Again, I probably did more writing than reading this period, and my notes are spread over two (or three!) spiral bound notebooks so I can’t vouch for the 100% accuracy this month. But hey, I’m probably reading more than the average person is. Reading rates have gone down in the last decade.
Oh, well. As Mort Sahl used to say: Onward!
For Arthur Conan Doyle’s May 22nd birthday, I read one of his Brigadier Gerard stories. “How The Brigadier Played For A Kingdom March 1813.” Doyle was a master storyteller and his spinner of tales about military service to Napoleon does not gloos over the realities of war even through the heroism. He explains why he cannot look upon red on white anymore and that those are tales he will not tell.
I read one of these every year on Doyle’s birthday, or in this case the early morning after his birthday.
Bumming through Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Magic Door,” a book he wrote about reading. Basically Doyle takes the reader by the hand and leads him on an ebulant tour of his bookshelves. It’s about a century before all those Book Tube videos that essentially do the same thing. It’s a fun book to dip into, from one of my favorite writers. (Big surprise! Doyle was more of a fan of Julian Hawthorne’s work than of his famous father Nathaniel Hawthorne! Same here, actually!)
Doyle is plain old fun and my Christmas present from the Kitties was Doyle’s book “Tales Of Pirates and Blue-Water,” collecting sea and pirate stories including several about Doyle’s Pirate Captain Sharkey. Read “Captain Sharkey; How The Governor Of Saint Kitt’s Came Home.” Loads of fun and thrills, and a mystery too!
Reading stories in a collection for a QSF column, which I will talk about in said column.
Started reading Theodore Sturgeon’s story “The Perfect Host.” Been ordering the Collected Stories of Sturgeon,, which I thought would be pricy. I found a couple of the books online for $3 apice! Others for a little more.
Got a copy of “Wish Upon A Crime” (edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson. Level Best Books 2026.) Crime fiction inspired by fairy tales. Several writer friends of mine have stories in this book. So far, I’ve read:
“Goldilocks And the Three Bears” by John Floyd. LOL!
“Three Billy Goats Gruff” by Michael Bracken.” Great fun.
“King O’ the Cats” by David Dean. An effective crime/horror tale!
Started reading Madeline Miller’s novel “The Song Of Achilles.” A contemporary Gay take on Greek Mythology (which was pretty Gay to start with!)
In honor of the passing of writer Jane Yolen I read stories from her collection “Sister Emily’s Lightship.” Read “The Gift Of the Magicians, With Apologies To You-Know-Who.” “The Singer And the Song,” and “Salvage.”
Of course, I read the usual online stories by E.H. Timms and Kaje Harper.th the to bumps
And I read Nathanial Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman Major Molineux.” It plays like a riff (or a precursor, not sure which he wrote first!) on his own “Young Goodman Brown,” only without a hint of the supernatural. Unless, the fellow with the two bumps on his head is who I think he might be…
Also read Hawthorne’s preface to his collection “Twice-Told-Tales.” Self-depricating and very charming!
The Hawthorne selections from “The Portable Nathaniel Hawthorne.” I love those “Portable” collections from The Viking Portable Library and I practically collect them!
To the extent, that I looked up a couple of publication dates and went off on a tangent reading up about more of the “Portable” books!
So many books, so little time!
—-jeff baker, june 21st, 2026.
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