Making lists is one of the favorite pastimes around the web – and probably not only there. Lists of best books in any given year or month, lists of worst zombie movies ever, etc… It’s as if structuring and prioritizing one’s experience or even group preferences became the best source of available information. Show me your list and I’ll tell you who you really are.

We’ve been mentioning our own lists on the blog at least several times already – the TBR lists, mainly. The problem is, my personal lists are few and far between, and they are not even proper lists with any discernible hierarchy. I have rather sets of items, where each item holds more or less similar position to any other. And even of those I have only two worth mentioning: TBR and TBB.

TBR – To Be Read set

Always bigger than TBB and to some extent overlapping with it, for reasons explained below :). Contains now a fair amount of books I haven’t yet laid my hands on but I would really like to, possibly in the near future. Plus, it’s always changing. Some books hover around the borders, on the verges of the “set” – and sometimes I read them even before they make it in 😉 The books below have been in my “set” for a while – there are many more books there, of course, but a taste is all you’ll get this time. There are not listed in any particular order – just as they were in my mind at the time ;).

“Forge of Darkness” by Steven Erikson. Set in the Malazan Empire realm. Book one in the new Kharkanas trilogy, telling the mythical beginnings of the fight between Light and Darkness, stands on my shelf for some time already. I keep waiting for the “Fall of Light” to be published, so that I have a follow up ready ;), but I may not be able to wait for such a long time. “Fall of Light” was supposed to be published this summer, but the current release date is April 2016.

Gentleman Bastard sequence by Scott Lynch: I’m in the middle of reading “The Lies of Locke Lamora”, a review will appear here quite soon, I hope. The two succeeding books are already out, “Red Seas Under Red Skies” and “The Republic of Thieves”.

Shattered Sea trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. YA books, and I think it would be interesting to see how the grimdark guru deals with a different set of rules and constraints than before.

“Fire Touched” by Patricia Briggs. The ninth and second-to-last installment in Mercy Thompson series. I’ve been following the series from the beginning, and I intend to follow it to its end. Urban fantasy of the best kind, with interesting characters, nicely developed world, a bit of drama and a bit of humor. I wrote about it more here. Current release date is March 2016.

“Fool’s Quest” by Robin Hobb. The second installment in Fitz and the Fool trilogy. On my shelf already, waiting for an opportune moment :D. A huge mammoth of a book, in hardcover, it needs time and care in reading. Besides, when the books I wanted are already in my possession, I tend to give myself more time to read them. I know I have them, so the chances I’m not going to read them are fairly small 😉 – it would take something as uncanny as a giant meteorite falling down on Kraków or an alien invasion, for example.

Black Company series by Glen Cook. I devoured the first three books, wrote a review ;), and the rest I bought as quickly as possible. In the same edition, of course, so that it looks very nice on my shelves ;). I am taking my time with them, mainly because there are not too many other like these, gritty, realistic, twistingly moral. What’s more, a superb military fantasy such as this is pretty difficult to find.

“Children of Time” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A SF novel by the author of the Apt series. I love and admire the Apt series, I very much enjoyed “Guns of the Dawn”. And a post-Earth SF novel with spiders in it seems just the perfect choice for long winter evenings ;).

TBB – To Be Bought set

To Be Read “set” and To Be Bought “set” are like a rectangular and a square: not every rectangular is a square, but every square is a rectangular. To Be Bought “set” is much smaller than TBR. There are books which I buy before I read them, sure, but I tend to make safe investments – I try not to buy books I may not like or I may find not good enough. I don’t have enough space for such eccentricities, that’s for sure ;). So the books I buy before reading are usually by an author I know and deeply appreciate, or are a part of a series I have read and loved. But there is a fair amount of books which I buy only after reading them – and here is the part where I profusely thank whoever there is that other people are not like me 😉

“A Night in the Lonesome October” by Roger Zelazny, reviewed already here.

“This Immortal” by Roger Zelazny. What to say? Zelazny and Greek mythos on shattered Earth. Simply can’t go wrong.

“Fire Touched” by Patricia Briggs. A strong contender in both my sets. And the tenth book will be here as well. But I cannot say the same about the other Briggs’ cycle, Alpha and Omega – for many reasons, some of which are explained here.

Fitz and the Fool, book 3, as of yet untitled. For obvious reasons :).

There are also several classic comic books, or graphic novels, that I’d love to have and peruse at leisure. Below are only two – albeit most wanted – of the subset.

“The Watchmen”, of course. The deconstructionist series by Alan Moore requires a separate post on the blog, but, in short – it’s one of the ultimate commentaries on the nature of super-heroism. Dark, gritty, unforgiving, and has the added benefit of having my favorite character Rorschach ;).

“Civil War” by Mark Millar – before the movie’s out. I’ve seen the illustrations – great. I more or less know the plot – the same. A must have, this time preferably in Polish, so that little fans of Marvel superheroes in my family can sneak a peek at one of the more morally ambiguous chapters of their history.

The books presented here are by no account a full, complete rendition of any of my “sets” – only some selected representatives that were lately on my mind. What are your choices?