I started reading again on my commutes and this is what I read :D

Hello my friend,

Before we get to the reason we’re all here, I wanted to let you know that I have a campaign currently running, The Oswald Chronicles: What My Eyes See I Cannot Tell 1-5, where we see Oswald swept into a portal leaving him trapped in a far-off dimension and pressed into the service of privateers from a free-floating Yggdrasil called the Star Trimmer. Amongst their crew Oswald spots a number of Mar, the people he once ruled over when he was their emperor in Dream, and with them is his long lost wife Belinda, held in chains, and Oswald will not stop until he finds out why: http://kck.st/3L2TQ2E

And here’s a video review done for me by DM Ray, and you can see his upcoming campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/philboentertainment/madcaps-issue-3?fbclid=IwY2xjawPH1Q1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFGb0laNWZ5ZUdkNThmVjBlc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrr9skXg2vrxT5gDURVKSguLF5Eu4cvqyDXuPiYkVWIasLLzWdfKdXNysD1J_aem_KPmIK-5QmEYWsHAAYbxZuw

When I was eleven, I started reading science fiction and fantasy novels, I read 2 to 3 a week. I read them to fill the time between weekly comic runs, I read them on the train, stuffed them in my pockets, cracked the spines, but I would never fold a corner, I’m not an animal. Unlike the comics I collected that had to be protected from the elements, sunlight, people, and anything that would put a tick on the spine. It also introduced me to a world of authors like Roger Zelazny, HP Lovecraft, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and many, many others.

Every week I would go to a bookstore and look through the new releases section for fantasy and science fiction, I would browse for a new Roger Zelazny release. At least once a year I would find one, until his death in 1995, I was in collage at the time studying to become an accountant, which never happened, but that’s another story, I had read in a trade magazine that Roger Zelazny had passed away due to cancer. Now whenever I didn’t find one of his works on the racks, I picked up another book from another author, sometimes from someone I knew and sometimes from someone new, but after Roger’s passing I found it harder and harder to continue with this weekly habit, I mourned a man I had never met, nor even had any desire to meet, I just appreciated, and admired his work. It was like losing a literary father, it hurt more than I cared to admit. I still read, but not at the same frequency I once had. I dived deeper into comics, and it’s a habit I still partake in, reading anywhere from 100 to 200 pages a night before bed, I do think it’s more around 100 these days. On occasion I’ll pick up a novel that strikes a chord in me like, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, I read the three books in that series in seven days, and two of them were taken up by Amazon shipping. I think I was down to two or three a year for the last dozen years or so, but somewhere in mid-2025 I decided to stop listening to podcasts on my subway trips, they were becoming increasingly negative in nature and no longer worth my attention, so I started reading again, and these are the books I read last year, I only read novels on the subway, and I’m only commuting about forty five minutes to an hour a day, so it takes me several weeks to get through an average sized book, and I have yet to find a book that requires me to drop everything and read it, yet, but I’m sure I’ll find one soon, hopefully several.

The one thing I have to say about all of these books is that they were all enjoyable and interesting, some more than others, but there’s not a stinker in the bunch. A few standouts for me were, Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, is a very interesting concept of an alien invasion that’s going to happen four hundred years in the future and how it’s affecting us now, and how the world’s governments must deal with the situation now. Stephen King’s Fairy Tale was a fun, very breezy read, and I have to admit it’s only the second Stephen King book I have ever read. The first was his book on writing, which I found both useful and edifying. Also, anything by Bill Willingham I’ll go out of my way to get and read being a lifelong fan of his.

So, that’s my prose read pile for 2025, and 2026 is looking good. I’m currently reading John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin, a strange book to go along with a strange film by the same name, and so far, a lot of fun. Let me know if you’re reading anything and what I should keep an eye out for?

Thank you for spending this time with me.

JD Calderon