Horrors from Out of Space by Brian Lumley
3. Writing Your Way: Creating a Writing Process That Works for You by Don Fry
4. She by H. Rider Haggard
5. F in Exams: The Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers by Richard Benson
6. Dumb History: The Stupidest Mistakes Ever Made by Joey Green
7. The Lost World (Kolchak: The Night Stalker) by C.J. Henderson
8. Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky
9. Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Animals, Family and Life by John Grogan
10. Honey Badger Dont Care: Randall’s Guide to Crazy, Nastyass Animals by Randall
11. Doctor Who: Monster Miscellany by Justin Richards
12. The Sea-Hawk by Raphael Sabatini
13. Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye
14. Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent?: And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! by Brian Cronin
15. The Bookman  by Lavie Tidhar
16. The Torchwood Archives by Gary Russell
17. New Stories From Twilight Zone by Rod Serling
18. The Zombie Handbook: An Essential Guide to Zombies And, More Importantly, How to Avoid Them by Robert Curran
19. Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts

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