Christopher Taylor > Recent Status Updates

Usually I really like Donald Westlake's books but Kahawa has nobody to like and is in such an awful setting of bugs, swamps, rains, heat, misery, and Idi Amin.

I am kind of cheating this year by counting the Biblical books I read, as I am reading through the Bible in a year. So, 66 extra books to the read list but technically they ARE books.

I cannot even begin to speculate what in my to read list has prompted Goodreads to recommend "Call Me By Your Name"

Very much enjoying Elak, its from 1938 and feels very modern. The tone is a more light hearted group in a Conan setting, and its very well done.

Reading some Solar Pons short stories, basically August Derleth writing Sherlock Holmes, but back then Holmes was still under copyright, So he filed the numbers off Sherlock and wrote stories about a weirdly named detective.

They aren't very good, even for pulp stories. Derleth wrote some great stuff, but these are just not worth remembering. Which is probably why most people have never even heard of Solar Pons

Reading the crossover I never knew I needed: Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown. So far the short stories are solid, leaning heavily toward Father Brown. He's if anything smarter than Sherlock but so much more humble I could easily see him overshadowed constantly by Holmes.

Very much enjoying the Consultations of Sherlock Holmes. Instead of going out solving cases, Holmes handles the cases from his study, solving them while sitting and listening to the clues. This was supposed to be his bread and butter, but as the author points out he rarely did in Doyle's stories.

Just exhausted lately, I'm not up to a longer book, so I am focusing on short stories.

I make more accidental "highlights" in my Kindle by brushing the screen than I ever intentionally pick a line out to highlight. Its not easy to get rid of them, either

Reading is going a lot slower this year, I am focusing on some other stuff and reading a lot of short story collections, which take a while to get through as I read them between longer books

Trying out a Walter Scott book mentioned in the John Wesley Hardin biography "Forty Times a Killer." I liked Ivanhoe all right when I read it for school but trying it again recently was a horrendous slog and I gave up. So far Quentin Durward is easier read.

I think I am going to have to up my challenge next year, for two years in a row I've blown it away by almost double. It used to be a real challenge to read 100 books in a year, because I had to rely on the library and cheap occasional buys

I'm trying to read Wigwam and Cabin, a very old American book set in the south just after the revolutionary war. Its a series of old tales, some of them ghost stories, some humorous, etc.

The problem is that its written in a very archaic style, using unusual words, which is compounded by terrible formatting.

I am piling up too many DNFs on my shelves. I guess that's the price for trying new authors and books on kindle unlimited. Sometimes you really find a gem but a bunch aren't worth the monthly fee.

Started reading Tarzan. Its really good, very clever and creative.

The Catcher Was A Spy is turning out to be a great read, lots of info about culture and the times as well as Moe Berg's curious and obscure life

I have tried three books in a row that looked intriguing but were just not good. Sometimes you get on a run like that. Hoping I find a great new series.

The worst thing about finishing up a series you like is that there are no more books in it to read

I am trying really hard to read the first Honor Harrington book because I keep hearing it be so recommended but its awful and slow and poorly written

Every so often I go through my Want To Read list and check for the books on kindle. Here's a hint for authors: if you charge more than 5 bucks for a book on kindle... you are losing customers.

Really enjoying the Big Book of Female Detectives; there's a short story by Agatha Christie that is very different from her usual stuff.

We moved my elderly mother into the house and caring for her as severely curtailed my reading and writing time, but she's worth it

Struggling to finish The Kraken Wakes. It sits on my bedside table and languishes because its sort of slow and dull and meandering. Even the dramatic wild parts aren't very gripping and the antagonists are so random and unknown that they aren't engaging. I'll try to get through it, though.

Really enjoying Trouble Is My Beat, its sort of a set of cozy hardboiled detective stories. Which I know is a contradiction but it takes up a lot of the themes of Black Mask detective books but buffs off the rough edges.

Hey Goodreads, how the heck is a Flashman book anything like a book of interviews with Donald Trump?? This site's recommendations are idiotic

I have read so many books from the library out of order, its kind of nice to try to find them and read in order to see if the overall story makes more sense or is better.

Read the first story in Dead Men's Letters. Its Earle Stanley Gardner's earlier work for Black Mask, before he started writing Perry Mason books. Very different tone and approach, much more lurid and pulpy.