Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl - by Matt Dinnimnan

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Back at the end of February, I attended a Tigres (local sandlot baseball team I’m on) function and a teammate turned me onto a app called FABLE. On said app was a book club that he recently joined and he asked if I was interested in joining.

I admittedly have never really been in a book club. Over the years I’ve read books in a group class setting. On a few occasions a person would start a book and recommend that I check it out also - kinda making a small sith book club of 2.

I joined said app and the first book they selected was a real treat called - Dungeon Crawler Carl. Want to quickly point out that I don’t really read books that are a part of an established series. I don’t really know why I’m difficult but part of me has always wanted to gravitate to books and stories that are confined to one singular release.

I’ve broken this rule a few times over the years and happily did so again so that I could read this with some new internet frens.

Dungeon Crawler Carl was a true delight. I read this several books ago, so I’m going on muscle memory. There’s a guy named Carl and one night while contemplating some heavy shit like breaking up with his girlfriend. He notices that her cat escaped the apartment they share. He went out after it and as soon as he does that - the apartment building they lived in got leveled to the ground. A bizarre world changing event takes place. I can only describe it as an over lord alien race takes over the planet and those who could hear them speaking overhead are told they have two choices. To enter this thing that is like a game/dungeon crawl. Or attempt to make it on their own on the outside of the game. Inside the game they can fight for their lives and make their way through a bunch of levels. On the outside, well they can fend for themselves but they will likely parish.

Carl and the Cat make their way in and the book kinda takes off from there. Perhaps its a lifetime of playing video games - specifically RPGs. I really immersed myself into this book. I found myself easily seeing what they were describing and found myself wanting to know what becomes of these characters. Especially the cat donut. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I really want to read the next one. I’m told theres 6 or 7 of these books. That’s a very tall order…. there’s so many other books I should probably dive into.

A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved our Lives

A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved our Lives by David Hepworth

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Purchased this book a number of years ago after seeing it get cited by my friend and music mentor Alex Smith. I picked it up and put it on a stack of things to read but never got it into rotation until I committed to reading books I had on my shelf back in March.

If pressed to pick one area of interest, one true passion or love - it would be music. I don’t know why my attraction to the medium is so strong but its the medium I understand and think about most. My personal library is filled with books about music. So much so that I have gone out of my way to try and read things I wouldn’t normally read the past couple of years. This book was an incredible read because it made me not only appreciate the medium of the Long Playing record - but David Hepworth’s approach to the topic is one that I could easily get rooted in. We got off to a rocky start at the beginning of the book. There’s some proclamations to SGT. PEPPERS being the most important LP ever of all time, that I found a little hard to stomach - but I pressed on and I began to understand how he arrived at that point of view and I can appreciate his argument. The book is a historic look at the LP - beginning with 78 RPM records - all the way thru present day. He provides ground level insights on what it was like in England during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The insights on important LPs through the years allowed me to revisit numerous albums that I hadn’t really listened to. If you love music and collecting Vinyl - i highly recommend that you give this a read.

Stony the Road

Stony the Road (Reconstruction, White Supremacy and the Rise of Jim Crow) by Henry Louis Gates Jr. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is impeccable. This was recommended to me by my friend Phil about a year ago, but I just got around to consuming it. Given today’s political climate and the constant bracing for WTF is going on now - it really helped me think about White Supremacy and the establishments narrative and approach. More importantly, it helped me understand a number of injustices that have hurt people of color in the United States.

Tampa

Tampa by Alissa Nutting ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Penned a lengthy entry about this book under the main blog, under the title of Thought Crimes. Its a tough book to review. The content is pretty explicit. It’s about a teacher (woman age 26) that wants to find a 14 year old boy to groom and have sex with. As uncomfortable as it was to read, I’m glad I did because I wanted to read books I don’t typically go after. This is indeed that.

But What if We're Wrong?

But What if We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another collection of essays by Chuck Klosterman. Not sure why I read a pair of his books in succession, going into February I had a pile of books that I really wanted to get thru. This one was really interesting because the premise is that over time, there are things we find absolute that turn out to be laugh out loud wrong. He took on a number of present day subjects and examined these things thru this lens. There’s an essay about “Rock” at the very start of this book that I really enjoyed. There were also some explorations of Physics/Gravity/Math that really amused me.

I Wear the Black Hat

I Wear the Black Hat - by Chuck Klosterman ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book jumps into the world of Villains, how they’re depicted and how some Villains can’t really be Villains. If you’re familiar with Klosterman, you will appreciate this collection of essays and the examination of this subject. It’s not his best stuff, but I really enjoy his writing and I found myself playfully amused reading a number of the entries.

Banal Nightmare

Banal Nightmare by Hale Buttler - ⭐️⭐️
Walked into a bookstore earlier this year, fell in love with the book jacket and then regretted my impulsive ways. I found every character in this book unlikable… which isn’t something I need to have in an immersive reading, but there’s so many horrible qualities I saw within the characters thought processes that reminded me of myself. It’s the same reason I can’t watch Curb Your Enthusiasm because I see to much of Larry David in myself.

HENCH

Hench- by Natalie Zina Walschots - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I can’t stress how much I enjoyed reading this novel. The book has one of the strongest female characters I’ve read in a very long time. Natalie has an ability to articulate the many split second thoughts 💭 people actually have in any given moment. Rarely do I read something, stop after a handful of pages and take a moment to acknowledge how much of a pleasure it is to read what I’m reading. The book is about a woman who finds gainful employment with a thoughtful Super Villain. Said character is a “hench” and it’s set in a world that is juxtaposed with Hero’s and Kicks. Seek it out.

the Bride

Bride by Ali Hazelwood - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ✨
This is a book I started last year, put it down and then had to pick it up again. It’s set in a world where there’s Humans/Werewolfs/Vampires. The three sides are attempting to keep the peace with one another, there’s an arranged wedding where a Vampire Bride is committed to an Alpha Werewolf. The Vampire has agreed to the wedding because she’s trying to find a missing friend, who happens to be a reporter that was going to interview the Alpha Werewolf. The characters don’t trust one another but there’s a magnetic 🧲 pull to one another too.

The One

The One by John Marrs - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was kinda wild. I don’t think it was particularly good. There are however a number of morality questions that the reader has to think about when they go thru the character subplots. In this book, people take a DNA test and you’re matched with someone with a 99.9% compatibility score. This disrupts exiting relationships and marriages, some people discover that their match is the same sex.