Third Novel Complete: PULP FIN-DE-SIÈCLE

Yesterday I finished work on my third novel, PULP FIN-DE-SIÈCLE. For those keeping track of such things, it’s literally been almost nine years since I finished the first draft of my second novel HARLEM SMOKE (on Jan. 20, 2016); of course, in that span of time, I did do a few other books. This new one began life as a short story/novella that I wrote back in 2019 (back then, it was called THE POISONED CITY). Over the last five years, I kept adding bits and pieces to it on a periodic basis, and it kept expanding and getting longer and longer, eventually more than doubling its original size. Finally, last year I decided to just start thinking of it as a short novel. At over 40,000 words, it’s slightly shorter than, say, something like THE GREAT GATSBY. But I think every author should have at least one short novel in their bibliography: Camus had THE STRANGER, Orwell had ANIMAL FARM, Steinbeck had THE PEARL and OF MICE AND MEN, Conrad had HEART OF DARKNESS, and so on. But I should stress that I view it not as a novella, but as either a short novel or just a plain novel period!

The project can be (tongue-in-cheek) described as MONSIEUR DE PHOCAS meets THE CANTERBURY TALES, and is kind of a tribute to all of the 19th-century French Decadent authors I’ve been reading and enjoying over the last 20 years or so (in particular, Jean Lorrain, J.-K. Huysmans, and Leon Bloy). It’s set over a period of 24 hours on an April day in Paris in 1893, and is divided into seven 10-15 page sections, each of which revolve around a stock character from the books and stories of that era: a Priest, a Symbolist Artist, a Dandy, an Actress, a Prostitute, a Diabolist/Occultist, and a Decadent Novelist . . . but all of the characters drift in and out of each other’s sections/stories, hence why I somewhat jokingly gave the book the current title it has. Of course, even though it’s something of a mosaic novel, the true main character of the book is Paris itself, with its churches and cafés, its opera houses and artist studios, and so on and so forth.

2024 Reading List Monthly Update: December (Finale)

Books read in December of 2024:

"LAbyrinth" (Randall Sullivan) 12-2-24

"The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Anonymous/N.K. Sanders translation) 12-3-24

"Plastic Soul" (James Nulick) 12-12-24

"DOOM: Scarydarkfast" (Dan Pinchbeck) 12-15-24

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 12-22-24

"The Beggar Student" (Osamu Dazai) 12-22-24 

"H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu" (Adapted/Illustrated by Gou Tanabe) 12-29-24

-

2024 Reading List Total:

-

1. "The Explosion of a Chandelier" (Damian Murphy) 1-7-24

2. "Empire of the Sun" (J.G. Ballard) 1-11-24

3. "The Consolation of Philosophy" (Boethius) 1-14-24

4. "CAW: Colossal Abandoned World" (James Champagne) 1-17-24

5. "The Green Fly and Other Stories" (Robert Scheffer) 1-19-24

6. "Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again" (Shigeru Kayama) 1-22-24

7. "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" (Cho Nam-joo) 1-27-24

8. "The Planetary Omnibus" (Warren Ellis) 1-28-24

9. "A Song in the Night" (Daniel Mills) 1-31-24 

10. "The Princess of Darkness" (Rachilde) 2-13-24

11. "i'm still growing" (Josiah Morgan) 2-15-24

12. "Winona" (Robert Rich) 2-16-24

13. "Alexandria: The City That Changed The World" (Islam Issa) 2-21-24

14. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" (Mindy Kaling) 2-27-24

15. "Self-Portraits" (Osamu Dazai) 2-27-24

16. "The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories" (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki) 3-10-24

17. "The Secret History with Related Texts" (Prokopios) 3-13-24

18. "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" (Marie Kondo) 3-14-24

19. "Crampton" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 3-16-24 +

20. "Stitches" (Hirokatsu Kihara + Junji Ito) 3-26-24

21. "Artists and Their Cats" (Alison Nastasi) 3-28-24

22. "Great Cities of the Ancient World" (L. Sprague de Camp) 4-3-24

23. "Terminal Boredom" (Izumi Suzuki) 4-12-24

24. "Dragon Palace" (Hiromi Kawakami) 4-16-24

25. "Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious Death" (Anthony Everitt) 4-21-24

26. "The Antichrist: A New Biography" (Philip C. Almond) 5-24-24

27. "The Old Capital" (Yasunari Kawabata) 5-16-24

28. "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" (Bettany Hughes) 5-20-24

29. "The Cat Inside" (William S. Burroughs) 5-22-24 +

30. "A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes" (Anthony Bale) 5-29-24

31. "Diary of a Void" (Emi Yagi) 5-29-24

32. "The Book of Marvels and Travels" (Sir John Mandeville/Anthony Bale translation) 6-4-24

33. "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are" (Michael Pye) 6-9-24

34. "The Three Cornered World" (Natsume Soseki) 6-15-24

35. "A Kingdom of Frozen Tears" (Tom Champagne) 6-21-24

36. "Michigan Basement" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 6-22-24

37. "The Stronghold" (Dino Buzzati) 6-24-24 

38. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (Gawain-Poet/Keith Harrison translation) 7-1-24

39. "The Death of King Arthur" (Sir Thomas Malory/a retelling by Peter Ackroyd) 7-2-24

40. "Flunker" (Dennis Cooper) 7-4-24

41. "The Rule of St. Benedict" (St. Benedict of Nursia) 7-5-24

42. "Beowulf" (Unknown/John McNamara translation) 7-9-24

43. "Alley" (Junji Ito) 7-15-24

44. "Out of the Silent Planet" (C.S. Lewis) 

45. "Soviet Asia" (Roberto Conte + Stefano Perego) 7-17-24

46. "The Adventure Zone Vol. 6: The Suffering Game" (The McElroys + Carey Pietsch) 7-19-24

47. "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" (Soji Shimada) 7-27-24

48. "The Singularity" (Dino Buzzati) 7-31-24

49. "Goodnight Tokyo" (Atsuhiro Yoshida) 8-3-24

50. "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" (Vincent Bugliosi + Curt Gentry) 8-5-24

51. "Spook" (Klabund) 8-7-24

52. "Dark Entries: Bauhaus and Beyond" (Ian Shirley) 8-9-24

53. "The Sun Also Rises" (Ernest Hemingway) 8-15-24

54. "Depeche Mode: A Biography" (Steve Malins) 8-20-24

55. "The Sirens of Titan" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-25-24

56. "We" (Yevgeny Zamyatin) 8-26-24

57. "Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography" (Mark Paytress) 9-3-24

58. "Vita Nouva" (Dante Alighieri/Mark Musa translation) 9-5-24

59. "Shakespeare and the Medieval World" (Helen Cooper) 9-10-24

60. "The Medieval Castle: Design - Construction - Daily Life" (Charles Phillips) 9-19-24

61. "The Art of War" (Sun Tzu) 9-23-24

62. "Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era" (Saul Austerlitz) 9-26-24

63. "Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave" (Aaron Lange) 9-28-24

64. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 9-29-24

65. "Nightlands Issue 2 - Summer 2024" (Various) 10-2-24

66. "Charnel Glamour" (Mark Samuels) 10-4-24

67. "Uncanny: The Origins of Fear" (Junji Ito) 10-6-24

68. "The Universe As Performance Art" (Colby Smith) 10-10-24

69. "Come Tomorrow and Other Tales of Bangalore Terror" (Jayaprakash Satyamurthy) 10-13-24

70. "The Dark Chamber" (Leonard Cline) 10-14-24

71. "The Worlds of George R.R. Martin" (Tom Huddleston) 10-19-24

72. "Tales of the Grotesque" (L.A. Lewis) 10-23-24

73. "The Medieval Warrior" (Martin Dougherty) 10-28-24

74. "The Jordan Rules" (Sam Smith) 10-29-24

75. "Four Great Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest" (William Shakespeare) 11-8-24

76. "There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale" (Sean Astin + Joe Layden) 11-15-24

77. "The Greek Alexander Romance" (Unknown) 11-19-29

78. "Spiritus Ex Machina: Dark Tales of Creation" (LC von Hessen) 11-20-24

79. "Princess Diana: A Little Golden Book Biography" (Sonali Fry/Illustrated by Hollie Hibbert) 11-20-24

80. "Cats In Art: From Prehistoric to Neo-Pop Masterpieces" (Alix Paré) 11-23-24

81. "Set My Heart on Fire" (Izumi Suzuki) 11-25-24

82. "LAbyrinth" (Randall Sullivan) 12-2-24

83. "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Anonymous/N.K. Sanders translation) 12-3-24

84. "Plastic Soul" (James Nulick) 12-12-24

85. "DOOM: Scarydarkfast" (Dan Pinchbeck) 12-15-24

86. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 12-22-24

87. "The Beggar Student" (Osamu Dazai) 12-22-24 

88. "H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu" (Adapted/Illustrated by Gou Tanabe) 12-29-24

*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages" (Sara J. Charles)  

2024 Music Capsule Reviews

Capsule reviews of albums released in 2024 that I also purchased/listened to this year (in order of release, and not including film soundtracks):

Kim Gordon: The Collective

Her last one (NO HOME RECORD) was a pleasant surprise but this felt like more of the same, perhaps because she used the same production team/backing band. Someone needs to tell her witch house isn't edgy anymore

Consumer Electronics: Surge

It's no ESTUARY ENGLISH but the atmospheric title track at least was a standout moment. Nice album cover

Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard And Soft

Having now listened to three of her albums, I've concluded that Eilish might be best known as a "singles artist." Once again, the singles here ("Lunch," "Birds of a Feather") are the best moments and the rest are mostly in one ear and out the other

Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism

See my comment re: Eilish above. I will say that she had one of last year's best singles ("Houdini," though "Illusion" for this year was pretty good as well)

Ministry: HopiumfortheMasses

Hideous cover art aside, as far as late-era Ministry albums go this one wasn't totally horrible, though it's telling that the best track is the cover of Fad Gadget's "Ricky's Hand"

Lindsey Stirling: Duality

I like her Christmas songs but found this mostly forgettable

Camila Cabello: C, XOXO

Great album cover, too bad the actual "songs" are almost uniformly awful . . . I blame Drake. Mercifully it's very short, but I guess this is what passes for "weirdo" music in this horrible Netflix world we live in

Middle Kids: Faith Crisis Pt. 1

Nothing jumped out at me

Madi Diaz: Weird Faith

I really liked one of her songs ("To Be Alone") that they used to play at work, but after now listening to two of her albums, I'm starting to think maybe she's one of those artists where I really only like one track they've done

Paris Hilton: Infinite Icon

I was a bit meh on this one at first but on subsequent listens it's grown on me. As far as pure pop albums go, you could do a lot worse

Lady Gaga: Harlequin

All the songs that she sung on the JOKER sequel, just done professionally (rather than in the Harley Quinn character). Much better than the similar albums she did with Tony Bennett, but what we REALLY want is LG7 already

The Cure: Songs of a Lost World

To me, almost all Cure albums post-DISINTEGRATION sound the same, and this new one didn't change my mind much. I've really only heard it once so far, but nothing on it jumped out at me at first listen

Favorite singles of 2024 (in order of release):

"Birds of a Feather" (Billie Eilish)

"Good Luck, Babe!" (Chappell Roan)

"Die With a Smile" (Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars)

"Disease" (Lady Gaga)

Bathroom Reads #18 (Finale): DOOM Books + Honorable Mention: WORD FREAKS

 

The majority of my friends are more than aware that I'm a big fan of the DOOM games, with the first one in particular being a giant obsession. Like a lot of teenage boys in the early 90s, I read up about it with rapt interest in all of the gaming magazines of the day, and when I got my first PC in 1998, one of the very first games I got was the ULTIMATE DOOM for Windows 95 edition. Great monsters, great level design, great MIDI music, just a classic game . . . I still rank it in my Top Ten Favorite Games of All-Time list even to today, and one of my annual traditions is replaying all four episodes of the first game in December (for whatever reason, in my mind I always associate DOOM with the holiday season, perhaps because I purchased it in that time frame back in 1998, and remember first playing it around Christmas time). Obviously, a game as influential and popular as DOOM has spawned a fair number of books, some of which I'll look at here today. 

MASTERS OF DOOM, by David Kushner, is a very interesting and captivating book that was first published in 2003 (I think I myself got it around 2007 or thereabouts). It covers not only the making of DOOM, but also the story of id Software itself, and does such a good job depicting what that company was like in the 90s that John Romero himself put off publishing his own memoir for the longest time, because he thought Kushner had done such a thorough job at it (his memoir, DOOM GUY, finally came out last year, and I highly recommend that book as well). 

Another book related to DOOM that I greatly enjoy is Dan Pinchbeck’s Scarydarkfast. Although put out by an academic publisher (the University of Michigan Press), and thus more scholarly in tone than Kushner's book, Pinchbeck’s book is extremely readable, and doesn't get super-bogged down in tedious/impenetrable academic-speak. I like how he adroitly sums the game up here: “In academic terms, DOOM is based around the core activity of lining up objects with the center of the screen and removing them by pressing the shoot button. You start in a complex environment, and you simplify it by removing agents and pressing all the buttons there are to press and collecting all the objects there are to collect . . . the game is all about simplifying the environment, with extreme prejudice.” In a number of brief chapters he traces the development of the First Person Shooter genre, looks at the games id Software created that paved the way for DOOM, briefly gives a history lesson of how id came to be, before launching into some slightly technical chapters analyzing the game’s development process, the DOOM engine (id Tech 1), the game’s code and integers, the game’s soundtrack, and how it was received by the press and public. Later chapters talk about the DOOM modding and multiplayer scenes, along with its ports and sequels (a lot of attention is especially devoted to DOOM 3), but to me, the meat of the book are the three long chapters in the middle, a “Shot-by-Shot” walkthrough/analysis of the game’s three episodes (though sadly, the underrated Episode Four only gets a brief mention).  A lot of the things and little details about the game that impressed me (like the "Crucifixion Room" in the "House of Pain" mission) were things that Pinchbeck was impressed with as well. 

For the record, my Top Three Missions from ULTIMATE DOOM are "Deimos Lab" (E2M4), "House of Pain" (E3M4), and "Gateway to Limbo" (E3M7). I'm also a big fan of "Against Thee Wickedly" (E4M6). 

HONORABLE MENTION ENTRY: WORD FREAK by Stefan Fatsis 

This is a book that, unlike the others I've covered in this series, I don't take into the bathroom with me on an annual basis . . . more like a biennial one, you could say. Despite my love for words, I'm a lousy SCRABBLE player and am not especially a fan of the game, but Fatsis' book is a fun read, and his depictions of some of the eccentric personalities found among the competitive SCRABBLE players is often very amusing to behold. 

* * * * 

Well, I guess this is the final entry for this era of my Bathroom Reads series. Obviously, should I add other books to my bathroom rotation roster in the future, there will be additional entries to cover those. Having finally read many of the books covered in this series "for real/officially" in 2024, I think in 2025 I might give some of those old books a break and maybe add some new blood to the roster. 

Bathroom Reads #17: LAbyrinth by Randall Sullivan

Despite the fact I was the first person in my household to purchase a rap CD (Fear of a Black Planet by Public Enemy, which I still rank in my Top 100 Favorite Albums), I've never been much of a rap/hip hop guy. Which is not to say that I'm one of those people who instantly dismiss the genre with a kneejerk "all rap sucks!" response (my diplomatic answer is usually along the lines of, 'I'm not going to say this is bad, just that I'm obviously not its target audience," which, incidentally, is also my usual response to most country music). I guess the way I feel about rap/hip hop is the same way that I feel about most "classic rock," which is to say, it's been around for so long now that it's pretty much a dinosaur genre (though inexplicably there are still people out there who prefer to remain thinking that it's still fresh/hip/cutting edge or whatever). Of course, like with most musical genres, I can still find certain acts or albums associated with the term to be enjoyable: aside from Public Enemy and some of the other groups linked to the "golden age of hip hop," there are a few modern acts I like as well, such as Danny Brown and Nicki Minaj. And when I was writing my novel Harlem Smoke I spent a lot of time listening to/researching many different horrorcore acts (like Insane Poetry), and I came to like certain aspects of that subgenre. 

The subject of today's post, LAbyrinth by Randall Sullivan (2002), is obviously linked to rap and hip hop music, what with its focus on Death Row Records, and the (still unsolved) murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. (which I vaguely recall hearing about during my high school days, but most of which went over my head because I wasn't really into rap culture at that time). I only have one song by Tupac on my computer ("I Just Don't Give A Fuck," which I got from the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack box set), and one by Biggie ("Hypnotize"), but I still found this book interesting nonetheless. If memory serves I got it shortly after I began working at Barnes & Noble in 2004, which coincidentally was also the year that the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released, so obviously the subject matter was of some interest to me at that time in my life. Sullivan does a good job of summarizing rap and hip hop culture, not only how it originated but also how it developed into "gangsta rap" in the late 1980s, and the same can be said to his history of the various L.A. street gangs. Aside from focusing on the murder of the two rappers and the possible links to Death Row Records, the book is also a devastating critique of the Los Angeles Police Department, which in the 90s was plagued with scandals, torn apart by racial conflicts, and incredibly corrupt. The main star of the book is the homicide detective Russell Poole, who comes off as a dedicated investigator obsessed with following the truth/clues no matter where they led . . . but when he discovers that certain Black LAPD cops are also working for Death Row Records, and becoming more criminal than the crooks they catch, he finds his investigation stymied both by his superiors (who are terrified of racial scandals) and by the liberal Los Angeles media (the line of text from the book which best sums up the story is this quote from Jan Golab: "You can't tell a story in which the good guy is a white detective and the villains are all black. That isn't allowed, even if it's true.") 

I guess this book inspired a film called CITY OF LIES, which I have not seen yet, but plan to next year. 

2024 Reading List Monthly Update: November

Books read in November of 2024:

"Four Great Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest" (William Shakespeare) 11-8-24

"There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale" (Sean Astin + Joe Layden) 11-15-24

"The Greek Alexander Romance" (Unknown) 11-19-29

"Spiritus Ex Machina: Dark Tales of Creation" (LC von Hessen) 11-20-24

"Princess Diana: A Little Golden Book Biography" (Sonali Fry/Illustrated by Hollie Hibbert) 11-20-24

"Cats In Art: From Prehistoric to Neo-Pop Masterpieces" (Alix Paré) 11-23-24

"Set My Heart on Fire" (Izumi Suzuki) 11-25-24

-

2024 Reading List Total:

-

1. "The Explosion of a Chandelier" (Damian Murphy) 1-7-24

2. "Empire of the Sun" (J.G. Ballard) 1-11-24

3. "The Consolation of Philosophy" (Boethius) 1-14-24

4. "CAW: Colossal Abandoned World" (James Champagne) 1-17-24

5. "The Green Fly and Other Stories" (Robert Scheffer) 1-19-24

6. "Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again" (Shigeru Kayama) 1-22-24

7. "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" (Cho Nam-joo) 1-27-24

8. "The Planetary Omnibus" (Warren Ellis) 1-28-24

9. "A Song in the Night" (Daniel Mills) 1-31-24 

10. "The Princess of Darkness" (Rachilde) 2-13-24

11. "i'm still growing" (Josiah Morgan) 2-15-24

12. "Winona" (Robert Rich) 2-16-24

13. "Alexandria: The City That Changed The World" (Islam Issa) 2-21-24

14. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" (Mindy Kaling) 2-27-24

15. "Self-Portraits" (Osamu Dazai) 2-27-24

16. "The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories" (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki) 3-10-24

17. "The Secret History with Related Texts" (Prokopios) 3-13-24

18. "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" (Marie Kondo) 3-14-24

19. "Crampton" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 3-16-24 +

20. "Stitches" (Hirokatsu Kihara + Junji Ito) 3-26-24

21. "Artists and Their Cats" (Alison Nastasi) 3-28-24

22. "Great Cities of the Ancient World" (L. Sprague de Camp) 4-3-24

23. "Terminal Boredom" (Izumi Suzuki) 4-12-24

24. "Dragon Palace" (Hiromi Kawakami) 4-16-24

25. "Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious Death" (Anthony Everitt) 4-21-24

26. "The Antichrist: A New Biography" (Philip C. Almond) 5-24-24

27. "The Old Capital" (Yasunari Kawabata) 5-16-24

28. "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" (Bettany Hughes) 5-20-24

29. "The Cat Inside" (William S. Burroughs) 5-22-24 +

30. "A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes" (Anthony Bale) 5-29-24

31. "Diary of a Void" (Emi Yagi) 5-29-24

32. "The Book of Marvels and Travels" (Sir John Mandeville/Anthony Bale translation) 6-4-24

33. "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are" (Michael Pye) 6-9-24

34. "The Three Cornered World" (Natsume Soseki) 6-15-24

35. "A Kingdom of Frozen Tears" (Tom Champagne) 6-21-24

36. "Michigan Basement" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 6-22-24

37. "The Stronghold" (Dino Buzzati) 6-24-24 

38. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (Gawain-Poet/Keith Harrison translation) 7-1-24

39. "The Death of King Arthur" (Sir Thomas Malory/a retelling by Peter Ackroyd) 7-2-24

40. "Flunker" (Dennis Cooper) 7-4-24

41. "The Rule of St. Benedict" (St. Benedict of Nursia) 7-5-24

42. "Beowulf" (Unknown/John McNamara translation) 7-9-24

43. "Alley" (Junji Ito) 7-15-24

44. "Out of the Silent Planet" (C.S. Lewis) 

45. "Soviet Asia" (Roberto Conte + Stefano Perego) 7-17-24

46. "The Adventure Zone Vol. 6: The Suffering Game" (The McElroys + Carey Pietsch) 7-19-24

47. "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" (Soji Shimada) 7-27-24

48. "The Singularity" (Dino Buzzati) 7-31-24

49. "Goodnight Tokyo" (Atsuhiro Yoshida) 8-3-24

50. "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" (Vincent Bugliosi + Curt Gentry) 8-5-24

51. "Spook" (Klabund) 8-7-24

52. "Dark Entries: Bauhaus and Beyond" (Ian Shirley) 8-9-24

53. "The Sun Also Rises" (Ernest Hemingway) 8-15-24

54. "Depeche Mode: A Biography" (Steve Malins) 8-20-24

55. "The Sirens of Titan" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-25-24

56. "We" (Yevgeny Zamyatin) 8-26-24

57. "Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography" (Mark Paytress) 9-3-24

58. "Vita Nouva" (Dante Alighieri/Mark Musa translation) 9-5-24

59. "Shakespeare and the Medieval World" (Helen Cooper) 9-10-24

60. "The Medieval Castle: Design - Construction - Daily Life" (Charles Phillips) 9-19-24

61. "The Art of War" (Sun Tzu) 9-23-24

62. "Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era" (Saul Austerlitz) 9-26-24

63. "Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave" (Aaron Lange) 9-28-24

64. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 9-29-24

65. "Nightlands Issue 2 - Summer 2024" (Various) 10-2-24

66. "Charnel Glamour" (Mark Samuels) 10-4-24

67. "Uncanny: The Origins of Fear" (Junji Ito) 10-6-24

68. "The Universe As Performance Art" (Colby Smith) 10-10-24

69. "Come Tomorrow and Other Tales of Bangalore Terror" (Jayaprakash Satyamurthy) 10-13-24

70. "The Dark Chamber" (Leonard Cline) 10-14-24

71. "The Worlds of George R.R. Martin" (Tom Huddleston) 10-19-24

72. "Tales of the Grotesque" (L.A. Lewis) 10-23-24

73. "The Medieval Warrior" (Martin Dougherty) 10-28-24

74. "The Jordan Rules" (Sam Smith) 10-29-24

75. "Four Great Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest" (William Shakespeare) 11-8-24

76. "There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale" (Sean Astin + Joe Layden) 11-15-24

77. "The Greek Alexander Romance" (Unknown) 11-19-29

78. "Spiritus Ex Machina: Dark Tales of Creation" (LC von Hessen) 11-20-24

79. "Princess Diana: A Little Golden Book Biography" (Sonali Fry/Illustrated by Hollie Hibbert) 11-20-24

80. "Cats In Art: From Prehistoric to Neo-Pop Masterpieces" (Alix Paré) 11-23-24

81. "Set My Heart on Fire" (Izumi Suzuki) 11-25-24

*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Anonymous) 

Bathroom Reads #16: THERE AND BACK AGAIN by Sean Astin + Joe Layden

 

My dad purchased this book when it was first published (in 2004, less than a year after the theatrical release of The Return of the King, to almost universally poor reviews: this one is representative for the curious: https://www.popmatters.com/there-and-back-again-2496241478.html), but I don't believe he ever actually read it, though I myself would sometimes flip through it... a number of years ago he asked me if I wanted it, so I said sure, and it ended up becoming one of those books I would skim through in the bathroom once a year or so (though this year I finally did read it for real). 

I actually don't have all that much to say about this one, other than it's mainly an actor's memoir (despite the fact Astin was only in his early thirties when he wrote it) dealing briefly with his early years in a bit of detail, but which is mainly concerned with his time spent during the production of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It must be said that reading this book, one does not walk away with a very good impression of Astin as a person, as he comes off as very needy, self-centered, selfish, always needs to be the center of attention, and so on and so forth (he also does a lot of backhanded complimenting, where he'll talk about a person and praise them at length, then proceed to whine and complain about them). Basically, in some ways he embodies almost the exact opposite of all of the good traits exhibited by his character Samwise Gamgee in the movies. Which makes him, I suppose, a pretty good actor! I won't lie, for the longest time this book kind of soured me towards him, though he somewhat redeemed himself with an incredible performance in the second season of Stranger Things. . .  perhaps the lean years after the LOTR films humbled him somewhat. 

Top Ten Lists (Updated November 4, 2024)

Top 30 Bands/Musical Acts (in no order)

First Tier (1-10)

Siouxsie & The Banshees + Nine Inch Nails (tied for first)

Lady Gaga

Joy Division

Depeche Mode

Fleetwood Mac (+ Lindsey Buckingham solo)

Sting (solo + The Police)

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Throbbing Gristle 

Ministry

Garbage

 

Second Tier (11-20)

Bauhaus

Dead Can Dance

The Cure

Coil

Current 93

Whitehouse (+ Cut Hands & Consumer Electronics)

Nico

Suzanne Vega

Sonic Youth 

Yes

 

Third Tier (21-30)

Wire

Madonna

Kate Bush

Skinny Puppy

Chappell Roan  

Keane

Ladytron

Aphex Twin

Manic Street Preachers 

Harry Styles

 

Top 10 Favorite Albums (in no order)

A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (Siouxsie & The Banshees) 1982

The Downward Spiral (Nine Inch Nails) 1994

The Marble Index (Nico) 1968 

The Holy Bible (Manic Street Preachers) 1994

Dead Can Dance (Dead Can Dance) 1984

Tusk (Fleetwood Mac) 1979 

A Bell Is A Cup... (Wire) 1988

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Aphex Twin) 1992 

Horse Rotorvator (Coil) 1986

Closer (Joy Division) 1980

Top 20 Favorite Fiction Writers (in no order)

First Tier (1-10)

H.P. Lovecraft 

J.-K. Huysmans 

Stephen R. Donaldson 

Bret Easton Ellis 

Dennis Cooper

Yukio Mishima 

Meredith Gran

J.G. Ballard 

Thomas Ligotti 

Cormac McCarthy

Second Tier (11-20)

Thomas Pynchon

John Bellairs 

Carson McCullers

William Shakespeare

Clark Ashton Smith 

Grant Morrison 

William S. Burroughs

Arthur Machen 

Yasunari Kawabata

Tom Clancy

 

Top 10 Favorite Novels (in no order)

La-bas (J.-K. Huysmans) 

Guide (Dennis Cooper)

American Psycho (Bret Eason Ellis)

Sea of Fertility (Yukio Mishima) 

The Gap Cycle (Stephen R. Donaldson) 

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll) 

The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

The Night Land (William Hope Hodgson)

The White Plague (Frank Herbert)

 

Top 20 Favorite TV Shows (in no order)

First Tier (1-10)

Friends 

Game of Thrones 

Seinfeld 

Frasier

The Office (American version)

Family Matters

Saved By The Bell (original series)

Castlevania

Monk

Zorro (1990-1993 series)

Second Tier (11-20)

True Detective (season 1 only) 

Twin Peaks

Fawlty Towers 

The Vicar of Dibley 

Blackadder

Mr. Bean

Hannibal

Death Note (anime) 

Batman: The Animated Series

How I Met Your Mother 

 

Top Ten Favorite Movies (in no order)

Reality Bites (1994)

Patriot Games (1992)

Jackie Brown (1997)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

A Serious Man (2009)

Jurassic Park (1993)

House of Gucci (2021)

Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (1983) 

Les Miserables (2012) 

First Reformed (2017)

 

Top 10 Favorite Video/Computer Games (in no order)

Deus Ex (2000)

Thief Gold (1999)

System Shock 2 (1999)

Doom (1993)

Final Fantasy VI (1994)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (2004)

Sid Meier's Civilization VI (2016) 

Perfect Tides (2022)

Shenmue (whole series) 

Pentiment (2022)

(* Honorable Mentions: Ultima VII- 1992 + Elder Scrolls: Skyrim- 2011)

 

Misc. Favorites 

Favorite color(s): blue, black, mauve
Favorite number(s): 28, 88 (tie)
Favorite holiday: Christmas (2nd place: Halloween)
Favorite animal: cat
Favorite bird(s): crow, owl, hummingbird
Favorite sea creature: sharks (especially Great White Sharks and the Hammerhead shark)
Favorite stuffed animal growing up: Shark Puppet
Favorite food: Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup + rice, & Chicken-flavored Rice-A-Roni
Favorite body part: the eye
Favorite card game: Hearts
Favorite board game: Clue
Favorite Clue character: Mrs. Peacock
Favorite city: Providence, Rhode Island
Favorite planet: Saturn
Favorite Zodiac sign: Gemini
Favorite subculture: Goth
Favorite artist: Andy Warhol
Favorite movie director: Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson (tie)
Favorite living actor: Sean Bean
Favorite living actress: Winona Ryder
Favorite comic strip(s):, Doonesbury (1st), Calvin & Hobbes (2nd)
Favorite Game of Thrones character: Qyburn
Favorite sport: Basketball
Favorite basketball player: John Stockton
Favorite Beatles song(s): Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer (tie)
Favorite electronic music program: Voyetra Digital Orchestrator
Favorite architectural style: Brutalism
Favorite art movement(s): Surrealism, Symbolist, Pop
Favorite carnivorous plant: Nepenthes lowii
Favorite comic book superhero: Batman
Favorite Batman villain(s): Dr. Simon Hurt, The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter
Favorite comic book writer: Grant Morrison (2nd place: Alan Moore)
Favorite science fiction book series: The Gap Cycle (Stephen R. Donaldson)
Favorite movie monster: Godzilla
Favorite Doom monster: Cacodemon
Favorite DOOM levels: E2M4 (Deimos Lab), E3M4 (House of Pain), E3M7 (Limbo)
Favorite Record Label: Mute
Favorite Broadway musical: Les Miserables
Favorite Shakespeare play: Macbeth
Favorite Star Wars character: Momaw Nadon
Favorite Mario Kart racer: Toad
Favorite Warhol Superstar: Edie Sedgwick
Favorite old school Hollywood star: Audrey Hepburn
Favorite Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Favorite Harry Potter character: Luna Lovegood
Favorite Ninja Turtle: Leonardo
Favorite Disney Villain: Scar (The Lion King)
Favorite horror writer: H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti (a close second)
Favorite Cthulhu Mythos monster: Cthulhu
Favorite book(s) of the Bible: Revelations, Ecclesiastes (tie)
Favorite Egyptian deity: Bast
Favorite Ancient culture: Ancient Egypt
Favorite Historical Time Period: The Middle Ages