My April reading list
The book of the movie, and a forgotten Gothic tale that outsold Dracula.
Spring has officially sprung. The days are longer than the nights, there are the first hints of new growth, the streams are flowing again, and I don’t need to wear a hat to go outside. Which means it’s time to start prepping the garden. It’s too cold to plant anything out yet, but the first seedlings are germinating in the sun room and the raised beds need to be filled with fresh compost and fertilizer, the deer netting needs repair, and there are about three tons of leaves to clear and mulch. (Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, it may be only two tons. We have a lot of trees.)
The way 2026 is shaping up, growing as much of our own food as possible sounds like a damn fine idea. We have discussed several times the idea of homesteading and trying to be as self-sufficient as we can. But, having grown up with The Good Life, I’m under no illusions about how utterly ill-prepared we are for that. I’m too old and I have absolutely no idea how to milk a goat or what to do with chickens in the winter or why my cabbages are always so puny. Nice idea, but… nah.
The other thing about April is that once the mud dries up, it’s a great time to get outside and walk. It’s still a little chilly, but it’s usually bright and sunny, and it’s so nice to see greenery appearing after months of brown and white. That’s always a great mood-lifter after the last few months. I’m hoping it’ll give me the necessary impetus to bust through this creative impasse and write Act II of The Yellow Flowers.
So, here’s my April list. About half of them are books where I’ve seen the movie or TV show and but I’ve never read the original source. For some reason, I’ve always enjoyed that: the book isn’t always better, but I love seeing the different presentations of the same idea. (I won’t say the same story, because sometimes they’re very different stories.)
The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. My sister read all the Oz books incessantly, but I never did. Time to remedy that.
Mickey 7, by Edward Ashton. Ricky Lee Grove and I have been talking about doing this one for our The Paperback Show podcast about book to movie adaptations. I enjoyed the movie, and I’m looking forward to comparing it with the book. (Like, why are there ten more Mickeys in the movie?)
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet. (Did you know Dumas had a co-writer on this and many other books? Maquet wrote the outline, Dumas then turned it into prose, originally in monthly instalments.) I’ve had this on my shelf for 49 years since I got it as a school prize in 1977. I suppose I should get round to reading it. It’s purely coincidental there’s a new TV version coming out: it’s only a couple of years since the last one - which I haven’t seen. It turns out there are about about 20 film or TV versions in English alone: the only ones I remember seeing are the 2002 one with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce, and the 1975 Richard Chamberlain one, and I don’t remember much about either.
Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefonso Falcones. The Netflix series looks interesting, and we’ll tackle it when we’re both in the mood for subtitled TV. I’ve heard good things about the book, though. It seems to be similar to Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, which is a fantastic book (and a very mediocre TV series). I’m not sure which format I’ll get to first.
The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo. Children’s adventure set in a world of Welsh folklore. I loved the more recent of the two BBC TV adaptations, although it did feel a little dated, so I’m intrigued to explore the books. There’s a whole series of them.
Goliath’s Curse: the history and future of societal collapse, by Luke Kemp. This is my serious read for the month, recommended by my oldest friend Andy. Why do societies collapse? Turns out, if you look at over 300 examples of collapse, it’s pretty much the exact same reasons every single time. This is probably not going to be comfortable reading.
A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark. Steampunk fantasy set in an alternate 1912 Cairo with magic, mystery, politics and romance. Sign me up!
Gift of Orisyne, by Ingrid Moon. Fantasy novella written by a good friend. I love the idea of mostly useless skills! “Kelara has three skills: she can steal one coin without getting caught, she can scrub a floor to a shine, and she can disappear so completely that her own brothers forget she's there.” (Free download if you’re interested.)
Tailored Realities, by Brandon Sanderson (stretch goal). I still don’t have the stamina for Volume 5 of Stormlight yet, so a short story collection will suffice for now. They’re not part of the Cosmere universe, and include space opera, sci-fi thrillers, and detective stories.
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir (stretch goal). I’m about number 35 on the waiting list at the library. If a copy gets to me this month I’ll read it, but I’m not counting on it.
Audio-wise, I’m working my way through a collection of Golden Age SF shorts by authors such as James H. Schmitz, H. Beam Piper, Fritz Leiber, Harry Harrison, Philip K. Dick and Murray Leinster. There are some good ones in there, and some that aren’t nearly so interesting 70 years after they were written. I’m also looking forward to the next season of Achewillow.
However, what I’m really intrigued by is a 1997 BBC adaptation of The Beetle, a Gothic novel by Richard Marsh. It came out at the same time as Dracula, which it massively outsold at the time, but is all but forgotten now. Marsh was a very prolific writer, and this could lead me down a very deep rabbit hole if I’m not careful.
And there we have it. I’m not at all sure I’ll get through all of these. If the weather’s good and I get back into writing, I won’t have much time for reading, which would be a very positive outcome. I really should stop watching so much TV in the evenings: that would free up a lot of time.
What’s on your reading/listening list?
I absolutely loved The Three Musketeers movie(s). My older brother was a big fan and whenever they would re-run me and my younger sis would be right there watching it w/ him.
Another great list of books to read. The Beetle is great (if archaic language wise). Ingrid Moon is a good friend of mine. She'll be delighted to know you are reading her book.