Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jan 12, 2022 7:26:29 GMT -5
Few years ago an old boss of mine made me an offer. For every book I read in the year,and wrote a short review of,she would donate 3 bucks per book to whatever charity I chose. I read a bit over 100 books that year. And the money got donated to a group that helps out libraries that got damage from weather related incidents.
Well Ms Perkins got in touch with me the other day. Mentioned how she had noticed I hadn't talked about reading that much the last few years. And honestly the last 3 years I have struggled to read more than 20 books each year. So again she made the offer to donate 3 bucks per book I read in 2022.
Also I love seeing what others are reading. It has helped me discover so many authors I would have never heard of.
001-Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame:The Canadians-I own all the Pro Wrestling HOF books. Read The Heels and The Tag team books and loved them. This one was filled with info and stories about a pile of wrestlers I had never heard of. The only bad thing about this book is it is printed on this super glossy paper. Which can cause light to reflect of the pages. Grade-B+
002-Battlestar Galactica novelization-I was the perfect age when the original BSG series aired.I was 4 and 5 and already a huge Star Wars fan. So BSG was a weekly Star Wars like tv show. When the show ended I started getting any BSG stuff I could find. Which at the time was mostly issues of the Marvel comic and the novelizations. This one adapts the pilot episode of the series. It is a fast easy read. I do love how it fleshes out a few things that the Pilot episode glossed over. Grade-B
003-Ring of Hell-Back when the Benoit murders happened my oldest son and I had been at the Beaumont TX house show then the PPV in Houston that Benoit missed. For at least 5 years before then the author of this book posted at a wrestling forum. When he annouced this book I knew I had to get a copy. I have read piles of articles and seen so many news reports on the murders. Out of all of them this book ,for me,gives the most info. Sure there is the whole thing about how the author took lots of quotes from Shoot Interviews,and we all know that some wrestlers in shoots will lie or embellish the stories they are telling. Even with that in mind this book does it's best to show that there was always someething mentally wrong with Chris Benoit. And the years of roid/drug abuse plus all the damage Benoit did to his body cause this great tragedy to happen.Grade B+
004 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep-While not my favorite book of all time,this is very very close. I try to read it at least once every few years. And it is a book that whenever I find a copy for 3 bucks or less I buy it. First time I read it was back in 1993. I was having trouble sleeping and found the only way I could sleep worth a crap was to lay in bed reading till I couldn't keep my eyes open. I had seen Blade Runner at least 10 times before reading the book. So much is different between the book and the movie. I like how the novel really goes deep into the question of "what makes someone human?" Hopefully one day there will be a movie or a tv mini series made that follows the book closely. Currently I own 3 hardcovers of this novel and 5 paperback copies. Grade A.
005 Cinema Sewer vol 4-For close to 25 years Robin Bougie published Cinema Sewer. Which was a magazine,that was comic book sized,that covered horror/cult/exploitation and even the golden age of porno. Back 12 or so years ago Fab Press worked out a deal with Mr Bougie. The early issues of CS had extremely low print runs. So Fab would reprint the best stuff from the magazine and Robin would add in at least 50 pages of new material.I got this book from my girlfriend as a Xmas present. And like the 3 before it I loved it. CS was a great mag and more than likely best known for breaking the news that Thora Birch's parents were 70s era Porn Stars. The other thing CS was infamous because was an article in issue 3 or 4,so early 2000s,where Ginger Lynn talked about how in the early 80s Ron Jeremy raped her when both of them were down in Hawaii filming a movie.
006-The Art of Reboot-When Reboot was first airing on ABC Saturday Mornings I in the Army and sleeping in on Saturdays.Then one Saturday when I got home after hitting the bar Friday night I couldn't sleep. We only got 2 channels on the TV and NBC wasn't airing cartoons. I ended up seeing Reboot and became a huge fan. So anytime I find Reboot merch I grab it. Back during the summer of 2020 at the local Dirt Cheap I found this art book. I nice hardcover packed with all kinds of pre-production art from the original Reboot tv show. Sure there isn't much to read in the book. But I spent so much time going over each page. Seeing all the details in the art that you never notice when watching the original series. Grade A
007 Natural Born Killers Movie novelization-As a kid I loved Novelizations of movies. Back in the mid 90s I got this book as a Xmas present from my favorite Uncle. When I moved from Texas back to MS the book got packed away in a box and it was sometime last fall that I found the box and pulled it out.
The rumor I keept hearing is that this novel is closer to Tarentino's original script for the film. And while I have never read that script,this book is very different in many parts from the film. There is less of the acid trip style that appears to be Oliver Stone's doing in the film. And way way more pop culture references,which to me feel like something QT would do.
If you like the movie this is a neat addition to it. If you hated the film well yea I doubt you will enjoy this novel. Grade B-.
008-The Woman-This is the book that Lucky Mcgee's film ,of the same title,is based on. The book was co-written by Jack Ketchum(RIP SIR) and Lucky. It is the third book in Ketchum's series about cannibals in modern day USA. What I enjoyed about the book was things that are slightly hinted at in the movie are right in your face in the book. For example in the film the oldest daughter is pregnat. And there are a few subtle hints about who the father of the child is. In the book you are told who the father is. Also the book has a short story that happens after the first story and shows you what happens to the Woman and the two new members of her tribe. The only bad thing about the book is since I saw the movie first that I find the title character in the book not nearly as intense or scary as she was in the film when Polyanna Macintosh played her. Also if you can't handle extreme gory/violence and stuff like that avoid this book and the movie. Grade B+
Ok that is all I have gotten read in the close to first 2 weeks of 2022. Can't wait to see what y'all are reading.
And before anyone asks,I clarified with Ms Perkins years ago,while say a single issue of a comic book doesn't count towards my total. A TPB/Hardcover does.Pretty much if the reading material has an ISBN number it counts as a book.
Well Ms Perkins got in touch with me the other day. Mentioned how she had noticed I hadn't talked about reading that much the last few years. And honestly the last 3 years I have struggled to read more than 20 books each year. So again she made the offer to donate 3 bucks per book I read in 2022.
Also I love seeing what others are reading. It has helped me discover so many authors I would have never heard of.
001-Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame:The Canadians-I own all the Pro Wrestling HOF books. Read The Heels and The Tag team books and loved them. This one was filled with info and stories about a pile of wrestlers I had never heard of. The only bad thing about this book is it is printed on this super glossy paper. Which can cause light to reflect of the pages. Grade-B+
002-Battlestar Galactica novelization-I was the perfect age when the original BSG series aired.I was 4 and 5 and already a huge Star Wars fan. So BSG was a weekly Star Wars like tv show. When the show ended I started getting any BSG stuff I could find. Which at the time was mostly issues of the Marvel comic and the novelizations. This one adapts the pilot episode of the series. It is a fast easy read. I do love how it fleshes out a few things that the Pilot episode glossed over. Grade-B
003-Ring of Hell-Back when the Benoit murders happened my oldest son and I had been at the Beaumont TX house show then the PPV in Houston that Benoit missed. For at least 5 years before then the author of this book posted at a wrestling forum. When he annouced this book I knew I had to get a copy. I have read piles of articles and seen so many news reports on the murders. Out of all of them this book ,for me,gives the most info. Sure there is the whole thing about how the author took lots of quotes from Shoot Interviews,and we all know that some wrestlers in shoots will lie or embellish the stories they are telling. Even with that in mind this book does it's best to show that there was always someething mentally wrong with Chris Benoit. And the years of roid/drug abuse plus all the damage Benoit did to his body cause this great tragedy to happen.Grade B+
004 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep-While not my favorite book of all time,this is very very close. I try to read it at least once every few years. And it is a book that whenever I find a copy for 3 bucks or less I buy it. First time I read it was back in 1993. I was having trouble sleeping and found the only way I could sleep worth a crap was to lay in bed reading till I couldn't keep my eyes open. I had seen Blade Runner at least 10 times before reading the book. So much is different between the book and the movie. I like how the novel really goes deep into the question of "what makes someone human?" Hopefully one day there will be a movie or a tv mini series made that follows the book closely. Currently I own 3 hardcovers of this novel and 5 paperback copies. Grade A.
005 Cinema Sewer vol 4-For close to 25 years Robin Bougie published Cinema Sewer. Which was a magazine,that was comic book sized,that covered horror/cult/exploitation and even the golden age of porno. Back 12 or so years ago Fab Press worked out a deal with Mr Bougie. The early issues of CS had extremely low print runs. So Fab would reprint the best stuff from the magazine and Robin would add in at least 50 pages of new material.I got this book from my girlfriend as a Xmas present. And like the 3 before it I loved it. CS was a great mag and more than likely best known for breaking the news that Thora Birch's parents were 70s era Porn Stars. The other thing CS was infamous because was an article in issue 3 or 4,so early 2000s,where Ginger Lynn talked about how in the early 80s Ron Jeremy raped her when both of them were down in Hawaii filming a movie.
006-The Art of Reboot-When Reboot was first airing on ABC Saturday Mornings I in the Army and sleeping in on Saturdays.Then one Saturday when I got home after hitting the bar Friday night I couldn't sleep. We only got 2 channels on the TV and NBC wasn't airing cartoons. I ended up seeing Reboot and became a huge fan. So anytime I find Reboot merch I grab it. Back during the summer of 2020 at the local Dirt Cheap I found this art book. I nice hardcover packed with all kinds of pre-production art from the original Reboot tv show. Sure there isn't much to read in the book. But I spent so much time going over each page. Seeing all the details in the art that you never notice when watching the original series. Grade A
007 Natural Born Killers Movie novelization-As a kid I loved Novelizations of movies. Back in the mid 90s I got this book as a Xmas present from my favorite Uncle. When I moved from Texas back to MS the book got packed away in a box and it was sometime last fall that I found the box and pulled it out.
The rumor I keept hearing is that this novel is closer to Tarentino's original script for the film. And while I have never read that script,this book is very different in many parts from the film. There is less of the acid trip style that appears to be Oliver Stone's doing in the film. And way way more pop culture references,which to me feel like something QT would do.
If you like the movie this is a neat addition to it. If you hated the film well yea I doubt you will enjoy this novel. Grade B-.
008-The Woman-This is the book that Lucky Mcgee's film ,of the same title,is based on. The book was co-written by Jack Ketchum(RIP SIR) and Lucky. It is the third book in Ketchum's series about cannibals in modern day USA. What I enjoyed about the book was things that are slightly hinted at in the movie are right in your face in the book. For example in the film the oldest daughter is pregnat. And there are a few subtle hints about who the father of the child is. In the book you are told who the father is. Also the book has a short story that happens after the first story and shows you what happens to the Woman and the two new members of her tribe. The only bad thing about the book is since I saw the movie first that I find the title character in the book not nearly as intense or scary as she was in the film when Polyanna Macintosh played her. Also if you can't handle extreme gory/violence and stuff like that avoid this book and the movie. Grade B+
Ok that is all I have gotten read in the close to first 2 weeks of 2022. Can't wait to see what y'all are reading.
And before anyone asks,I clarified with Ms Perkins years ago,while say a single issue of a comic book doesn't count towards my total. A TPB/Hardcover does.Pretty much if the reading material has an ISBN number it counts as a book.
