It was with uncanny speed that September seemed to pass us by, though I’m not really complaining since it means that October and the Halloween season are now in full swing (today’s unseasonable warmth here notwithstanding). I allowed myself to indulge a little last month, in large part because I decided to browse some stores I hadn’t been to in a long while. I’m actually feeling especially good about all the books I picked up this month, such that I feel they’re all books I’ll read pretty soon.

Enough delay, on to the books!

New Books

These three volumes of Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang are the complete latter half of the series, which I still needed so that I can complete my read through this year. I had been thinking about picking them all up at once for a while now, and I had the opportunity to visit BMV used bookstore in Toronto, one of my old haunts, while visiting with friends. This allowed me to pick them all up for $25 total, so it was more than worth it.

The Employees by Olga Ravn is a book I believe I included in Novel Discoveries many months ago, and probably longer ago than I think. I was browsing a local bookstore before going to dinner a few weeks ago and happened upon it. I helped justify buying it by the assumption that it’s a book that would probably be harder to find in a thrift store. It’s told via staff reports written by the crew of a ship who all start to behave strangely after taking on new cargo. It should be a fun, quick read.

The Haar by David Sodergren was included in Novel Discoveries last month, and I picked it up already because I’m just too eager to check out this author’s work. I especially love the cover art of this one (I hope it’s a growing trend among horror novels), I just need to see if I actually like the author’s writing before I check out any others. I’m planning to read it this month.

Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama is a book I preordered back in March, and I’m really excited to give it a look. It collects the two novella adaptations of the first two Godzilla movies written at the time of their releases. This is the first time they’ve ever been published in English, or so it says anyway. I’m really excited to check this out, given that it’s writing about the monster without the cultural baggage of decades as a cultural icon.

Video Game of the Year by Jordan Minor is a book I wasn’t expecting to buy so soon, but I’m glad I did. I first learned about it on an episode of the The Nextlander Podcast from July that I was catching up on that included the author as a guest. Not trying to be a definitive list of the best game of each year, the book instead highlights what it considers to be one of the most influential titles of each year in video games. It looks like a comprehensive yet fun read, and I feel like there’s a good chance I’ll read this one soon too.

Novel Discoveries

This month was a little scant, but I just haven’t come across much that has caught my attention.

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount is a book I honestly have very little memory of adding to my to-read list on Goodreads, so I have no idea where I learned about it from. Still, as a book lover it does look like an entertaining book to peruse, though I’d want to be able to have closer look at it before buying a copy.

I’m pretty sure I learned about Mythology of the British Isles by Geoffrey Ashe from another blog’s WWW post, though I cannot remember where. It’s a topic that has always marginally interested me, as Christianity seems to have overwritten a lot of the old myths of that place, such that they seem harder to discern than something like Greek mythology. This book seems fairly new and not widely read, so I’m not sure it’ll be the best source for what I want, but it’s title is advertising it as precisely what I’ve been looking for, so we’ll see.

Closing Thoughts

Do you have any spooky reading plans for this month? I’d love to hear about them 🎃

Until next time, thank you for reading.