{Sunday Post} — A Calamity of Souls, No Filter, and The Scottish Prisoners

4/20/24 - I had planned on having this post written, edited, and scheduled by this morning, but it seems Google was having some sort of issue with the Blogger platform and wasn't allowing me to work on drafts. The good news is that whatever the problem was seems to be fixed. 

I believe I jumped the gun a bit a few weeks ago when I said the KC Royals were playing just as badly as last year. This isn't true at all. After losing their first two games, the Royals pitching and hitting have improved a lot. They're currently in second place in the American League Central Division, just two games behind Cleveland with a record of 13-8. 

Songs of the Week

Still Reading the Same Old, Same Old

Not shockingly, I haven't gotten too far into my reading queue. The only book I have finished is James Patterson's Missing Persons. I haven't picked up The Making of the TV Series Star Trek again. My trusty bookmark is placed on Chapter Three in Three-Inch Teeth, so that is my current read unless I get sidetracked by something else.

To the Library, I Shall Go

I stopped by the library last week and found Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears in the free section, and of course, I grabbed it. Later, on the same day, I get a message that my library card is expiring soon. I went back on Thursday, April 18th, and got the card renewed. I looked around a bit but didn't check any books out.

Every year, my town has a “city-wide garage sale” event. I went to a few of them on Friday, and there was mostly what I consider to be “junk” being sold at retail price. However, I did find several 25-cent Agatha Christie books: Cat Among the Pigeons, The Moving Finger, Crooked House, The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories, Murder with Mirrors, and The New Bedside, Bathtub, and Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie. Also, for only 25 cents, I got Josh Mallerman's Bird Box on hardback.

I went to a church basement sale and picked up three 50-cent books: The Mayan Secrets by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry, The Road to Omaha by Robert Ludlum, and Submarine U-137 by Edward Topol. It was a madhouse there, so I tried to check my list that was on my phone to see if I had The Mayan Secrets, but people were bumping into me accidentally, so I just put my phone away and grabbed the book. Honestly, I am almost sure I own the book, but for 50 cents, I took a chance. This one is a former library copy, and it's in pretty good shape. I'll have to go through my collection to see if I do have a copy, and if so, compare them, keep the best one, and donate the other.

Christmas in April

For some weird reason, Dollar Tree stocked their shelves with a bunch of Christmas-themed books. However, they were mostly romances. The only book I bought was A Christmas Carol Murder by Heather Redmond.

As If I Need More Books

During the past week, I picked up David Baldacci's latest novel, A Calamity of Souls, which is, according to the jacket blurb, a courtroom drama set in 1968. Also, to your surprise, I got James Patterson's latest paperback, The Murder Inn. I know. I know. I said I would cut down on Patterson books. All I can say is that this one looks interesting.

Bookaholic or Nostalgic

My local Walmart very seldom stocks children's books, but lately, there have been a few newer titles on the shelves, including Scarewaves by Trevor Henderson and No Filter by Kelley Skovron. These books take me back, reminding me of the Fear Street, Goosebumps, and Point Horror books from my childhood. Of course, I picked these two up and plan on reading them soon.

Yeah, I went back to Walmart the next day and bought two more middle-grade thrillers, The Last Laugh by K.R. Alexander and It Watches in the Dark by Jeff Strand. I can never say no to a creepy clown cover. It Watches in the Dark also has a creepy cover, and I somehow recognized the author, though I don't believe I've ever read anything by him.

Star Trek Fever

I had no plans on going anywhere today, but then I got a text from my parents asking if I wanted to go to the city. My mother wanted to go to Hobby Lobby, so I tagged along only so I could visit Half-Price Books. There was no sale going on, and there was nothing particular I was looking for, but I still ended up buying -twelve books. Yeah, I have a bookish addiction.

Don't be too shocked—all of them are Star Trek titles. First on the list is TOS: The Starship Trap by Mel Gilden. Wait a minute. I already own this one. LOL! No, there was no double-dipping here. I purposely bought a second copy. Why? For starters, it's a clean copy, which caught my attention first. Second, it's signed by the author on the title page. It reads, “LL&P, Monkie! Mel Gilden.” (Note: LL&P stands for Live Long and Prosper.)

I got four other TOS titles: Sanctuary by John Vornholt, Crossroad by Barbara Hambly, From the Depths by Victor Milan, and Firestorm by L.A. Graf. The books cost between $1.99 and $2.99 each.

Minstrel Books published a line of Starfleet Academy books for middle schoolers in the 1990s. These books are hard to come by. Line of Fire, written by Peter David, is the first I've found out in the wild. It was $1.99, and it was signed by the author.

I got three Deep Space Nine books: Warchild by Esther Friesner, The Laertain Gamble by Robert Sheckley, and Wrath of the Prophets by Peter David, Michael J. Friedman, and Robert Greenberger. They were $2.99 apiece.

A while back, I got Enterprise: Daedalus on Kindle for 99 cents. It's a two-part story, and the second book was never put on sale. Weirdly, I found one Enterprise title at Half-Price Books: Daedalus's Children, written by David Stern; the second part. It cost $3.49.

From 1997 to 2015, Peter David wrote an original Star Trek lit series, New Frontier. I seldom find these books, but to my luck, I found the anthology No Limits. It's an oversized book; I paid $6.99.

Last is The Trouble with Tribbles. No, it's not a novelization of the 1967 classic TOS episode. Instead, it's the making of the episode by the writer of the episode himself, David Gerrold. It was first published in 1973, and this copy is its seventh printing (1976). It cost $4.

Help! I Have a Kindle Addiction!

Note: I wrote the following before going to Half-Price Books. 

Many readers probably don't know that there were a few Star Trek kids' books published in the 90s; and these titles are now hard to find, especially in eBook format. Let's just say I was surprised to find Deep Space Nine: The Star Ghost on Kindle, and it was on sale. Also, another kid book was on sale, Starfleet Academy: The Delta Anomaly; I didn't even know there were any Star Trek children's books set in the Kelvin era (or what I refer to as J.J. Abrams crap-fest timeline). 

Non-Trek-related, I added The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries: The Asylum and Donald E. Westlake's Castle in the Air to my Kindle.