Mr. Burke's Reading List

Doctor Who: 365 Days of Memorable Moments and Impossible Things by Justin Richards (2016) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) A lot of Doctor Who trivia, much of it repetitive, organized into little bites by date, to fit the theme of a calendar. Smartly, it's not a calendar, as that would kill the book by the end of the year. The book iteself says that it isn't something that should be read straight through. After trying that, I have to agree. The selection of dates of things is a little haphazard, and some things are just listed on days for no particular reason at all. While it isn't a narrative, the book doesn't work as a reference, either. Nothing is crossed-referenced (I guess because of the calendar-ish nature), so when some episodes are topics are mentioned again, a lot of backstory has to be repeated. Eac...

Principles of Zen Philosophy by ... ( ) [NO IMAGE WILL BE POSTED] (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) I started to think of this book as being about "Zen-feld", because it was a book about nothing. Really, everything was nothing, and it seemed an advertisement for one branch of Zen or something. I got 20% or so through it and thought, "Why am I reading this?" It wasn't inspiring me. There was no helping of my self in any way. I didn't want to start 2021 on a loss, so I waited until I posted a book I'd finished first to mention this one. It's only in the blog for completeness. It will have no tags.

Troll Hunter: Witch for Hire (Gretchen's (Mis)Adventures - Season One #0·5) by P. A. Mason (2020) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) I'm a little wary of books with many subtitles, but this is becoming the norm in these days of quick ebook publishing. I'm also not fond of the use of "Season" to describe entries in a series, unless it's actually about the seasons of the year or seasons of a TV show or similar. I assumed the 0.5 meant this was some kind of prequel, or setup for the rest of the available books. In any case, there was a story here to be told. It might not have been the best-written, but it did it's job. I gave it 3 stars on Good Reads because I didn't think it was a two-star book. Some of the things I gave two stars to weren't very good. It also contained Chapter 1 of the first b...

A Very Beechwood Christmas: Four Festive Magic Mini Mysteries from Beechwood Harbor by Danielle Garrett (2019) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) I downloaded this around Christmastime and started it in 2020, but I had to put it aside becasuse I had library books to finish. Of all things, I found it because I was searching for books with gnomes. I was thinking of writing something, and I wanted to see how other people handled them. Well, there are gnomes here, but they aren't really the focus of the book. Beechwood Harbor, and Beechwood Manor, are home to witches, "shifters", ghosts, and other supernatural individuals, as well as regular people who don't know that they are there. It's a haven, of sorts (not to be confused with Haven from the show, but that could be a comparison). There is a series of more th...