End of 2022 - Book Review & Stats

 This year has been amazing to say the least in terms of reading. 

I've read 179 books with 43869 pages (average 245 per book). To compare my top three years were; were

2010 - 26978 pages (102 Books)
2021 - 25763 pages (92 books)

So what did I read and why only 245 pages in average. Well the vast majoriy was horror with 90 books, 24 Sci-Fi & 25 Fantasy in terms of Gene.

In terms of Black Library I've read 11 novels, 

So what were the ratings

1 Star - 17 

2 Stars - 25

3 Stars - 43

4 Stars - 59

5 Stars - 30

I currently Finish a couple of novels 

Fire Warrior By Simon Spurrier;  (Reread)
Harry Potter And the Prisoner of Azkaban - J K Rowling  (Reread)
The Elric Saga (Book1 ) - Michael Moorcock  (Reread)
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien  (Reread)
Tide of Souls - Simon Bestwick

Probably Gonna finish this month all of the above

So what were my favorite/top ten (eleven)

1. Pan's Labyrinth by Guillerme Del Toro
2. Starving Zoe - C Derick Miller
3. Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets (Reread)
4. The Hunt for Vulkan - David Annadale
5. Servant of the Shard - R A Salvatore
6. The Far Empty - J Todd Scott
7. Remina - Junji Ito
8. Recursion - Blake Crouch
9. The Abuse of Ashley Collins - Jon Athan
10. Crossed (Several issues)
11. BlackWing - Ed Macdonald

Dissapointing Reads

1. Caitlin Kiernan - Tinfoil Dossier Series
2. Michael Scott Rohan - The Ice King
3. Shadow of the Vulture - Regina Garza Mitchell - Woke Stuff
4. They Built the Gallows for you and me - Cody Higgins
5. The Spirit - Thomas Page
6. John Hornor Jacobs - A Lush and Seeting Hell (both stories)
7. Crossed - Several issues

TBR January 2023

 So, I am going to start doing this on a monthly basis here. I made on youtube but I don't think that's worth it anymore.

I will be also try to make a weekly update on friday of my reading performance.

So as you know this year of 2023 I've got a lot of novels line up to read. Probably I won't be reading them all BUT will try. My main goal above everything else is start reading Horus Heresy novels.

I am going to add the above with the books I am going to read and cross-check them.

So let's start January with Horus Rising (416); Thanquol's Doom (408); Shadow Games (351); Resurrection Dreams (352); Beasts in Velvet (286); Grim Investigations - Dark Revelation + Investigator Origins (200); 

Continuing from December ; Fellowship of the Rings (275 pages)

Continuing from December ; Fire Warrior (300 pages)

That's around 2500 pages which would be awesome to read.  

Happy readings everyone.

Reading Objectives for 2023

First of all I am going to stop with the all pages per day. It's not that viable continue that and it's making me feeling bad. Like I didn't read those 50 or 100 pages per day and I got a bit pressure... So I am going to stop. I am going to try to read more gamebooks & boardgames so less books to read... But I do have a goal.

So let's go, 

My first and important goal is to read at least 12 bbooks under Horus Heresy Stuff

• Horus Rising
• The False Gods
• Galaxy in Flames
• Flight of the Eisenstein
• Fulgrim
• Descent of Angels
• Legion
• Battle for the  Abyss
• Mechanicum
• Tales of Heresy
• Fallen Angels
• A Thousand Sons

Then the second objective is to continue reading Stars Wars novels

•  Han Solo's Revenge
• Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
• Darth Plagueis
• Luke Skywalker and Shadows of Mindor
• Cloak of Deception
• Darth Maul Shadow Hunter
• Maul: LockDown
• Shadow Games
• Tales of the Bounty Hunters
• Shadows of the Empire
• Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
• Rogue Planet

The above list may change... But that's my goal

Then is to continue/finish some series like;

• - Continuing Vampire Hunter D (at least 2 novels) - Book 9 & 10
• - Continuing Drizzt Novels Promise of the Witch King & Road of the Patriach
• - Continuing Richard Laymon 6 novels (once every two months)
• - Continuing Ender Saga with Children of the Mind
• - Continuing Black Jack - Dreadnaught
• - Continuing reading Aconyte novels set in Arkham Horror; Zombicide
• - Finishing Ed Macdonalds Ravencry & Crowfall
• - Finishing Poirot - 5 novels remaining
• - Finishing Beast Arise Series - 5 books remaining
• - Finishing Read Beasts of Velvet - Last book on the series
• - Finishing the last novel on Thanquol Series by CL Werner
  
• - Finishing Tomes of the Dead series (4 novels to go)

I can't leave without horror and the vast majority are solo stuff.

So a lot of stuff... I keep buying so some stuff I will fail, hope not. My really priority is starting the humogous task on Horus Heresy. With 54 novels plus novellas, short stories and Siege of Terra, there is stuff until 2030.

Oh and I am also continuging with several rereads like Harry Potter; Lord of the Rings, Elric & some warhammer/40k stuff. Let us see if the next year is good... I hope so...

TV Series & Movies of the Year of 2022

 I've watch a lot of movies this years, the vast majority horror. I always try new stuff. Sometimes I don't finish the movie if it's crap..

Best ones of 500 movies I've tried...

Deep Impact - 8.5 Stars - The 1998 story about a comet colliding with earth. The difference between this and the other released that year (Armageddon) is that this one is more focus on characters.

DeadTime Stories - 8.5 Stars - A babysitting uncle tells his nephew three horror stories about killer witches, Little Red Riding Hood and a werewolf, and "Goldi Lox" and the three bears.

Joker - 9 Stars - A mentally troubled stand-up comedian embarks on a downward spiral that leads to the creation of an iconic villain. Ye all know about this. It's controversial and it's awesome.

Suicide for Beginners - 9 Stars - This is full of comedy and horror elements. Writing the perfect suicide note is not easy.

Rocky - 9 Stars (1976) - Need I explain?

Waiting for the Barbarians - 9 Stars This one is a retelling of french army conquering of north africa. But it's a fantasy stuff. IT's collonialism. It could be a lot more. It could be expanded for greater scope.

A Writer's Odyssey - 9 Stars This is a Chinese movie that mix the "real" world with a fantastic world. It's cool and really innovative. IT's magic and the action scenes and Fx elements are awesome. 

Venciafrenia - 9 Stars 

This is a spanish horror movie set in Venezia with elements that really connected and made me really invested in. Since I recently was playing a boardgame set in Venenzia with zombies and this strange carnival twisted stuff I was really love it. Btw, the boardgame is Carnival Zombie.

Perfect Number - 10 Stars So this is a Korea mystery thriller. It's one of the most thought provoking stuff I've watch that really made me invested on the characters and the reason behind their action. Everything from the beginning to the end was thought.

Gran Torino - 10 Stars This was a movie that innitially I didnt think I would enjoy it but as the story progress I started being invested and by the end I was crying. Damn...

The Prince of Darkness - 10 Stars To me is one of the best John Carperter movies, well the best one I think, and one of the best 80/90 horror movies overall. It's awesome. It's about a group of scholar graduates who are trying to understand why some people are getting some strange visions and acting weird. They find something odd in a chapell and no matter what they do, science can't explain everything. It's really good.

Now about the TV series

Did you saw a lot of tvshows ? Yeah. Some were great, some were awful... Not going to talk about every one but let's go...

The first one I wanted to say is that one of the best was Red Sleeve a Korea time period stuff. Comedy & Drama. Made me cry a lot. Then I went to All of Us are Dead also a Korea show of zombies and survival. You got the usual suspect - Walking Dead. Finally it finish and it was a good show to be honest. Some woke elements but overall I enjoy it. Prison School from Japan is a good comedy, ecchi stuff. Really cool. Superman & Lois continues and I am enjoying the stuff. Orville is also interesting as always - always woke but wtf can I do. Stargirl & Avenue 5 & Chucky were good as previous seasons Not that woke, well chucky was and althought I wanted to learn more the all "they" character was laughable. Yes. Like a murderer is going to run at you and know you wanted to be treated as "they" LOL - unfortunately everything nowadays has some woke elements but they are beareable.

Most disappointing stuff was without a doubt BOYS. What a woke crap. Oh and Lucifer last season. h my god... How to destroy a TV Series.

Music Awards 2022 - FOR ME - Trha & Sadness

This year I found out that I am enjoying a lot one artist that have two bands. You don't know but I love music, black metal to be precise, since I was 15. I am now 42. I've heard everything and beyond. From pure black metal to COF and everything inbetween. At like 35 I started finding atmospheric black metal and my taste changed... And then last year I found Trha and his song Dolh from https://trha.bandcamp.com/album/lhum-jolhduc was my favorite music of the year having heard like a every night from one year... (not kidding)

I have Tinnitus and so at night I hear him to help me fell asleep - I kid you not. And then as he released more and more and heard everything but that music is till my favorite. Then I found Sadness and I knew there were some resembles but one day on metallum everything wen live and we knew it was the same person... So for reference;

Trha https://trha.bandcamp.com/

Sadness https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/

He releases a lof cd's throughout this year and the last years and I bought them all. I don't have everything yet of Sadness but from Trha is instant-buy. I didn't even heard and it's I buy it.

And what is this?

Well this guy is a genious. No doubt about it. I am not saying that there aren't a couple of songs that ressonate with me - but almost everything do.

It picks me up, instead of making me feel sad. It gives me hope it gives me pleasure earing and since there are so many songs and styles it always felt a bit different. You've got emo screams, mix with black metal, with shoegaze, ambient , post rock ... If you hear per example

https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/album/motionless-watching-you-2  is totally different from https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/album/and-longing-are-the-endless-waves). If you didn't knew it could have been a different guy.

Is this level of eclectic stuff (is that a word?) that pulls me... 

TRHA in the other end the musics are more metal, noise, raw, screams and all in a language he invented and it's not like let me grab here some words and put a music. No, there are lyrics that goes two or three pages and even if most you don't know what they mean (he has shared some lyrics in english) you know there words are identyical from one place to another so it's this level. I Am not saying he is Tolkien. Tolkien worked with it, and study finish welsh and old stuff to make this language look phonetic and writing very similar. You can understand , not understadning that the words are an evolution and so on. Here is not that... At times I thought it was hungarian and probably he got references from several languages and mix match. Don't know...  But it's awesome to see this level of commitemend from someone who didn't stick with the easiest path and went beyond. He even created a youtube channel where he pronuciates some of the words. Very cool.

So my advise to you this year? From Sadness:

https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/track/melancholie-und-die-hoffnung-des-horizonts This song is awesome and really interesting  journey of 21:20 minutes. Love it. It was written back in 2015 so he was what 17/18? Damn impressing.

From Trha ye got https://trha.bandcamp.com/track/s-trharhanlha or dolh

So perfect music... BUT To be honest choosing one song over dozen he wrote it's just awful. Start at the beginning and go down that rabbit hole. You will be amazed.

Next year I don't expect anything different...

Please continue to make great music.. I will keep buying. Wish I could have CD's to hear in my car.