As far as physical books go, this has been a month of preorders. I did poke around some bookstores throughout the month though, especially while I was visiting Toronto. There are some used bookstores I really like there and I tried to find some specific novels and comic books I’ve been looking for, but sadly had no luck. What stung the most was a specific comic I was looking for was there one of the last times I’d checked the location, but that was many months ago.

So, what I’m left with in terms of new books were those I’ve been expecting for several months. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. On to the books!

New Books

The Buying of Lot 37 and Who’s a Good Boy? are the two latest script collections of episodes from the Welcome to Night Vale podcast by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. I really enjoyed revisiting the series with the previous two volumes, especially since they included excellent drawings by Jessica Hayworth and added commentary before each episode’s script from the writers/performers. This added great insight into the production. I expect I will enjoy these just as much.

I’ve been looking forward to reading Bloodborne: The Healing Thirst by Aleš Kot, Piotr Kowalski, and Brad Simpson since I so thoroughly enjoyed The Death of Sleep, the first volume based on the video game Bloodborne that his creative team put together. They did such a fantastic job of capturing the look and feel of the world of Yharnam that I can’t wait to go back.

OTP by Maki Naro and the two Den Dwellers books by Henri Dumas I picked up at tables at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival a few weeks ago. The first is a cute little story of an unlikely pair of animals befriending each other during the Permian Extinction event. The latter two are surreal, dreamlike stories with no text whatsoever and I got them explicitly because they’re weird.

The digital purchases I made this month were all Star Wars related. The coming of May the 4th brought a sale on a selection of Star Wars graphic novels on Comixology, so I made sure to pick up the next two books I needed in their mainline Star Wars series as well as Doctor Aphra.

Novel Discoveries

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht is the only one that I was not introduced to by another blog’s WWW post. I actually can’t quite remember where I came across it, only that I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it.

Twisted by Steve Cavanagh I added because of my continuing, yet unfulfilled interest in reading more mystery novels. If I recall correctly, the book has to with an author of mystery ficiton getting wrapped up in actual murders…or maybe the “author” of the book itself is the murderer? I honestly can’t remember, but I did shelve it for a reason.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a book I normally don’t go for. Young Adult romance just doesn’t appeal to me that often. That being said, this book sounded interesting enough that I may want to broaden my horizons by checking it out someday.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff is by all accounts I’ve heard another novel that plays around with formatting, perhaps in a similar vein to House of Leaves. The blog I heard about it from has been so enthusiastic about the series that I decided I had to put a pin in it to eventually see what the fuss is about. Beyond that I’m actually not sure I recall what the premise even is, but I believe it has something to do with space or aliens? I like to keep books vague before I read them sometimes, so I’m not going to double check.

Moving Foreword I find amusing on its premise alone: it’s a book of nothing but forewords to completely made-up books. I’m not sure how much I’d actually enjoy that, but I love the premise enough to want to check it out.

Lastly, I added The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben to my list on account of I’m reading The Hidden Life of Trees. It turns out that these books are part of a series by the author called The Mysteries of Nature and I’m enjoying the book on trees so much I definitely want to check out the rest.

Closing Thoughts

I don’t really have any particular closing thoughts this week…except for what I’m doing right now. It’s not as if this section is rigidly defined. Anyway, I work night shifts, which often means I’m finishing up posts like this one in the morning after work before I go to bed so I can get it out early in the day. Well today I made the mistake of having a lie down in bed for a “minute” and, well, here we are. It is not the morning. It is evening. I guess I’m just a little miffed I got this out so late in the day. I hope you don’t hold it against me.

Thank you for reading!