Book haul for December 2023

Last haul of the year! Gonna be honest, we went a little crazy this year so my New Years resolution is going to be to cut back. I doubt it but we’ll see.

(Don't feel like reading? Watch the video!)

First up is the haul from Browse Awhile Books in Tipp City Ohio.

I’ve been dying for some more Butchers and they were delivered with extreme prejudice.

Black Mafia is one I passed up the last two times we went and I finally bit the bullet and forked over the money for it.

The Doomsday Bag is Michael Avalone spy fun and I’m not sure what Shannon #3 the Mindbenders is but it looked appealing.

Rites is a horror novel of the Occult. Final Cut is serial killer thriller with a gay killer…or gay victims? That blurb is worded poorly.

Finally, I grabbed a gothic that takes place on a cruise, Decoy in Diamonds and a book called simply, SCUBA! Because it made me laugh.

The next three books came in the way of a trade from a fellow member of a FB book group. The Thinking Seat looks to be some sci-fi horror post apoloclypse stuff and knocked off a wantlist item with the harder to find Laser Book number 9 written by Aaron Wolfe aka Dean Koontz…not that I care about DK but I was missing this number and because he wrote it people try and get every penny possible.

I was also smitten with this Secret Sea underwater young adult book from the 30s.

These two are from the Antique Mall. Every once in awhile they’ll have something worthwhile that isn’t astronomically overpriced and in terrible condition. Got this noirish war novel, Copperbelt and a paperback version of Wake of the Red Witch which we got in hardcover from our Cleveland trip a few months back.

Speaking of FB book groups, I am in one dedicated to Men’s Adventure and this year I participated for the first time in their secret santa trade, known as Vigilante Santa! So cool! I sent my guy a big ol stack of books and a vintage paperback coffee mug I made. I stupidly didn’t take a picture of it but here is the wrap around artwork that was on it…

My VS sent me an awesome grip of books. My two favorites were this Shamelady and The Scarfaced Killer.

We got two Westerns. The Unforgiven which the based a movie on and The Gunsmith which looks like an adult Western but could just look that way cause it’s from the 80s.

Some apocalypse with Dark December and The Day New York went Dry.

Some more apocalypse (I think) with High Citadel and the movie novelization of Casino.

Crime with this boss 80’s Avon cover of Spilt Images by Elmore Leonard and a Black Lizard Press- Coffin and Co by Njami Simon.

Lastly this very cool UK Fontana photo cover of Hammond Innes Trojan Horse. A sewer adventure.

We stopped by one of our local favorite spots, Bonnetts. It’s been awhile since we’ve been there as their hours aren’t usually in line with our book shopping hours but every once in a while we make the night time trek down there.

Lots of Men’s Adventure to be had! Two Dan J Marlowe Drakes. He is the man with nobody’s face. Whereas I’m the nobody with a man’s face.

Signet Action for all you American Avenger’s out there. A Caribbean Joe Gall with, I’m assuming, flattering portrayals of the natives inside.

Robert Duvall lookalike gracing the cover of this gambling crime novel, Stateline and we’re busting out of Boston with the Assassin #3.

A non-Hawk Dan Streib authored Body Hunters and even more Men’s adventure with THE FORCE #3

Holy smokes cool biker action going on in Dennison’s War. Look at that step back art!

Speaking of cool art look at the design on the letters of Blue Rain. Kudos to that graphic designer. We got into some thriller with this psychological suspense, Evidence of Blood.

The Jove edition of Lawrence Block’s In the Midst of Death…which we already own and read the Avon edition but, I mean, gotta have them all. This Boarding House Blues looked super sleazy jazz to me.

Blood Island is a voodoo thriller and Zachary is a hippie era Men’s Adventure for the tuned in.

Killer is a serial killer thriller, duh and…uh…reflective book with a hatchet on the cover. Hold on, I have to go find it to see what it’s called. Establishment of Innocence. Another SKT.

I always overdo it at Bonnetts and have a huge stack before I remember there is a Western section. This time I was deadest on finding some more Scout books and I’m glad I looked. Also found some other adult westerns with Bolt and Gunn and just a regular western with Sugarfoot!

We couldn’t go a month without making a stop at our local Half Priced Books. Surprisingly there was a couple affordable “Paperbacks From Hell.” Night Brothers= giant cat face. Half Moon Down= giant bird face. Coincidence?? Yeah, probably.

There’s always some cheap crime at HPB. I grabbed this The Reckoning by Aaron Fletcher and at first what I thought was a horror book, Dark Room and to my unpleasant surprise I noticed the comparison to Mary Higgins Clark on the cover. Like I said, top notch attention to detail is how I roll.

Johnny D MacDonald stand alone, April Evil. A very cool Diamonds are Forever cover on this Jove addition. Yeah, I know it’s not as classy as some of the others but I’m low class so this one speaks to me.

Added another Laser, number 26. I picked it up cause it looked horrific. And a really beat up Frank Kane with his wonderfully pun-y Johnny Liddell titles, Trigger Mortis.

And finally, this ultra trashy Beeline sleaze/porn, Lust’s What the Doctor Ordered.

I’ve been having lots of luck at Bell, Book & Comic lately so we also stopped back in this month- twice.

Dishonor looks to be some classic noir. I was very happy to find the very first Kothar for a dollar until I turned it over and saw what looked like bug guts squashed all of the back. Gonna have to do some cleaning on that one.

John Jakes, Brak the Barbarian. Classic sword and sorcery. Andrew J Offutt in with the Lady of the SnowMist. Volume 3 of War of the Gods on Earth. Another thing I didn’t notice until I got home. But that’s ok because his books are a plenty out in the wild and I’m sure I’ll run by the first two sometime.

Rip off the sleeve’s of your shirt and grab a gun cause we got two Men’s Adventure- Endworld #12 and The Savage Stronghold with extra rad Spuds Mackenzie dog and wicked cult guys on the cover.

Sci-fi Western Men’s Adventure Apocalyptic insanity in The Last Rangers #1 by Jake Davis (review coming soon).

I grabbed these two Traveler’s as a I thought it was a sort of Sliders type action series but upon closer look they appear to be basic apocalypse stuff.

Some sci-fi border horror with mad Village of the Damned vibes on the cover of The People: No Different Flesh. Also, found this John D MacDonald sci-fi book. I didn’t know he wrote anything but crime so I couldn’t pass it up just to see what it was like.

Even more post-apocalyptic guys on bikes with the Roadblaster #2. And oh my god I didn’t realize this in the store or even while recording the video version of this haul but this freakin’ kung-fu book is called “The Sweet and Sour Kill.”!!! Hahaha! What?! That’s awesome.

Gold Medal crime by Keith Grantland, Run from the Hunter and a Black Lizard version of David Goodis, Shoot the Piano Player.

I’ve only ever found the Frankenstein Horror Series and didn’t even knew a Dracula one existed so to say I was excited would be an understatement. Out of Darkness is a gothic looking horror.

Bell Book & Comic has a TON of sci-fi. I usually just get the ones that look like horror like Bob Shaw’s Nightwalk but I also grabbed this Con Sellers Mr. Tomorrow after reviewing his spy book A Handful of Death which placed in the worst ten of last year’s reads (see previous post). But while looking into the author he seemed like a pretty amusing and interesting guy that I wanted to check out more of his books.

There was a bunch of HP Lovecraft’s that we didn’t have but they were all a little pricey so we grabbed some of the lower hanging fruit that we didn’t have. Look at that font on The Tomb. It’s hilariously out of place.

I’ve always wanted to read the Robert E Howard Cthulu stories so I was jumping for joy when I found this collection. I’ve heard great things about Ray Bradbury’s October Country and was into the cover so I grabbed this one. If you look closely the wheat is people. IT’S PEOPLLLEEEEE!!!

Another Signet Action Adventure- Resistance- Shadows of Death. Killing fucking Nazis. And the book I’m currently reading at the moment is this mega fun looking The Seth Papers.

Lastly this later era copy of Stir of Echoes by Kolchak writer himself Richard Matheson and a non-fiction book about sharks.

Oh, and we grabbed some magazines too. Splatter Times is an 80’s horror movie fanzine. I grabbed the Scream Queens Illustrated cause of Ms. Monique Gabrielle on the cover. I loved her in Deathstalker 2 and my wife got a 70’s horror mag/comic Nightmare.

And to end the month a special Christmas haul. Funny Christmas story. I was at a work party one year at this screen print shop I worked at. Everyone was just standing around chitty chatting and one of the salespeople seriously asks, “do they celebrate Christmas in Canada?” The room went silent. It was hilarious.

My sister came through with some Ninja Master. I want them all but we’re three books closer.

She also picked me up this reprint of the Phantom Detective.

My Aunt got me The Men’s Adventure Library Journal- Atomic Werewolves and Man Eating Plants. I only gave her one option for a Christmas present and she nailed it.

My parents got me one that’s been on my wantlist for YEARS. John W Cambell- Who Goes There? And obviously other stories. Who Goes There is what they based the movies, The Thing from Another World, Horror Express and The Thing on. The John Carpenter one is pretty damn spot on to the short story. It’s so god damn good! Also, a little coincidental Easter Egg in the original Halloween movie: When Laurie is babysitting Tommy they are watching the original The Thing From Another World which obviously later John Carpenter would go on to direct a sort of remake.

My wife got me this amazing Art of Pulp Fiction giant hardcover art book put out by IDW which features beautiful vintage paperback cover art AND some history of the beginnings of the paperback book and companies.

And finally I got my wife this original Weird Tales pulp with HP Lovecraft’s first publishing of the first part of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. She has wanted one for years. It’s amazing when you think of the history and how this was the first time this story came into the world. The pulp is a little brittle but whatever, it’s like owning an artifact. To us it is anyway. IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!

That’s a wrap for 2023! I started this blog one year ago. Thanks for reading it or at least looking at the pictures. It’s a lot of fun for me even if no one reads it. And if you haven’t, check out the Youtube version. I’m not the best at making videos yet but I feel like it might be getting better. It’s surprising how your brain stops working when you hit that record button.

Cheers!