BookAnon.com

I had a small amount of unintentional virality on X/ Twitter over the last 24 hrs or so when I made the offhand comment that I truly think is 100% common sense that

If you refuse to use Amazon 'on principle' but openly brag about using used bookstores - which are *barely* better than piracy in that authors make exactly $0.00 from books sold there -...

... your "principles" fucking suck.

While a lot of responders to that have been muted and some blocked, one actually made a video response wherein this person put an idea

Yes, I went back and counted after seeing yet another slate of “Goodreads Choice Award Nominees” and seeing that I’ve read exactly four of them - one of which was nominated in two different categories, and three of which were in the same category (Mystery/ Thriller).

The four for 2026:

• Mab Mabel by Sally Hepworth (nominated in Mystery/ Thriller and Audiobook)
• It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica (nominated in Mystery/ Thriller)
• Heart Of Glass by Jennifer Hillier (nominated in Mystery/ Thriller)
• This Is Your Land by Beverly Gage (nominated in History/ Memoir)

I’ve read nearly as many books so far this year (171) as there are Goodreads Choice Nominees this year (180), and given that roughly 50% of my reading has been Big 5 Publishers this year, the sheer breadth of what I do read (damn ne

Sometimes Essential Bridges Are Closer To Collapse Than Anyone Notices Until The Collapse. This book works on a lot of levels with the title, a

Sixteen years ago today, on November 4, 2010, I made my very first Kindle book purchase (well, to be explicitly clear, “limited content license” purchase ;) ) - and since then I’ve built a rather sizeable library across most all of my very wide ranging interests. To the level that I often make the comment that my library has both more books and a wider range of books than many libraries I’ve lived near over my life (including these last 16 years!)… and if I’m off, it certainly isn’t by much. (I’m near 100% certain on the “wider range” bit. ;) )

As you can see below, over that period I’ve bought over 9,100 books, and while I’ve spent over $15,000 in that period, it only comes out to about $1.69 per book, with nearly one in three books I’ve bought over this period being free. (Which are

October was another blur of a month. Flooding rain here in Jacksonville caused me to not be able to do my March For My Health nearly four mile walks for a week, but my parents and one of my brothers came down to Fernandina Beach for a couple of days and we got to hang out with them there one of them. Otherwise largely another rinse and repeat month, but one that ended with the blessed return of real time in the United States.

November will be a lot more eventful, with Robinsonfest 2026 in St. Augustine this weekend, potentially my very last Walt Disney World trip for at least a few years a little over a week later, and then Thanksgiving itself. (No, we do not count that holiday that Canadians claim here. We barely accept the Statehood of Ohio.)

With October bringing me to 170 books on the year, I'm well positioned - other than the aforementioned trips - to likely end the year at or maybe even slightly above 200 books on the year... and I may even be able to be in a position to finally cut my NetGalley habit. We'll see about that one...

And now, on to the book reviews...

The Book Reviews

Blog Tour: The Last Train From Paris by Suzanne Kelman

For this blog tour, we're looking at a solid conclusion to an epic dual timeline WWII series. For this blog tour, we're looking at The Last Train From Paris by Suzanne Kelman.

[Read Full Review]

Book Review: Homelessness Is A Housing Problem By Gregg Colburn And

[Andersson's] Sense Of Freedom Is As Pale As [His] Skin. Otherwise As Solid As Flan. This is one of those books that is well documented at roughly 26% of the overall text and raises a lot of solid points about its general premise with a largely global-ish look, examining different aspects of security as it plays out in Sweden, African Spain, Ch

More Anglo-Centric Than Truly 'Global' Yet Manages To Raise Interesting Points That Seem Unintended. First off, if you're looking for a truly global look at all things alcohol as it relates to human consumption thereof wherever there have ever been humans... this doesn't really reach that level. Much at all. While there is *some* discussion of parts of the Mid

More Interesting As Travelogue And Memoir Than History. This is one of those more Food Network type shows where the real action is in the personality traveling an

Anecdotal Over Evidentiary With Sub-Par Bibliography And At Least One Fact So Wrong As To Be Hyperbole. Where to begin with this one. I had such high hopes for it, yet it turned out to be just another left of center (at best) diatribe largely rehashing exactly the same "facts" and commentary as so many other books... several of which have done either this entire narrative or at least certain parts of it far more thoroughly and convincingly.

The bibliography clocking in at just 10%, particularly given some of t

Asimov Sent The New God Of Science Fiction To Piss The World Off. Ok, so Robinson isn't subtle with the themes of this book. At all. Not to the level of preachiness, but you know *very* well the questions Robinson was wrestling in his own mind as you read this book... and in classic Robinson fashion, you don't *really* know where he ultimately ends up personally, because as always the story comes first. Definitely something for me to ask him about w