I thought September was going to be another low-key month for a while there, but I wound up having a surprise opportunity to hit up some bookstores I don’t normally get to, and that led me to get a little carried away with picking up some new ones. It made for a great outing, however, and I picked up some books I’ve been trying to hunt down for a while.

Let’s see what I picked up.

New Books

“An inspiration tale about a revolutionary time in history” is a blind date book that I bought at a local Indigo. They were selling various books like this as a fundraiser for a local school, so I decided to pick one up with a bunch of change I had on hand. Now, despite the I now own the book and could open it if I wanted, I’ve decided to keep it completely secret until I decide to actually read it, which will surely happen within the next 5 or so years.

This is a Book by Demetri Martin I picked up due to a twinge of nostalgia. I can’t say I was ever a huge fan of Martin’s comedy, but I did enjoy his off-beat, unusual comedy style back in the day when I used to watched a lot of Important Things with Demetri Martin on The Comedy Network here in Canada. I wouldn’t track this down new, but finding it second hand caught me in the right mood.

On the last weekend of September I made a trip into Toronto to celebrate my upcoming birthday with some friends alongside another friend’s birthday that had just passed. We wound up going downtown and visiting Little Ghosts Books, an all-horror bookstore that I had really been wanting to check out. After agonizing over a bunch of different books there that are on my TBR, these are the two I left with.

The Spirit by Thomas Page is not a specific book I had been looking for, but it is a type of book I’d been wanting to pick up: a Valancourt book. Valancourt Books republishes vintage horror from the 1970s, maintaining the classic old cover art (and even paying the original artists or their estates, as I was told). I love this idea, so I’d been wanting to pick one up for a while and got very excited to see an entire shelf dedicated to them at this store. I settled on The Spirit because I liked the cover art and I wanted something to read as a Christmas ghost story this year (though I think this might actually be a monster book).

I also picked up Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, a horror novella I’ve been wanting to read for a while now. Initially, it was my intention to borrow a digital copy from the library this year and read that, especially since it’s been hard to find outside of place like Amazon. Finding it at Little Ghosts Books made it an easy choice, especially after the employee there gushed about it.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher is a new canon Star Wars novel I’ve been meaning to pick up for a while now, I’ve just cooled off on Star Wars since the sequels finished. This book is more connected to the episode nine, however, so it’s felt like a bit of unfinished business that I hadn’t picked it up. Fortunately, I found a second-hand copy at a BMV books in Toronto.

At the very same shop I found The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve been wanting to read a lot more of Vonnegut’s work since reading Slaughterhouse Five, and for some reason I’ve gravitated toward this one more than any other, even though I know very little about it other than a vague promise of vintage space-faring science fiction.

Nearly forgotten but squeaking in at the end is Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. I had some points saved up and thought that the perfect use for them would be picking up the next Discworld novel I need; I continue to love that series and want all of them, so picking up the next one I need was as simple as that.

Novel Discoveries

Root Rot by Saskia Nislow is a horror novel I learned about on TikTok, as slideshows showcasing horror novels are being increasingly shown to me on that app this time of year. I cannot recall much of the premise (which I prefer), but the wonderful cover art and its emphasis on body horror have me curious.

Ditto for Dead End Tunnel by Nick Roberts regarding where I came across it. I recall the post hyping it up in a way I’m a little skeptical of, but I do like the look of the cover art and its promise of supernatural violence, so I’ll probably check it out sometime.

A History of Britain in Ten Enemies by Terry Deary is a book I encountered in one of another blog’s WWW post sometime last month. I have a passing interest in British history, though I can’t say I’ve read much about it, and giving an overview of its extensive history through the lens of wars across history sounds appealing to me, especially in knowing how numerous invasions shaped and reshaped the people of the British Isles.

Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung is a book I considered picking up at Little Ghosts Books but decided to put a pin in it for the time being. Subtitled “A Novel in Ghost Stories”, the book centres around an overnight employee at an institute as they learn why new employees typically don’t last long through various incidents caused by haunted objects and rooms. Maybe I’ll pick it up next time I’m there.

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Until next time, thank you for reading!