Last month I had actually hoped to do some more shopping than I ended up achieving. I went to Fan Expo in Toronto for the first time in five years, after having gone for about 10 years in a row until the pandemic hit. I was hoping to use the opportunity to pick up some comic book omnibuses I’ve been wanting, but it turns out the event is less worth it for comic book shopping than ever. They used to at least list trades for American cover price, giving a significant discount in Canadian dollars, but the few vendors that were selling them were just advertising Canadian cover price, except for one that just didn’t have any of what I wanted. So, boo to that.

With the griping out of the way, let’s check out the books that I did get, how about it.

New Books

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman is a book I found at a thrift store. I’ve only read a couple of his essay collections, and while some of their topics have been a little out of my wheelhouse, I do really like his style and want to read more of him, so a decent second-hand copy is an easy buy for me.

Cliches & Platitudes is a book I bought at the same time as the Klosterman one. It’s not something you read cover to cover, I just found the idea of carrying it around to provide platitudes unbidden really funny. It’s the sort of thing that reminds me of my grandpa. I think the same idea would have been amusing to him too.

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel I bought at my favourite used bookstore in Toronto, BMV, the day before Fan Expo. I’ve been trying to track down a discount copy of this book for a while now, though I’m not sure why. I liked the first book and really want to continue the series, so I would’ve bought it new if I had to. At any rate, I got this one for $10, so I’m happy I decided to bide my time.

Steel by Richard Matheson I bought from a different thrift store some other day. This collection may have crossover with another Matheson collection I have, but that one seemed more horror oriented. This one I picked up because I really like Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, which was a great one-off movie that I feel like people don’t talk about as much as they should.

These two omnibus volumes of BPRD: Hell on Earth I also picked up at BMV; these are the books I wanted at Expo, but no such luck. The only copies of the series I even did find were these books I bought anyway, and the price was a lot better at BMV. I’m still happy I got some of these out of the trip one way or another, though. All I need is volumes one to three now and I’ll have all the BPRD series in omnibus form.

Novel Discoveries

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman is a horror novel I’ve been hearing some decent buzz about, so I decided to put in a pin in it. There’s a few Malerman books I’ve been meaning to read now, so I can’t say that this will be my first one, but I’m a least curious about it.

Begotten: A Gothic Novel by Kate Cherrell is a book I opened a preorder for because the author is somebody I’ve become a fan of over the last couple years. She’s a doctor of occult history and a co-host on the Loopholes podcast, which I know her best from. I had no idea she was writing a book of fiction, but once I heard about it it was a no-brainer to show my support.

The Book-Makers by Adam Smyth is a book I have no recollection of adding to my to-read list. I do have a least a passing interest in the history of book publishing and the medium in general, however, so it sounds like an interesting nonfiction outing, covering 500 years of history around the people who helped make printed books what they are today.

Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison is a book I’m very happy to have learned about. I’ve been wanting a copy of his stories for a long time now, but he’s gone woefully out of print. His work started having something of a moment on TikTok recently, however, and I’m wondering if that maybe helped this along. Probably only marginally, but the timing is at least interesting. This includes “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”, which I have read before, but I’ll be happy to own a book that includes it, and I really want to read more of his stuff besides.

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Until next time, thank you for reading!