We came across an interesting challenge lately, taken up by two fellow bloggers whose sites both of us frequent often: Chris at Calmgrove and Paula at Book Jotter. The challenge was borrowed from yet another interesting blog, Fictionphile. A silly but fun thing, really, to spell a blog’s name in books from your TBR list.

(Piotrek – And let me just take a moment to complement background graphic of the Fictionphile, I have mixed feelings about B&N hardcover classics, I own only their psychedelic Lovecraft, but they look just great there!!)

With rules as follow:

Rules: 

1.  Spell out your blog’s name. (this is where you wish your blog’s name was shorter LOL)

2. Find a book from your TBR that begins with each letter. (Note you cannot ADD to your TBR to complete this challenge – the books must already be on your Goodread’s TBR)

Well, neither of us keeps a Goodread’s TBR, so we decided to just use what we have – vast numbers of books waiting patiently for their turn on our bookshelves.

Calmgrove had 9 books to find, we – 23. But we are gonna make it, the entire name of our humble blog, including of the and even the world 🙂

Piotrek: My part is Re-enchantment and it’s a long word. Finding the books took a moment, and they made quite a pile on my coffee table.

 

R – The Return of the Black Company was a no-brainer, I’m slowly going through this series, one of the very best of military fantasy, even if Ola is way ahead and always manages to review before me 😉

Ola: And I will certainly continue it as I’m nearing the very end of the series! 😀

E – Endless Things by Crowley is a fourth part of his Aegypt series, and I have a long way to get there, but I will – I enjoyed the slow-paced first instalment a lot.

E – Eagle Against the Sun is one I actually feel a bit guilty about, a few years ago I had just enough strong will to buy it to organize my knowledge about the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, but I’ve only skimmed it before putting it aside on a shelf next to a few huge volumes on the European Campaign I actually read. One of these days, after another re-watch of Midway…

N – No Future for you is the second volume in Season 8 of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, who after seven seasons of TV moved to the world of graphic novels. Volume One was great, so I will, I repeat it – I certainly will read the rest, some time soon.

C – Children of Time by Czajkowski is another book I bought sure that the author guarantees quality, but I haven’t yet found the time to read it. I will, though, it does sound intriguing, and Ola wrote a great review.

H – Homo Deus, sequel to Yuval Noah Harari’s very influential Homo Sapiens, a breathtaking journey through human history, not groundbreaking by itself, perhaps, but collecting together and organizing in an interesting way quite a lot of what humanity learned about itself in recent decades. Public intellectuals with that level of charisma, able to grasp popular imagination, are rarer and rare these days, so he’s certainly wort our attention.

A – Against a Dark Background is one of Iain M. Banks’ standalones that caught my attention, and after I’m done with Culture, I’m certainly going to read it. It may take a while, but the used copy I had cost me equivalent of one lunch in my office cafeteria 😉

N – The Negotiator. I used to read a lot of the likes of Forsyth. Not so much now, but I might get sentimental one day, and it belongs to the inherited part of my library that calls for more attention from me.

T – Toll the Hounds. Erikson, I’ll get back to you, enough people assured me it gets better after uninspiring beginning of Gardens of the Moon.

M – Mythago Woods, Robert Holdstock. I’ve read a great review somewhere, I don’t remember where, and just felt I got to get it. Now it patiently awaits its turn.

E –  Evolution by Stephen Baxter. If I remember the review that made me buy it back in 2014, it’s a story of evolution from pre- to post- human times, told in a series of interlocked short stories. Fascinating, but very long…

N – The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. Tale of magic and love, in a mysterious circus, with great cover. Bought a few years ago, temporarily put aside after Ola’s not-too-enthusiastic review, but I will get to it.

T – Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone. Part of a great sequence of books that tell us a lot about modern economy and society disguised as a fantasy universe where wizards and gods engage not only in displays of powerful magic, but also legal battles. In author’s own words The Craft Sequence books are legal thrillers about faith, or religious thrillers about law and finance. Highly recommended and one of the books I’m so sure I’ll enjoy that I’m in no hurry to read.

And now, I give you:

Ola: My words are many but thankfully short (oh, why did we use so many words in our blog’s name! ;): of the world. I will cheat a bit to have all the books on the picture and include one reread I’ve been planning to do for a while, actually right from the moment I got my beautiful Folio edition :D.

O – The Once and Future King by TH White (reread). White’s book is a classic, and one that truly made a lasting impression. I’m curious how it will hold the second time around, in the lovely Folio edition I have acquired a couple years ago.

F – Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson. It’s a prequel of sorts to the Malazan Book of the Fallen, and I was very eager to buy it, but somehow less eager to read it ;). I’ve had one approach to it, but unfortunately for Erikson around that time I got my hands on the great omnibus edition of Cook’s Black Company books [link to Cook tag?]. They stole my heart, and made my mind very suspicious of manifold inspirations and themes Erikson had borrowed from Cook, and so the history of Anomandaris will have to wait till I finish my adventures with Croaker and Co. Which, admittedly, will be sooner than I’d like ;).

T – Tribe by Sebastian Junger, a renowned journalist and the co-director of Restrepo. A non-fiction book about American veterans from the War on Terror era and the psychological needs of belonging.

H – The Hyena and the Hawk by Adrian Czajkowski. The final installment in the Echoes of the Fall trilogy. The reviews of the previous books can be found here and here. A pretty good series, though Shadows of the Apt are better :). I keep hoping to see a familiar Insect Kinden face in the final installment, but haven’t read any reviews yet for the fear of spoilers – I’ll see soon enough 🙂

E – Endymion Omnibus by Dan Simmons. I loved the Hyperion Omnibus and have high hopes for Endymion. I still have a review to write, so for now suffice to say that I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the next books.

W – War. The New Edition by Gwynne Dyer. A non-fiction bestseller from the mid-80’s, re-edited in the early 2000’s, is an in-depth analysis about the nature of war. A book that sits on my shelves for a few years already and I keep looking at it longingly but always have more pressing non-fiction reads. I sincerely hope I will start reading it soon.

O – Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. The creative team responsible for Civil War takes on an alternate vision of the post-apocalyptic future. What better recommendation is needed? 🙂 It’s in part a re-read, but only in part ;).

R – A Religious History of the American People by Sydney E. Ahlstrom. Seminal anthropological work about American religious beliefs, experiences and customs, smoothly merging history with sociology and religious studies.

L – The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny. A short story collection of one of my favorite authors. It includes some of the best-known stories, such as the Hugo award-winner Home is the Hangman, 24 views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai, and Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love, as well as some of his lesser known works. This is a book I intend to savour.

D – Declare by Tim Powers. I am a huge fan of Powers’ special talent of unearthing and creating insane yet compellingly believable conspiracy theories containing Egyptian mages, vengeful dwarves, Merlin and King Arthur, lamias and English poets and so on. Our reviews and discussions about some of his best-known novels can be found here, here and here. Hopefully Declare will join the flock soon enough :).

Here we go, combined: