Category Archives: The Book Nerd

The Book. A poem.

There’s a lot of typing here, Exposition to be done. A hard fought war on grammar And literacy that’s often won. Occasionally a photo finish (A second or a third), Or an error left in print That’s obviously absurd. Another book is done And another now begun: Eighty thousand words or so, The constant toContinue reading “The Book. A poem.”

Laidback DM: Shotglass Adventures II available in print!

The products from my last Kickstarter, including Shotglass Adventures II, are now available in PDF/print on DrivethruRPG. Here’s a look at the printed version of the book: SHOTGLASS ADVENTURES II For D&D 5e and other OSR fantasy role playing games. • 10 one-shot adventures for characters of 6th-10th level, including murder, dungeon crawl, gauntlet, planar,Continue reading “Laidback DM: Shotglass Adventures II available in print!”

Looking for Alaska. A book review.

I promised to review the last of John Green’s books left for me to read (ironically, his first). I finally finished Looking for Alaska, yesterday. You can find the other reviews at the links below this one. Looking for Alaska, like many of John Green’s books, is a young adult book featuring a number ofContinue reading “Looking for Alaska. A book review.”

An Abundance of Katherines. A Book Review.

John Green has rapidly become one of my favourite authors. I’ve now read four* of his young adult (YA) novels, the latest being An Abundance of Katherines (AoK). AoK is about Colin Singleton, a young prodigy who finds himself at loose ends after being dumped by his 19th girlfriend, all of whom have been calledContinue reading “An Abundance of Katherines. A Book Review.”

Child of God. A book review.

Cormac McCarthy is a damn fine writer. He’s also a very disturbing one. Child of God is one of his older books (1973), and tells the story of Lester Ballard, a lonely and erstwhile Tennessee hick who loses his home to live a vagrant life in the mountains. Lester comes across a dead couple inContinue reading “Child of God. A book review.”

Two John Green Books. A review.

I recently read two John Green books, Paper Towns and Turtles All The Way Down. For those of you who don’t know, Green is a top-selling writer of literate young adult (YA) novels with a flair for smart, sassy characters and quirky humour. Paper Towns features straight-laced Quentin Jacobsen (Q), who has lived most ofContinue reading “Two John Green Books. A review.”

The Fault in Our Stars. A book review.

It seems I can’t stop reading profoundly affecting books. A friend of mine loaned me John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, the mega-selling young adult novel about two teenagers in cancer remission who fall in love. “You’ll need some tissues,” she said, and she wasn’t wrong. This book brought me close to tears onContinue reading “The Fault in Our Stars. A book review.”

In The Winter Dark. A book review.

I read a lot of books, but don’t often get the chance to post a book review. Then along comes a book that stuns me into submission, like a two-by-four wielded by some grinning, dream-fisted maniac. “If only we hadn’t had so many things to hide, so many opportunities for fear to get us.” TimContinue reading “In The Winter Dark. A book review.”

Breath. A book review.

Tim Winton’s Breath is the kind of book that challenges your thinking about what it means to be a writer. Winton’s prose flows like poetry, with immaculate meter and dialectal mastery. Breath makes me ashamed to say I’m a writer, because Winton is so good: I am not worthy. I have never been so profoundlyContinue reading “Breath. A book review.”

Bad Reader, Bad!

I’m a bad reader. Not a bad reader, as in slow or illiterate, but bad as in I read 10-12 books at a time and as a result often find myself returning to a book, months after I started it, wondering what happened previously. I think this has something to do with my short attentionContinue reading “Bad Reader, Bad!”

Touch, by Elmore Leonard. A book review.

I just finished reading Touch, a book by Elmore Leonard. I’d read Mr Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing (which I discussed in an earlier post you can find here), but hadn’t had the opportunity to sample his actual writing. Now, I’m glad I did. Touch is set in 1977. Juvenal, a young, ex-Franciscan Missionary, healsContinue reading “Touch, by Elmore Leonard. A book review.”

Patrick Ness is an awesome writer. But don’t take my word for it…

Patrick Ness is a great author. He writes books for young adults – teen fiction, I guess you call it. The big difference between him and many other writers of that genre, is that his books carry a weight, a gravitas, that raises them above the mob. I read a lot of books. I’m notContinue reading “Patrick Ness is an awesome writer. But don’t take my word for it…”

Free-Wrench. A book review.

Free-Wrench is a swashbuckling, steampunk fantasy set in a world of islands, where airships are the primary form of travel between them. The island of Caldera is isolated, by choice, from the rest of the world. Nita is a “free-wrench”, one who works the steam power plants in Caldera’s volcano.