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It's my fourth year posting, and all still remain on Reading Corner's first page. Hello? Is anyone here? The year is 2024, and I am the last surviving member in the forgotten corner of CYS. One day they may discover my body...and my reading lists.

As before, all ratings are objectively subject to my personal enjoyment.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling – 9/10
I'm not sure what I'll do next year. Somehow Harry Potter has made it into my last four years of book reading. To be fair (and less gay), it's my first time reading the series. After hating the first one, I decided to finish the rest to really shit on them (shit with credentials, so to speak). Unfortunately, I really liked them.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling – 9/10
See above.

A Haunting in Venice, Agatha Christie – 6/10
Ah, the famed Agatha and detective Hercule Poirot. I picked this up from a CVS because I finished my book packed for work travel. After reading The Silent Patient in 24 hours and knowing of the Agatha Christie influence, I wanted to try one. Besides, the book cover looked badass. Well, you know what they say: never skip leg day, and don't judge a book by its cover. It's written by an old woman for old women...or Hollywood hipsters (in my unprofessional opinion).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling – 9/10
Certified banger. See above.

Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King – 9/10
Many years ago my life was changed when I picked up a Stephen King book from a free library. It turned out to be the third and final book of the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. Now, many years later, I finally got around to the first of the series. So good. Who knows, maybe in a few years I'll get around to the second!

Injustice: Gods Among Us, Tom Taylor – 7/10
Does a graphic novel count? It's my damn list, so yes. I read comics for the first time this year. Didn't hate them, even if I felt my attention span slowly draining away. Along with Injustice, I went through the Batman Year Ones. They made me want to write a comic style storygame, but that's Chris's specialty. Maybe he'll publish one from Arkham Asylum.

Seal of God, Chad Williams – 6/10
If you thought I bragged, at least I didn't write an entire book on myself. Not yet anyway. Seal of God is 60% bragging about being a navy seal, 40% about Jesus. Let's just say I got what I paid for here (it was free). Also fun fact, I've worked out with Chad Williams before.

The Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis – 7/10
For you non-religious types, you're missing out by avoiding C.S. Lewis. The man is a certified badass. Funny too, and that's even considering his British-ness. That said, 7/10. The Narnia books vary in enjoyment levels. The first doesn't start out as strong.

Needful Things, Stephen King – 8/10
A book about dealing with the devil. Seriously. A shop opens in town, and it's owned by the devil. The poor people of Maine never stood a chance. Neither did my mind; it was blown away. Another solid King book.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis – 7/10
They made a movie once. The book was better. The Narnia books get better, I promise.

Patriot Games, Tom Clancy – 8/10
Similiar to picking up an Agatha Christie, Tom Clancy has been on the list for a while now. Shout out to the stranger who put a few copies in the neighborhood free library. While it felt old-timey at times, there was a good amount of suspense and thrills, although it's one of those books that read like the author clearly wants to be their main character. Just like most fantasy writers when their MC gets romanced.

The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis – 7/10
The first few Narnia books especially read like children's books. I know, I know, they are. That doesn't mean they're not subject to my rating system. The Horse and His Boy is a solid addition to the series, despite feeling like a side quest.

Firestarter, Stephen King – 10/10
The only 10/10 on the list. Fun fact, there's a Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty quest named after the book. Highly recommended for anyone to pick up.

Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis – 7/10
Prince Caspian, the legend himself. It's not a unique prince story, nor is it the best, but it's integral to the Narnia narrative. Caspian is pretty much the Aragorn of Narnia, after all.

Holly, Stephen King – 3/10
Holly is the only Stephen King book that's bad. Somehow King really screwed this one up. It's filled with COVID propaganda, probably another side effect of the vaccine. Fortunately, King's later publishings are back to usual biz.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis – 8/10
Sailing to the end of the world. Sound familiar?

The Book of 5 Rings, Miyamoto Musashi – 8/10
Another read due to scarcity. A free Kindle book picked up while traveling. I learned how to kill my enemies with the sword. My mantis style beat your tiger.

Dune, Frank Herbert – 6/10
Dune reads with the same epicness of the latest movies. It also reads just as slow. It suffers from its length, I think. There's just not enough happening to warrant my copy's 900 pages, certainly not enough to warrant writing a billion more in collection. Call it the Ender effect.

The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis – 8/10
C.S. Lewis keeps his foot on the gas with The Silver Chair. I liked this a lot better than the finale. It had adventure, action, and twists. When the good guys won (spoiler alert), it felt like a worthwhile accomplishment. Strange how that's not always the case with books.

Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert – 7/10
The second book of the Dune trilogy is the best, in my opinion. The page count is just right. Also, after the sudden ending of Dune, it's nice to discover the state of things. Paul Atreides is a gangster.

The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis – 7/10
A somewhat disappointing ending to the Narnia series. The steady incline of each book fell flat with the finale, probably because the previous two books were so good. The Last Battle feels disjointed from the previous events, and the good guys were so dumb that they almost deserve their injustice. That said, it does wrap up all loose ends, which avoids the cardinal sin of finales.

You Like It Darker, Stephen King – 8/10
A collection of short stories. This book scared me more than any other King read. Was it a horror masterpiece? No. It was the first read after Holly, and I was afraid all subsequent books would be just as bad. King's back, baby.

Christine, Stephen King – 9/10
A car possessed by an evil spirit, vintage King. Somehow King takes a simple idea and wraps intricate storytelling around it. King is king, truly. He's so good that it took me 400 pages to realize the mixture of first and third person POV. Everything flowed so well. He's that damn good.

Injustice: Gods among us is amazing! What was your favorite year, mine was probably the year with John Constantine where he betrays Batman I think. that was crazy.

I never understood how they managed to drag the story out for so long, I think at some point they have Superman trapped by magic and basically dead to rights but he somehow escapes. I know they were setting up for the game(one of the best games ever), but still, Superman totally should have died. I agree with you with the attention span, it was really good in the beginning, seeing evil superman, but it didn't need to take 5 years just to get to the events of the game, where basically this Batman is the only one left in the insurgency since everyone else either died or defected to superman's side, so he pulls prime earth counterparts of league heroes into this earth because he needs their help to use a special weapon to kill Superman. This could have been done like 3 years ago, but for the sake of making more money, they dragged the story.

If you want some more comics recommendations, you got to read:

Watchmen by Alan Moore

Kingdom Come

Batman:Hush

Superman:Red Son

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Long Halloween(in my opinion, the best batman story)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Court of Owls

Batman: The Black Mirror(this one stars Batman's adopted son, Dick Grayson, as Batman so it's really interesting)

Spiderman: Life Story(one of my favorites)

Lot of DC stuff I see. Got some of those in graphic novel format. Or I did. (Wizzy's got some of them now)

For a DC Comics title that has nothing to do with superheroes, I would recommend Road to Perdition (1998) by Max Allen Collins and Richard Piers Rayner.

No, you don't get a pass by only viewing the movie adaptation.

Oh yeah that’s a mafia movie right? I saw the film with Tom hanks. I need to read the actual comic.

Get it done my man

Is it better than the movie?

Usually the source material is, and I would say so here too. I did enjoy the movie as well though.

Yeah I swing towards DC, I really like their stories, but I would also recommend league of extraordinary gentlemen, miracleman(Alan Moore), hellboy, Spawn(image comics), Kick Ass, and preacher.

These ones are a lot more hardcore but I think they are really good!

Out of all of these I own kingdom come, Tdk returns, black mirror, and Spider-Man life story.

I didn’t know you were a DC fan End, that’s really cool! What’s your favorite comic?

I'm actually not a DC or Marvel fan. I don't even like super heroes for the most part. Hell, I don't even buy comics anymore and haven't in a long time.

However, back in the old days I did occasionally buy the odd Marvel or DC graphic novel that looked like it had an interesting premise. Usually these were a lot of "What if" style stories (Marvel and DC) since they were one shots that fucked around with the status quo. (Like Red Son for example)

Other than those, some of the major Batman stories caught my attention since I did like the animated series in the 90s at one point and he was pretty much the only super hero (And Superman to a much lesser extent since that animated series was alright too)I followed to any degree since he had more memorable villains.

As far as favorite comic, well I was sort of all over the place with what I did read. Usually went for more indy or semi-indy stuff. Lot of short lived horror related comics, that sort of thing. The company I was absolutely loyal too back when I was buying them a lot was the now defunct "Chaos! Comics" I still have almost everything they ever put out. Dark Horse Comics probably another one I bought some series regularly from for awhile. I guess the closest I ever got to buying an ongoing series from one of the more "mainstream" companies was Image and that was Walking Dead. Sold all those (Got the Omnibuses for the stories though)

If you want an example of some of the type of stuff I read, there's a thread at the top of the Reading Corner with links to a lot of my comic reviews. I'll probably do more of those when I have time.

I liked the first year best. Each subsequent, it seemed to go off the rails a little more. Funny, I just wanted to slip in the comic book stuff, but that's capturing attention. I actually got my hands on a copy of Long Halloween, and it's so good. I'm also a few into chapters into Court of Owls. Writing-wise, I'm amazed by the dialogue and internal monologues. There's no room for words that don't add value. Something I hope to apply to future storygames.

I love The Horse and His Boy and The Silver Chair.

The Horse and His Boy
I don't really mind the side quest part of the story and appreciate it as its own thing apart from the main story. I wish Lewis would have written more of these, perhaps from the perspective of some non-human Narnian champion.

The Silver Chair

I enjoyed the allegorical aspects of this story the most out of the rest of the Narnian trilogy. It speaks to me a lot as a Christian with how I look at keeping God's Word fresh in my mind and sharing it with others so we can continue to keep it alive and follow it properly. Along with the book is a goofy, yet endearing BBC adaptation that features Puddleglum portrayed by the masterful Tom Baker (for all you Doctor Who fans out there).

The Silver Chair feels like the most complete story of the series. Honestly, it would be cool to see an expanded version spanning several hundred pages. Maybe that's a job for Lewis.ai.

That one was just fun and yeah, felt like a standalone in some ways. Having not read these books in over a decade it's probably significant that that one sticks out in the most detail in my mind.

The Horse and His Boy was also pretty solid. Honestly I'm surprised Narnia fanfic isn't more popular or some kind of expanded universe never became a thing, Lewis creates such an inviting setting but imo didn't seem to want to explore it as much as he could have. (Yes yes, I know they're children's books about upright British children and Lion Jesus.)

Glad you liked Firestarter.

I remember you'd been referencing it when Stephen King is mentioned. If only I listened sooner.