October has been one of those months that felt both long and short at the same time. Long because it was quite the eventful month thanks to some birthdays, Thanksgiving, and personal excursions and occasions. Short because I cannot believe that it’s basically over already. The spooky revelry has come up a bit short for me too, I’m afraid. It’s not done just yet, but I haven’t finished reading the books I meant to and people in my life haven’t seemed into it the way they have been in the past. It sure is like that sometimes.

Anyway, that’s not why I’m here right now. On to the books!

New Books

A fairly average month in terms of haul, all things considered. I probably do average 3-4 books a month, but for some reason I thought this was low at first.

False Knees by Joshua Barkman is one of two preorders I had lined up for this month. I’ve been following the artist on social media for a while now and have always enjoyed their comics, so once I heard they had a book coming out I wanted to show my support.

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler is one I’ve had my eyes on for a while, but I believe before now it hadn’t been published in North America. I was tempted more than once to pick up a copy imported from the UK online, but relented when I saw I could preorder it for release here. Each chapter is bite-sized in a way that I love, so I’m excited to dig into it sometime soon.

The only surprise this month (insofar as I didn’t plan to pick it up) was Star Wars: Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray . While picking up False Knees at the bookstore I realized I had the perfect opportunity to earn my extra birthday points as well, so I needed to pick out another book to do it. While browsing I stumbled across this book. I had no idea the paperback had even come out yet. It was a pretty easy decision once I saw it, since her Star Wars books have been killer so far.

Novel Discoveries

Surprisingly light on the books shelved in the ol’ to-read list this month. The two here were only added in the last week, in fact. I guess nothing really caught my eye most of the month.

On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears by Stephen T. Asma is a book I heard about from an episode of Mind Field on YouTube. The episode was all about fears and the author was brought on briefly to talk about what scares us, the book being referenced. Having an affinity for myths and monsters myself, putting a mental pin in this book was a no-brainer.

Tremor Dose by Michael Conrad and Noah Bailey is a horror graphic novel that apparently just came out yesterday. It seems based heavily on nightmares and takes inspiration from the “This Man” hoax, which despite being such was an evocatively creepy little development. Something about it has me intrigued enough that I want to give it a look.

Closing Thoughts

This post feels much more brief to me, and I wonder if that has to do with the apparent rut I’ve been having with reading. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it burnout, but I don’t have the exact drive for it that I’ve had in the more recent past. I definitely need to reorganize how I’ll be approaching things in the new year. I think I gave myself too big of a to-read list. On top of actively starting to write a novel (progress being slow) it has felt like my focus is too divided. Definitely need to prioritize differently.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Thank you for reading!