Bookstooge’s Most Read Authors

The Little Book Owl recently did a post where she listed her top 5 most read authors. I like lists, so that post really hit the spot and considering how dry this week has been, in terms of posting [it’s been a busy week with much smaller amounts of time for reading or posting], I decided I’d take a turn at doing this.

I’m going to list a few more than 5. Also, I’m not going to be listing a lot of manga-ka, as they dominate the numbers with some huge series [Bleach, One Piece, Case Closed, etc].  This list also includes re-reads, so some of my top read authors might not have so many books.

I could add about 10 more authors if I went down to 10 reads, but 12 seemed like the cusp of “Ok, I’ve read a bunch by this author”.  Not much to say about each, not with so many but if you have questions, ask away and I’ll answer as best I can.

 

 

Timothy Zahn – 63

Patricia Wrede – 17

Tad Williams – 20

Adrian Tchaikovsky – 16

Rumiko Takahashi – 67 (probably my most read manga-ka and yet I don’t care for her stories. Funny that)

Kazuki Takahashi – 38 (wrote the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. Love that series)

Michael Sullivan – 12

Michael Stackpole – 33

Lemony Snicket – 13

Darren Shan – 12

Brandon Sanderson – 25 [including the final WoT books]

Mike Resnick – 12

Terry Pratchett – 44

Ellis Peters – 14 (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)

Don Pendleton – 37 (Mack Bolan/The Executioner series)

Andre Norton (and loser collaborators) – 18

Michael Moorcock – 16

L.E. Modesitt, Jr – 28

Jack McKinney – 12 (Robotech)

Patricia McKillip – 27

Anne McCaffrey – 21

C.S. Lewis – 16

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller – 15

Stephen Lawhead – 22

Paul Kemp – 12 (mainly Forgotten Realms with a dash of Star Wars)

Robert Jordan – 26 (multiple reads of the first several WoT books)

Riichiro Inagaki – 48 and counting (Eyeshield 21 manga w/ rereads of the first 16)

Frank Herbert – 13

Robert Heinlein – 18

Terry Goodkind – 13

Alan Dean Foster – 48

John Flanagan – 15

Steven Erikson – 19 (multiple Malazan re-reads]

David Eddings – 18

Dave Duncan – 15

Charles Dickens – 33

 

Troy Denning – 16 (forgotten realms and star wars and he sucks whatever I read]

Roald Dahl – 14

Evan Currie – 13

Larry Correia &/or Collaborators – 16

Glen Cook – 13

CLAMP – 65 (a varying group of 5 female manga-ka)

Agatha Christie – 19

Orson Scott Card – 13

Jack Campbell – 22

Jim Butcher – 22

Terry Brooks – 20

Robert Asprin – 17

Isaac Asimov – 12

Neal Asher – 26 (re-reads)

“Alex Archer” – 14 (ghost written series of Rogue Angel)

Aaron Allston – 16 all Star Wars all good

 

 

 

 

A History of ….. Journaling

I WAS going to title this post “A History of Violence” where I detailed my mis-spent youth kneecapping old ladies for protection money but since that Illegitimate Rat Aragorn already made a movie by that name I figured the self appointed guardians of all things legal, or goons, would knee cap me. So better safe than sorry. Also,  this mention about said movie is in no ways an endorsement of it. It is a “real” violence filled movie [as opposed to John Wick] and I found it extremely disturbing.

Last year I posted about my Book Recording and the journey that has been and continues to be. Today I want to talk about journaling and the various kinds of journals that I’ve used over the years. I love this kind of thing to be honest and is probably the closest I’ll ever come to being all arts&craftsy.

I started my journaling back in middle grade. I’d scribble in an 8 1/2 x11 spiral notebook for a couple of pages, then tear them out a week or 2 later, throw them out and not write again for months. It never even occurred to me to write in something more permanent. Of course, I suspect most of my writings was about girls anyway, so no big loss 🙂

However, when I began attending Bible School in the fall of ’97,  I began writing every evening in this little guy:

Little 4×5 inch notebook. I ended up writing in 5 of these suckers

 

Corn and potatoes. I was well on my way to a Pulitzer, even back then!

 

 

After awhile, I felt my needs increasing and I moved up the Classy Scale a step. Not a lot, but I was definitely upwardly mobile.

You think I’m obsessed about journals, you should see some of the entries I made about various pens I try and what works and what doesn’t. And that hasn’t stopped. I just did an entry in my latest journal about 4 months ago about the joys of using the Pilot G2 premium gel roller fine tip pens.

 

Then I graduated in 2000 and life got real. I had a job, a car, I was renting a place of my own, I made my first proposal. After that it was time to start expressing my inner torment and utter pain in a journal that meant business. I wanted something that would last the ages and remind me in years to come just how much suffering and anguish I had gone through. Yeah, I was that guy.

Pure black, like the pain and misery deep within my soul. Sense a theme yet? 😀

 

Oberon Design to the rescue! I’ve used that cover for 4 of the black blanks and it is still as good condition as when I bought it back in ’05 or ’06.

But a journal looks even cooler and more soul’y when it has a real leather removable, re-usable cover on it.

 

Then I met Mrs Bookstooge [well, she wasn’t Mrs Bookstooge at the time, obviously!] and once I’d filled up my latest tome of despair, I quit journaling for almost 5 years. But getting married makes one a hostage to fate and once again life hit me in the nads and I had to write. But I was beyond black, I wanted something to express how mystical and above the common man my thoughts were.

There are CLASPS! and lots of shiny lines! The “Common Man” does not write in such a tome as this.

 

Nowadays I write in something that opens, and stays open [VERY important when writing while sitting in a pew], and will look cool on my shelf.

The text on the flap is “Arthur Conan Doyle”.  No clasps, but the flap makes it easier to write in in public.

 

My journaling now is usually a gigantic bitch session, where I vent on paper so I don’t vent in public. Names of jerks and super-jerks blurred for reasons. I AM that grumpy old guy, whooo!

 

What does the future hold? Well, I’m glad you asked  *grin*  I am currently writing in this small leather journal as a medical journal, keeping track of my blood sugars, food eaten, insulin taken, with times and amounts. It’s a lot of detail but it is what I have to do to keep my diabetes under control. I like the tie, but sadly Barnes&Noble only has it in 5×7 [which is pictured] and nothing larger. If you know of a nice leather, tie down journal that is in the 7×10 or preferably 8×11 range, please let me know in the comments. Lined or unlined doesn’t matter.

This leather one travels with me everywhere now.  And it has its own G2 roller gel pen *wink*

 

And there you have it. More information about Bookstooge and Journaling than you ever wanted, thought possible or even knew existed. Remember folks, I am a Dichotomy [make sure you say “dichotomy” in an appropriately sepulchral tone of voice]. I use a machete or a pen with equal ease and familiarity.  Except for when I’m tired, then I’m just a problem.

July ’17 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Ok, the facts and nothing but the facts to start off here. 19 Books [yeah baby!!!] and 8002 [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] pages. Now, 1100 of those pages were Don Quixote and I’d been working on that for 8 months, but still. I was pretty stoked at those numbers.

Looking at the numbers [books, pages and ratings] this was a pretty fiiiine month. No DNF’s and several Epic reads.

I think that Children of Dune was my favorite read of the month. It had some stiff competition though from Monster Hunter Siege, The Shadow Roads, Sungrazer and Beyond the Shadows. Having that many good reads makes this a good month for me by any estimation.

Least favorites for the month were definitely Instinct and Destiny of the Sword.

Eyeshield 21 is still ripping along. I’ve only got 6 more volumes to go in this manga series and I have to say, volume 31 was just as good, just as funny and just as feelzy as the first volume. Thumbs up.

I completed Don Quixote. That felt like a milestone. The whole process of note taking was interesting and going so slowly really allowed me to “get” the story. However, it took effort and work and I’m going to be taking a break from doing that kind of read again for awhile.

My Malazan Series Re-read stalled big time with my read of Memories of Ice. It went from being my Favorite of the series to the point where I started dreading continuing my read. Existential Pain and Sorrow don’t titillate me any more, they just grind me down. So it is hard to want to keep reading. I’ve got about 25 series I cycle through on my kindle and I’ve pushed this off to every other cycle now. Hoping the extra time between allows me to recover.

And speaking of series on my kindle. Lashaan asked me sometime ago if I planned on reading “new” books from 2017 since I’m doing a lot of re-reads and stuff. I hadn’t thought of it too much, but I’ve created a High Priority series and whenever I see something that I really, really, really want to read (Monster Hunter Siege for example) I’ll add it to the High Priority series. And I cycle through that every 9 series or so instead of the usual 25. Whenever it gets to the bottom of the first page of my kindle, I just read the next one in there and start the cycle over.  I’ve currently got Joel Shepherd’s Kantovan Vault, Tal Klein’s The Punch Escrow (Thanks Mogsy for your review!), and one other that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

To wrap this Rambling up, it’s Cover Love time. It was a tie between Memories of Ice and All Darkness Met.

A Tiger-man. With Swords. How is that NOT totally awesome?

 

I’m Batman! (said in deep gravelly voice)

 

 

• Previous Roundup & Rambling Posts

 

June ’17 Roundup & Ramblings

This was a good month. 16 books read. Approximately 4660 pages read. That number is a bit fuzzy since I DNF’d Cronin’s City of Mirrors and didn’t keep a true total of what I’d read of it. Down a bit from last month, but given that I started a Memories of Ice Readalong that took up most of this last week in June. That’ll probably push next month’s numbers up a bit.

Speaking of DNF’s. That was the only 1 Star book for this month. Everything else was at least 3 Stars.  Song for the Basilisk was my top book for the month at 5 Stars. My average came out to 3.5. I’m kind of getting spoiled with all these above 3star average months.

I did my first movie review. I’ve talked about movies in general, but never really sat down and wrote a specific post about a specific movie. While I enjoyed John Wick: Chapter 2 I doubt I’ll be doing too many more movie reviews. Why watch a movie when I could be reading!?! But now that I’ve done one, if I am really jonesing to write, I can always pop something in the player and type away.

A bit has happened outside of direct book related stuff. I bought myself a new Oasis. Still loving it (thankfully). Implemented a little bit of Anti-Spam Protection to ward off the bots. And you know what? Those pesky bots are still showing up once a week or so now. It used to be every day though, so I’m pretty happy.

This month I also realized that vloggers just don’t do it for me. So I went through and unfollowed a couple of bloggers who are, or seem to be, more vested in the video side of things.  I need the written word. And that led me to following some new people, so July will tell how that works out. As much as I would love to have a static group of about 70’ish people to follow, I realize that life just doesn’t work that way. I tend to slough people off if they haven’t posted in a month or two without some sort of explanation. So my experience is one of very slow churn.

Cover love this month was really difficult. I’d already done the extended picture of Song for the Basilisk in its review.  I ended up undecided between Blood of Aenarion and the US version of Brass Man.

 

Yep, that screams Epic Fantasy to me in tones that soothes my soul.

 

Something about the color scheme, that desert brown and searing gold sunniness , really works for me

 

Trust you all have a great July. I will see you around. Bookstooge out.

 

 

1. Previous Roundup & Rambling Posts

 

May ’17 Roundup & Ramblings

Collage created at Ipiccy.com

 

Yep, lots of books this month. 18 to be precise. Now, 2 of those WERE 22 page comic books, so take that as you may. However, my monthly page count was 6764. Up almost 50% from last month. Page count is definitely going to be my new monthly benchmark. The biggest books were: Shadow’s Edge, Return of the Crimson Guard, Guns of the Dawn and Deadhouse Gates. They ranged from 645 to 868 pages. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Average Star Rating came in at 3.8, so almost everything this month was a fantastic read. The only “Nah” book was Lord of the Darkwood (The Tale of Shikanoko #3).

Personally, the month was pretty bad. My Friend Amy passing away near the beginning of the month was really hard, but I think that is why I read so much. I was escaping in the only way I knew how. Now that the wake has occurred, I can begin processing it and letting the healing begin.

I was able to figure out a way to work in manga on a regular basis without burning myself out; which is great because last month I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that.  I also passed a milestone in organizing my personal review library in Calibre. I’m now under the 1000 review mark. Only 900’ish more entries to polish up and then I just have to stay current. I’m already starting to use it when referencing when I read something in the past or what I thought of Book X.

The cover I’d like to share this month is an alternate for Dune Messiah. I put the cover that matches the asin in the review, but in my Calibre library I’ve got this beauty:

Now is that gorgeous or what?

And that wraps up May. Trust you all have a great June and I’ll be stopping by and making comments [appropriate or otherwise] on your posts. Bookstooge out.

 

1. January Roundup
2. February Roundup
3. March Roundup
4. April Roundup

Victory is Within My Grasp!

When Leafmarks folded last year [Leafmarks was a Goodreads type site but without the censorship] I was able to export all of my book data to that date.  It was becoming apparent to me that Booklikes wasn’t cutting it [and with no Export function, what’s the point?] and I couldn’t really go back to GR [as an aside, I did briefly join up, for the 3rd time with GR only to quit when they started sending me those “You’ve just read a book. Congrats!” emails which I had not signed up for. So instead of opting out of the emails, I opted out of GR. And it just reinforced my bitter dislike of the incompetence of those running the place]. I spent a month checking out all sorts of various places.

I checked:

• Librarything [ended up crossposting there and getting a free lifetime membership]
• aAnobi [which was an italian site and just as dead as Booklikes]
• The ReadingRoom [was just a huge advertisement]
• Some other sites that were so small I don’t even remember them.

Nothing was what I was looking for. Eventually, I chose WP as my social site. But what to do for my reviews? I wanted to be able to search them by as wide a variety as possible but putting them just into a Word document wasn’t enough. So I started using Calibre, which is an ebook manager. It can also manage empty books, so this was perfect for me. I had something like 2400 entries in a CSV file from Leafmarks that I imported.  Then it just became a job of polishing everything up, ie, adding ratings, covers, splitting re-reads into their separate entries, etc.  Today, I will get my Working Library under the 1000 mark. Going from 4digits down to 3digits is a significant morale booster for me.

 

Working Library: Where the Magic Happens

 

The Review Library: What the Magic Looks Like

*smiley face*

I am pretty happy today. Thank you for your time.

Burn!

As much I like 80’s stuff, the clothing does need to stay back in the 80’s…