Month: November 2022

Chances are good I’ll hit 75 books…

…by the end of November.

I’m at 74 right now and I’m partway through 75, so come on, really. Haha.

I was sorting through my to-read list for December. Only one Christmas book so far, but then I saw this Hallmarkian Christmas Romance and thought what the hell, I can throw on some plaid and review that in my shop.

I’ve also got an L. Frank Baum/Santa Claus thing to read, provided it doesn’t suck.

Gotta finish strong. I didn’t put the dent in my list that I wanted to this year, so next year is going to be an all-out blitz. Haha. If I start up a machine where I feed in audiobooks and spit out videos, that’s fine. It increases the odds of me actually making money off this stuff, lol.

Anyway, here’s what I’m listening to that’ll round out November. I assume the publisher ruled out Lockley’s original title of “Ninja WHAAAAAT?”

Some of my Kindle books are $0.99 right now.

Check out Hans Schantz’s post, he runs group indie sales like this a few times a year and I managed to get in on it this time.

For the next week, the following Kindle books by Graham Bradley are just a buck. Surf the sale and see if you want anything else in there, too.

KILL THE BEAST

SLEEPLESS HOLLOW

MISTER FRIDAY

REBEL HEART (book one of Engines of Liberty)

Buy, and tell your friends to buy, and keep buying, mwahahahaha

Projects for 2023

Guys, I’m planning an end-of-year bash on the channel (subscribe!) where I will announce what I’m going to publish/produce/accomplish next year. Here are the categories

Reading: Fewer books, but longer ones. Average one per week or so. This will include the current four Stormlight Archive volumes, biographies on Jefferson Davis and Robert Rogers, and a huge lineup of artbooks that I’m behind on reading.

Writing: I will publish ENGINES OF MERYKA: HOWLING WILDERNESS, as well as the print/illustrated editions of SHERIFF PORTER and ANSWERABLE COURAGE.

Drawing: I’ll have my hands full doing illustrations for three books. One way to make that manageable will be to limit the amount of art I put in each one. I’m thinking eight total for the shorter books (not including the cover art) and no more than fifteen for HOWLING WILDERNESS. I’ll have to be very strict with my schedule.

Video: Production on video content will be regularlized. There will be at least one weekly video on my channel, reviewing a book or weighing in on something generally.

Audio: The Radcracker Podcast will continue, with new art and a more rigid format, so that the content is (frankly) better.

2023 is going to be a big year for me. I’m done moving, my schedule is consistent, and with my time consumption being predictable, I can dial in my meaningful creations with greater speed. I reserve the right to change any of this stuff as needed. Stay tuned.

Unfattening update

I’ve been hovering at 210 for about a week, which doesn’t shock me; it means those first 7 pounds were easy fluff and now the slow burn begins. That’s why I haven’t been posting every day.

For primarily budget-based reasons I’ve stopped getting food at gas stations and stuff during the day, which has helped with the weight (who could have seen that coming…)

But hey, if you want to help out on the budget side, I have a topical book coming up: MISTER FRIDAY. Right now it’s only available on Kindle…not sure what that’s about.

Here’s the description:

In a near future, Black Friday is enshrined as an official economic holiday. The violence and competition that have come to characterize the start of the Christmas shopping season are now encouraged and regulated by the US Government.

Jonathan Rigel Jr. quickly climbed the charts and became the greatest Friday Fighter of all time. When he finally decides that he’s out for good, he learns the hard way that you can’t just turn down a good deal…

Amazon description

I also narrated it on the old Brother Truck Book Club so feel free to listen to it there. It was a lot of fun to write. Check it out.

Presidential Biographies

I want to read a biography on every president. For some, that will be multiple. Here’s the list of what I’ve compiled so far. If you have read any of these, or if you have a suggestion, weigh in. Thanks.

Also I’m just listing the author names on the bio of that particular president. I’m not putting 40+ links here.

Italics = I’ve already read one.

Note: I’m only looking on Audible.

Washington: I have a bio of him written by Washington Irving, which I will read first. After that I’ll read Chernow’s biography.

Adams: I’ve read McCullough’s.

Jefferson: Jon Meacham’s ART OF POWER

Madison: Ralph Ketchum has one that’s 34 hours long on audio and apparently the narrator is bad, so I’m putting Noah Feldman’s here, which is also 34 hours.

Monroe: Tim McGrath

(Quincy) Adams: Harlow Giles Unger wrote one.

Jackson: Jon Meacham’s AMERICAN LION.

Van Buren: I can’t find anything substantial on this guy, the longest Audible bio on him is only 2 hours. Make a recommendation, please.

(Henry) Harrison: Same problem as Van Buren.

Tyler: Edward Crapol has a book called “The Accidental President” but the tone sounds rather aggressive, so it might be more a challenge and less a biography. Make a recommendation.

Polk: Walter Borneman’s POLK

Taylor: Same problem as the ones above.

Fillmore: Same problem. Jeez, none of these guys were very interesting. I suppose that might have been good for the country.

Pierce: SAME PROBLEM

Buchanan: Apparently a lot of people hated this dude so I’m not finding biographies, just books about how terrible he was. Help a guy out.

Lincoln: Oof, no shortage here. Michael Burlingame has a huge book on him, which is fine, I’m just also open to suggestions. You can read big tomes that just cover a few years of Lincoln’s life.

Johnson: Not a lot of books about the man’s life, just his impeachment. Why does he look like Tommy Lee Jones time traveled?

Grant: I’ve read the Chernow biography and it was superb.

Hayes: Oooh, Hans Trefousse has one, and it looks like there’s a whole series…this might be a safe fallback if I can’t find anything good on someone.

Garfield: Like Andrew Johnson, there are only books about his assassination. Ugh.

Arthur: Another “accidental/unexpected” president. I’ll pencil in Greenberger’s book for now.

Cleveland: Jeffers’ AN HONEST PRESIDENT.

Harrison: Make a rec.

McKinley: Richard Rohan has one.

T. Roosevelt: I’ve read McCullough’s book that covers TR’s life up to the point he entered politics. Turns out he has an autobiography though so I will read that before anything else.

Taft: Goodwin’s THE BULLY PULPIT focuses more on his fight with TR, so make a rec here.

Wilson: This absolute bastard. Do I even dare? Yeah, I should read an entire bio. I’ve read enough about his president. John Milton Cooper has one.

Harding: Ryan Walters’ THE JAZZ AGE PRESIDENT.

Coolidge: I’ve read Amity Shlaes’ book.

Hoover: Glen Jeansonne has one.

F. Roosevelt: This MFer…Jean Edward Smith has one on him, I guess I’ll put that in for now.

Truman: I’ve read McCullough’s, and I recommend it.

Eisenhower: Hitchcock and Smith both have length books one him. Whichever I read, I’ll supplement it with Stephen Ambrose’s THE SUPREME COMMANDER.

Kennedy: Frederik Logevall has one, I’ll try that. Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews each have one too, but I don’t know how willing I am to listen to partisan blowhard j*urnolists weigh in on someone. Might also listen to/read a lot of his speeches.

Johnson: Another total bastard. Robert Caro wrote 62 hours’ worth of audio on this guy and I don’t want to listen to any of it. Make a rec.

Nixon: Another huge POS. Make a rec.

Ford: You want to talk about accidental presidents? Hit me. This dude went from 13-term Congressman, to Speaker, to VP, to President, to unemployed in like, five years.

Carter: Jonathan Alter’s book.

Reagan: H.W. Brands has one. Lots of books on this dude.

H.W. Bush: Too many of these books focus on one particular element of his life, so make a rec.

Clinton: UGGH

W. Bush: Damn dude I really don’t want to. I read his DECISION POINTS book and it was interesting, but it was also him talking about himself, sooooooooooooooo

I don’t think I trust anything current about Obama, it’ll be too polarizing. People either love him or hate him and that messes with honest assessments.

Debating whether to read one on Trump. Maybe if there was one that came out before he ran, when Democrats still liked him. Everything since then will just be horse manure.

I’m not reading a biography of Biden, hell with that guy. He’s not a real president because he wasn’t installed by real voters. Even before he ran he was scum. I’ll read a book on Jefferson Davis first, who at least had the balls to install himself as president at gunpoint after making his own country with blackjack and hookers.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at. Open to many suggestions.

Currently reading:

William Bradford catalogued the first few decades of events at Plymouth Plantation (the Mayflower colony) in a single manuscript that was entrusted to his sons and grandsons.

It eventually made its way back to England, and was returned to the US in the late 18th or 19th Century. Harold Paget put together this edition in 1920, on the 300th anniversary of the voyage that brought Bradford & Co. to Massachusetts.

We’ve since had the 400th anniversary. This is a good book, go read it.

Also I’ve assembled a YT playlist for all of my Pilgrim-related videos.

They filmed “Kingdom of Heaven” here.

Ridley Scott plays fast and loose with history, and his 2005 movie Kingdom Of Heaven was the fastest and loosest. You might think Saladin was some kind of righteous liberator, and Christians were all mean and bad, if you thought his retelling of the story was accurate.

But that’s not important right now. We’re here to talk about the Castillo de Loarre, in Huesca, Spain. See it on Google Maps here: https://goo.gl/maps/1RvG5NL9Qchn1r3Q8

Scott and his crew were filming in Huesca around January of 2004. It’s very old and remarkably intact. In March of that same year some very nice Spaniards took me and my mission companion north of Zaragoza to see the place, and I snapped a bunch of pictures. Here they are in no particular order.

Also, if you’re keen, I recapped all two years of my mission to Spain on the “Welcome to the Faro” podcast. Find it on Google, Spotify, Apple podcasts, and more.