READING ROUND-UP: January 2024

The first monthly summary of what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in 2024!

BOOKS

I read 10 books in January: 5 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       What Moves the Dead (Sworn Sword #1) by T. Kingfisher. (E-BOOK)

2.       Phantom on the Scan by Cullen Bunn, Mark Torres, David Sharpe. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

3.       What Feasts at Night (Sworn Sword #2) by T. Kingfisher (PRINT, ARC (publishes February 2024))

4.       Highlands Book One: The Portrait of Amelia by Philipe Aymond. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

5.       Highlands Book Two: The Survivors of Blackwater by Philipe Aymond. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

6.       We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. (E-BOOK)

7.       Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. (E-BOOK)

8.       Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire. (AUDIOBOOK, REREAD)

9.       The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier. (E-BOOK)

10.   Hellstrom: Evil Origins by Gary Freidrich, Herb Trimpe, Don Perlin, Bill Mantlo, and others (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL)

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this leap year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones, in Lightspeed Magazine #164, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Shadow Films” by Ben Peek.

3.       “Night Desk Duty at the Infinite Paradox Hotel” by Aimee Ogden

4.       “We Shall Not Be Bitter at the End of the World” by David Anaxagoras

5.       “A Saint Between the Teeth” by Sloane Leong

6.       “In the Tree's Hollow” by Lowry Poletti

7.       “Farewell to Faust” by Adam-Troy Castro

8.       “To Be a Happy Man” by Thomas Ha

9.       “The Silver Sea” by Seanan McGuire, on the Author’s Patreon

10.   “Ten Thousand Crawling Children” by R.A. Busby, Nightmare Magazine #136, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

11.   “The Forgetter” by Andrew Snover

12.   “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier, from The Birds & Other Stories

13.   “Monte Verita” by Daphne du Maurier

14.   “The Apple Tree” by Daphne du Maurier

15.   “The Little Photographer” by Daphne du Maurier

16.   “Kiss Me Again, Stranger” by Daphne du Maurier

17.   “The Old Man” by Daphne du Maurier

18.   “The Carnival” by Richard Chizmar, stand-alone chapbook published by Cemetery Dance

19.   “End Game” by Martin Edwards, stand-alone chapbook published by The Mysterious Bookshop

20.   “Nothing of Value” by Aimee Ogden, from Clarkesworld #208, edited by Neil Clarke

21.   “Down the Waterfall” by Cecile Cristofari

22.   “Willow Wood” by Linda Neihoff, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #398, edited by Scott H. Andrews

23.   “Home Bread” by R.E. Dukalsky

24.   “Miriam” by Truman Capote, Fantastic #2 (1952)

25.   “The Star Dummy” by Anthony Boucher

26.   “Most of ‘81” by ‘Nathan Burgoine, from the Author’s Website

So that’s 26 short stories in January. A bit less than “1 per day.” (January 31st was, of course, the 31st day of 2024.)

MOVIES

1.       Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), directed by James Gunn (STREAMING, Disney+)

2.       Gamera the Giant Monster (1965), directed by Noriaki Yuasa (DVD)

3.       The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock (DVD)

4.       Gamera vs. Barugon (1966), directed by Shigeo Tanaka and Noriaki Yuasa (DVD)

TELEVISION

·       Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1, episodes 4 – 8 (5 episodes) (SEASON REVIEW HERE)

·       What If…? Season 2, episodes 2 – 9 (8 episodes)

·       Slow Horses Season 1, episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Slow Horses Season 2, episode 1 (1 episode)

·       A Hero’s Journey: The Making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1 episode)

That’s 21 episodes of television, again not quite the “1 per day” I was shooting for.

LIVE THEATER

1.       Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC)

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 0 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  26 read; YTD: 26 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 10 read; YTD: 10 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 4 read; YTD: 4 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 0 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 1  read/watched (“The Birds”); YTD: 1 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 4 watched; YTD: 4 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 21 episodes watched; YTD: 21 of 366 watched

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 1 show attended; YTD: 1 of 12 attended.

First Annual ToBeWatched Challenge!

In preparing my lists for this year’s “To Be Read” Challenge, I got to thinking about how many DVDs/Blu-rays I own that I haven’t watched, which got me to thinking about how many of them are movies I’ve actually never seen, in a theatre or on television, but which I bought because I thought I’d want to see them, and then never got around to watching them. Which then got me to thinking about movies I’ve wanted to see but also have never bought in physical or digital format…

My mind does wonderful things when I’m procrastinating, doesn’t it?

So I put the idea out on Facebook and Twitter about a 2022 “To Be Watched” Challenge: twelve movies you’ve always intended to see but have never gotten around to it, plus two alternate titles in case one or two of your main choices turn out to be “unwatchable”. The only catch: the movies must be at least one full year old, meaning nothing originally released in 2021 or 2022. There are no restrictions on genre or length or what form you’re going to watch it in (DVD, streaming, etc.), and no judgements on what you choose.

Feel free to post your list as a comment on this site or post it on your own blog and share a link in the comments. I would like to offer some kind of raffle-prize for those who finish the challenge, the way Adam does on his RoofbeamReader “To Be Read” Challenge, but I’m not sure quite how to make that work just yet.

I’d love other people to participate, but this is all for fun, and to motivate myself into finally seeing some of the movies on my “I should watch that eventually” list.

This list could easily be two or three times as long, but here are my twelve, with their original release dates in parentheses:

1.       My Boy Jack (2007)

2.       The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

3.       Alice Adams (1935)

4.       Macbeth (Orson Welles version) (1948)

5.       The Producers (Nathan Lane/Matthew Broderick version) (2005)

6.       The Last Picture Show (1971)

7.       In Cold Blood (1967)

8.       Mr. Holmes (2015)

9.       The Night of the Hunter (1955)

10.   Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

11.   The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Lon Chaney Sr. version) (1923)

12.   Logan (2017)

And my “alternates:”

A.      Twelve Angry Men (1957)

B.      Seven Samurai (1954)

I’ll come back to this post as I watch each film and change that movie’s text to italics, followed by the date I watched the movie.

2021 Viewing Round-Up

Two days ago, I posted my annual summary of every book and story I read/listened to in 2021. Today, I’m summarizing every television show and movie I watched in 2021, as well as the few live events I attended. This is only my second year tracking this info in any concrete way.

Live Events:

I attended 4 live events this year (thanks, COVID-19!), two online and two in person.

·       The Firflake (a full-cast performance of my Christmas novel, aired on YouTube)

·       The Comedy of Errors (full-cast performance, on Zoom)

·       74th Annual Worldcon / DisconIII (5 days, at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington DC)

·       Assassins (at the Classic Stage Company theatre in New York City)

As I said in my 2020 summary: I miss live theater and live music.

Movies:

I only watched 35 movies this year (8 more than 2020!), totaling approximately 71 hours. The shortest were one hour long and the longest was three hours. Of these, 26 were movies I viewed for the first time, the rest movies I’ve seen before. I gave 12 of these a 3-star rating, 10 a four-star rating, and 13 a five-star rating.

The breakdown of what I watched where:

·       8 on DVD

·       5 in the theatre

·       1 on live television

·       21 on digital platforms

The genre breakdown was thus:

·       Science Fiction: 2 (Dune; Logan’s Run)

·       Action/Adventure: 5 (Casino Royale; Quantum of Solace; Spyfall; Spectre; A Time to Die)

·       Comic Book (Non-Super-hero): 1 (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World)

·       Concerts: 3

o   2 Musical (Not the Messiah; John Barrowman in Concert)

o   1 Stand-Up Comedy (Bo Burnham’s what.)

·       Documentary: 1 (For the Love of Spock)

·       Horror: 3 (The Black Cat; White Zombie; Brides of Dracula)

·       Kaiju: 1 (Godzilla vs. King Kong)

·       Musicals: 9 (Tick, Tick …Boom!; Sweeney Todd (Angela Lansbury, George Hearn); Pitch Perfect; Dear Evan Hansen; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Come from Away; In the Heights; Allegiance; Godspell 50th Anniversary)

·       Mystery: 1 (Knives Out)

·       Romantic Comedy: 1 (Single All the Way)

·       Shakespeare: 2 (Henry IV, The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse productions))

·       Super-Hero: 4 (Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; Spider-Man Far from Home; Eternals) (wow, ALL Marvel…)

·       Thriller: 1 (The Gift)

·       Western: 1 (The Harder They Fall)

Television:

I watched approximately 411 hours of episodic television (almost double 2020’s viewing!). Taken alphabetically, the shows were:

·       Animaniacs (13 episodes)

·       DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (21)

·       Doctor Who (7)

·       Hawkeye (6)

·       Live From Lincoln Center (3)

·       Locke & Key (10)

·       Logan’s Run (14)

·       Loki (6)

·       Only Murders in the Building (10)

·       Paul Lynde’s Halloween Special (1)

·       Penn and Teller: Fool Us (1)

·       Route 66 (1) (Halloween episode with Karloff, Lorre, and Chaney)

·       Schmigadoon! (6)

·       Stargirl (13)

·       Star Trek: Discovery (20)

·       Star Trek: Lower Decks (20)

·       Star Trek: Prodigy (5)

·       Supergirl (18)

·       Superman and Lois (15)

·       Superman and Lois: Legacy of Hope (1)

·       Suspense! (1) (Bela Lugosi in “A Cask of Amontillado”)

·       Sweet Tooth (8)

·       Telephone Time (1) (“backdoor pilot” for The Veil)

·       The Kennedy Center Honors (1)

·       The Tony Awards (1)

·       The Beatles: Get Back (3)

·       The Book of Boba Fett (1)

·       The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (6)

·       The Flash (23)

·       The Goes Wrong Show (12)

·       The Muppet Show (118)

·       The Ready Room (8)

·       The Veil (11)

·       The Wheel of Time (8)

·       WandaVision (9)

·       We Are Who We Are (1)

·       What If (9)

Genre breakdown for television watched:

·       Comedy/Variety: 144 episodes / 4 shows

·       Super-Hero: 127 episodes / 11 shows

·       Science Fiction: 75 episodes / 7 shows

·       Concerts: 3 / 1 show

·       Horror: 23 episodes / 4 shows

·       Mystery: 10 episodes / 1 show

·       Magic: 1 episode / 1 show

·       Drama: 2 episodes / 2 shows

·       Musical: 1 episode / 1 show

·       Awards: 2 episodes / 2 shows

·       Documentary: 3 episodes / 1 show

·       Talk: 8 episodes / 1 show

·       Fantasy: 8 episodes / 1 show

All were live action except for 3 animated shows (Animaniacs; Star Trek: Lower Decks; Star Trek: Prodigy).

13 episodes were watched on live television (while in hotels traveling for work) and 18 episodes were on DVD; the rest were on digital platforms.

133 episodes were “rewatches” (Logan’s Run, The Muppet Show, and the Paul Lynde Halloween Special), all the rest were first viewings.

Next post will be my (very brief) summary of the writing, proofreading, and editing work I did in 2021.

Series Saturday: Universal's Frankenstein movies

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

I’ve been a fan of the original Universal Studios Monsters franchise for as long as I can remember, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve done any kind of intentional rewatch of most of them. This year I thought, being in the midst of a pandemic and all, that maybe I’d have time to revisit most of the rest, via the Legacy Collection DVDs I’ve had for ages. For various reasons, I only got through the Frankenstein movies.

There are eight movies in the original Universal Frankenstein series (or seven, if you’re one of those folks who discounts Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein):

·         Frankenstein (1931)

·         The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

·         Son of Frankenstein (1939)

·         Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

·         Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)

·         House of Frankenstein (1944)

·         House of Dracula (1945)

·         Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

The Universal Monsters “universe” was perhaps the earliest cinematic universe in terms of characters overlapping, but the attention to continuity wasn’t like it is today with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and such fare. The Frankenstein movies as a whole hold together better than some of the other sub-franchises in the UMU (I’m looking at you, sequels to Dracula!). Still, there are lots of discrepancies: in Frankenstein, Henry Frankenstein’s tower lab is some distance from Manor Frankenstein and the town it is a part of; in Bride, the tower is a lot closer, and in Son, the tower is right next door to what is now Castle Frankenstein, which overlooks the village. The interior sets of the Manor change quite a bit between Frankenstein and Bride, as well. Sometimes the same character is played by different actors across the franchise, and sometimes the same actors show up as multiple characters. I doubt many audience members at the time cared, as long as they got a good story, but I don’t think it would fly today.

For the most part, we do get solid stories with compelling characters. Although not very similar to the novel on which it is based, Frankenstein gives us Colin Clive’s brilliant performance as the obsessed and conflicted Henry Frankenstein and Boris Karloff’s poignant confused and lost Monster, supported by the always-eerie Dwight Frye as the hunchbacked assistant Fritz and the understated Edward Van Sloan as Doctor Waldman. The only weak point in the main cast, to me, is Mae Clarke as Elizabeth; her performance is a bit too “stagey” as compared to the rest of the cast (and perhaps is the reason the role was recast for Bride?). As unlike the source material as it may be, it’s still a tightly-told and well-acted tale directed by James Whale with great mood and tension throughout.

Karloff and Clive return as the Monster and his creator in The Bride of Frankenstein under Whale’s continued direction, with Elsa Lancaster as both Mary Shelley and the Bride. Valerie Hobson replaces Mae Clarke as Elizabeth. I love this movie almost as much as the original and Son, but man is the tone just all over the place. Whale can’t seem to decide if he’s making a pathos-filled character piece or a slapstick comedy. Una O’Connor’s Minnie (maid to Elizabeth? Housekeeper? I’m still unsure after multiple viewings exactly what her job is) takes up way more screen-time than comic relief should in a film like this, and O’Connor’s shrill over-the-top delivery makes almost every scene she’s in hard to watch. The scene where Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) produces his Homunculi also feels out of place, between the bawdy comedy between the Homunculi and the fact that Homunculi are never seen or mentioned again. Karloff is at his best as the Monster here, learning to talk and feel, and Clive matches him turn-for-turn as Henry grows desperate to just be done with creating life and return to his wife. If not for the Una O’Connor scenes and the Homunculi bit, Bride would be pretty perfect and perhaps even better than the original.

Son of Frankenstein, directed by Rowland V. Lee, was Karloff’s last turn as the Monster. Karloff does more acting here with his eyes than most actors do with their whole bodies, but he feels wasted. The Monster’s ability to talk is inexplicably gone. He’s not given much to do other than rampaging. Basil Rathbone takes over the lead spot as Henry’s son Wolf and does a great job as a man conflicted between forging his own path and following in his father’s footsteps. Bela Lugosi is brilliant, and almost unrecognizable, as the hunchback Ygor, stealing every scene he’s in.  Lionel Atwill makes his first appearance in the franchise as the one-armed Col. Krogh (in a scene that gets sent-up expertly by Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein). There are still some awkward humorous moments, mostly involving Wolf and Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson)’s toddler son Peter (Donnie Dunagan), but they’re not as prevalent or as distracting as the Minnie scenes in Bride. Had the franchise ended as a trilogy, it might rank as one of the best horror trilogies ever.

Ghost of Frankenstein moves the action from the town of Frankenstein to the town of Vasaria (where it will remain for pretty much the rest of the franchise). Lugosi returns as Ygor, Lon Chaney Jr. takes over as the Monster (not much more than a weapon of destruction, although in the early scenes there’s an attempt at emotion as the Monster once again bonds with a little girl and the crowd reacts out of fear for her safety), Sir Cedric Hardwicke plays both Ludwig Frankenstein (younger son of Henry) and Henry’s ghost, Evelyn Ankers appears as Ludwig’s daughter Elsa (not to be confused with Wolf’s wife), and Lionel Atwill plays his second character in the franchise, the not-so-nice Doctor Boehmer. It’s a solid movie, building tension as the various non-Monster leads jockey for whose brain they’re going to transplant into the Monster. There’s even a bit of a return to the Monster as he was in Bride, able to speak towards the end of the movie. But it almost feels like director Erle C. Kenton and the writers are trying too hard to be surprising and sneaky. I still love it, just not as much as the previous three.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man puts Lon Chaney Jr. back where he’s best (in hair and fangs), and puts Bela Lugosi in the Monster’s make-up. A sensible move given Ygor’s brain ends up in the Monster at the end of Ghost, except that behind-the-scenes machinations removed any scene where the Monster actually speaks, so Lugosi is as wasted as Karloff felt in Son (perhaps even more so). Elsa Frankenstein is now played by Ilona Massey (with an accent the previous Elsa didn’t have), and dialogue lets us know this is Ludwig’s daughter and not Wolf’s wife. She’s the first Frankenstein featured in the franchise who isn’t a scientist and really has nothing to do with the Monster. Lionel Atwill is back as his third character in the franchise, the Mayor of Vasaria. This is far more of a Wolf Man movie than it is a Frankenstein. Sans dialogue, the Monster is a weapon of mass destruction to be unleashed and defeated.

House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula are “everything and the kitchen sink” approaches to combining several of the Universal Monsters. To this day, I’m not sure why the Mummy and the Invisible Man weren’t invited to the parties. Both movies are pretty disjointed, especially in integrating Dracula into the rest of the action. Concentrating on just the Frankenstein elements: In House of Frankenstein, Glenn Strange takes over as The Monster; Lionel Atwill plays yet another character, Inspector Arnz; there’s a new hunchback played by J. Carrol Naish; and Boris Karloff returns to the franchise as a very different mad scientist, Doctor Neimann. Karloff is brilliant and Naish is excellent, but the Monster himself just lumbers and kills and is “killed.” In House of Dracula, Strange continues as the Monster; Lionel Atwill plays character #5 in the franchise, Police Inspector Holtz; the hunchbacked assistant is a woman (Jane Adams); and the mad scientist is now Doctor Edelmann, played by Onslow Stevens (the closest the Universal Monsters franchise ever really gets to incorporated a version of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, at least until the Abbott and Costello movies). House of Dracula is again far more of a Wolf Man (and perhaps a Jekyll/Hyde or even Dracula) movie than it is a Frankenstein movie. The Monster is mostly there for mayhem, but at least the Wolf Man gets a happy ending.

There are a lot of people who don’t consider Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as a valid part of the Frankenstein (or larger Universal Monsters) franchise. I am most emphatically not one of them. While I’m not sure where it should fit in the overall sequence (since I like to think that Larry Talbot gets to keep his Happy Ending from House of Dracula), I think it treats the monsters who appear (Bela Lugosi back as Dracula, Glenn Strange as the Monster, Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, Lenore Aubert as the requisite “mad scientist,” and a cameo by Vincent Price as The Invisible Man) with great respect. They’re played as the serious monsters they are, not for laughs. The comedy that comes from Abbott and Costello’s reactions to the Monsters fits much better than that provided by Minnie in Bride or Peter Frankenstein in Son. And Glenn Strange actually gets to speak as the Monster! The only thing that would have made this movie more perfect would have been if Lionel Atwill had still been alive to play one more random police officer or mad scientist. Unfortunately, he’d passed away in 1946. Still, it’s a fitting end-cap to the franchise.

Except…

For my own part, I also include Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein as a coda or grace note to the franchise. I included it in this rewatch, even though it’s not in the Legacy DVDs because it was released by a different studio. Brooks and Wilder’s love for the original movies is so evident in every frame of their film. They poke fun at the original movies’ inconsistencies and quirks, while still keeping the tone and using some of the original set pieces. There’s even a theory (espoused by my good friend Chuck Loridans among others) that “Froederick” Frankenstein is actually … Peter Frederick Frankenstein, Wolf’s son! (Who would have be a bit amnesiac to not remember meeting the original Monster and a one-armed policeman as a boy, but the blond hair, the expressive eyes, the sense of wonder… it fits!)

2019 By The Numbers

Earlier than previous years, here’s my media round-up for 2019: what I wrote, what was published, and what I read, listened to, and watched.

WRITING

Not much to report on this front. 2019 was not a good year for creating new content. I didn’t track what little writing I actually managed to do – but I know there were more days where I didn’t write than there were days I wrote, by far. I’m considering it a “recharging” year, as I consumed and processed a lot of wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) books, television, movies, live theatre and music events. The writing I did manage was mostly work on previous unfinished short stories.

PUBLISHING

2019 saw the publication of one short story:

• “Regardless of How Lost You Are Returning From, Regardless of How Far” appeared in Kaleidotrope magazine, edited by Fred Coppersmith

I also wrote a six paid book reviews for Strange Horizons magazine, and one for Out In Print (non-paid):

·         So You Want To Be A Robot: 21 Stories by A. Merc Rustad

·         Friday Black: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

·         Forget The Sleepless Shore: Stories by Sonya Taaffe

·         The Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag

·         Sealed by Naomi Booth

·         The History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

·         Of Echoes Born by ‘Nathan Burgoine (Out in Print)

READING

I set myself a variety of reading challenges in 2019. I managed to complete a few of them.

Goodreads Challenge:

I challenged myself to read 125 books. I read 144 books from approximately 73 different publishers.

Here’s the breakdown of what I read:

• Fiction: 140 books

  • 6 anthologies

    • 1 crime

    • 1 horror

    • 1 romance

    • 1 fantasy

    • 1 science fiction

    • 1 mixed-genre

  • 12 single-author collections

    • 3 science fiction

    • 3 horror

    • 2 fantasy

    • 2 crime/mystery

    • 2 poetry

  • 33 graphic novels

    • 8 super-hero

    • 4 horror

    • 12 fantasy

    • 1 crime

    • 2 pulp adventure

    • 2 romance

  • 12 magazines (all issues of Lightspeed magazine)

  • 40 novels

    • 8 crime

    • 3 horror

    • 1 thriller

    • 1 mystery

    • 6  Fantasy

    • 8 science fiction

    • 3 paranormal romance

    • 4 urban fantasy

    • 1 romance

    • 3 pulp adventure

    • 1 suspense

    • 1 mythology

    • 1 Christmas

  • 34 novellas

    • 11 horror

    • 5 fantasy

    • 4 romance

    • 7 literary

    • 4 pulp adventure

    • 1 science fiction

    • 1 crime

    • 1 Christmas

  • 2 novelettes

    • 1 fantasy

    • 1 horror

• Non-Fiction: 8 books

  • 2 Memoir

  • 1 History

  • 1 literary analysis

Other Book Stats:

# of Authors/Editors: approximately 136 (including graphic novel artists; I need to be better at listing all of the creators of graphic novels somehow). The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, but roughly:

·         39 female creators

·         5 Trans/Non-Binary

·         29 LGBTQIA+

·         10 Persons of Color

Shortest Book Read: 25 pages (Christmas with the Dead by Joe Lansdale)

Longest Book Read: 669 (Upon A Burning Throne by Ashok K.Banker)

Total # of pages read: 25,513

Average # of pages per book: 205

# of Rereads: 6 (including annual rereads of Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 11

·         February: 18 (most read in a month)

·         March: 14

·         April: 7 (fewest read in a month)

·         May: 11

·         June: 10

·         July: 8

·         August: 14

·         September: 11

·         October: 15

·         November: 13

·         December: 13

Review-wise on Goodreads I gave 2 two-star reviews, 21 three-stars, 86 four-stars, and 35 five-star reviews.

Format Summary:

• 17 audiobooks

• 31 ebooks

• 96 print

  • 25 hardcovers

  • 71 softcovers

365 Short Stories Challenge:

Each year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. I read 401 stories in 2019, beating the goal handily. The shortest was approximately 7 pages and the longest approximately 61. Those 401 stories appeared in:

• 12 Magazines

  • Nightmare

  • Lightspeed

  • The Dark

  • One Story

  • Analog

  • The Strand

  • Interzone

  • Lamplight

  • Black Static

  • Abyss & Apex

  • One Teen Story

  • Uncanny

• 9 Anthologies

  • Resist Fascism

  • From Sea to Stormy Sea

  • If This Goes On

  • A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Godds

  • The Many Tortures of Anthony Cardno

  • Fool For Love

  • F is for Fairy

  • At Home in the Dark

  • Devil Take Me

• 15 Single-Author Collections

  • The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Physics by Carlos Hernandez

  • The Time Machine and Other Stories by H.G. Wells

  • Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

  • Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  • Untranslatable by Alma Alexander

  • Hunt the Avenger by Win Scott Eckert

  • Trans Space Octopus Convention by Bogi Takacs

  • Oriental Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

  • Spinning Around A Sun by Everett Maroon

  • A History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

  • Acres of Perhaps by Will Ludwigsen

  • Under the Sunset by Bram Stoker

  • Two Todd Tales by Joseph Pittman

  • In Re: Sherlock Holmes by August Derleth

  • Forget the Sleepless Shores by Sonya Taaffe

• 5 published as “back-matter” in the following novels

  • If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear

  • Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother

  • Rosemary and Rue 10th Anniversary Hardcover Edition

  • That Ain’t Witchcraft

  • The Unkindest Tide

• 16 Stand-alone (self-pubbed or publisher-pubbed in e-format)

  • Seanan McGuire (Patreon)

  • Lucy Snyder (Patreon)

  • Sabrina Vourvoulias (Cast of Wonders audio podcast)

  • Lydia M. Hawke (author website)

  • Jim Butcher (Evil Hat website)

Those 401 stories were written by 232 different authors. The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, but roughly:

·         104 female creators

·         6 Trans/Non-Binary

·         33 LGBTQIA+

·         32 Persons of Color

I gave 13 two-star ratings, 208 three-star, 157 four-star, and 23 five-star ratings. The shortest story was 7 pages long and the longest 61.

Graphic Novel Challenge:

Because I own so many, I challenged myself to read one graphic novel per week. I didn’t make it, reading a total of 33 from 11 different publishers:

·         DC Comics: 7

·         Marvel Comics: 8

·         BOOM! Box: 8

·         Dynamite Comics: 2

·         Image Comics: 2

·         Hard Case Crime: 1

·         TO Comix: 1

·         Scholastic Books: 1

·         Panic Button Comics: 1

·         Dark Horse: 1

·         Self-Pubbed: 1

Non-Fiction Challenge: I didn’t do as well on this one. I challenged myself to read 24 non-fiction books in 2019, and I only read 4.

Read the Book, Watch the Movie Challenge: Completely bombed this one. Planned to do at least 10 of these and did 0.

Complete the Series Challenge: Bombed this one too. Planned to read 3 complete series, totally 16 books, and read 0 of 16, completing 0 series.

VIEWING

I tried tracking the movies, TV and live events I watched this year. Here’s how that went:

Movies: Apparently, I only watched 17 movies this year. (I suspect I forgot to enter a few things into the database.)

·         9 on DVD

·         2 on Netflix

·         6 in the theater

Live Events: I attended 15 live events this year.

·         10 plays

• 6 straight plays (4 on Broadway, 2 high school, one attended twice)

• 4 musicals (1 Broadway, 1 regional, 2 high school)

·         4 concerts (Dennis DeYoung, Greyson Chance, Blue Alien Mystic, and the Mahopac High School Pacapellas)

Television: I watched approximately 162 hours of episodic television:

·         Arrow (20 episodes)

·         Batwoman (9 episodes)

·         Beyond Stranger Things (7 episodes)

·         Black Mirror (2 episodes)

·         Doctor Who (1 episode)

·         The Flash (21 episodes)

·         Game of Thrones (1 episode)

·         Good Omens (6 episodes)

·         Great Performances (1 episode)

·         DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (9 episodes)

·         Planet of the Apes (14 episodes)

·         Stranger Things (25 episodes)

·         Supergirl (22 episodes)

·         The Big Bang Theory (2 episodes)

·         Vera (1 episode)

·         Vicious (14 episodes)

·         Watchmen (6 episodes)

·         Young Sheldon (1 episode)

So there you have it: my writing, publishing, reading, and viewing by the numbers, for 2019.

Earlier this week, I posted about my reading challenges for 2020. I plan to post about my writing plans, and possibly viewing plans, next week.