After nearly a year of changing names, contemplating and just wanting a place to just chat all things I like we have it! This semi weekly segment on the blog is called On the Shelves and I intend to do it as regularly as I can. Called On the Shelves mostly as a reference to this being primarily a book blog, but that I also have other things on my shelves. I have other hobbies like cons (thanks Ms. Rona), collecting, comics, movies and gaming among others so this will cover those too.

Obviously this will have a book section as well. I never wanted to do a weekly reading update here on the blog since some weeks I potentially read fuck all and others I read 3 novels in 5 days. (Now you all see why this is called a weekly slot of chaos eh?) So I’ll tie it in here with ones I might have put down for a bit or have DNF’d. Same with comics and shows.

To quote a classic Irish talk show, roll it there, Collette!

Books: What’s happening over there?

Very chill week reading wise, though still have today and tomorrow. I started The Witch’s Heart and finished it on a complete whim. I’m for once organised enough to have the review up here as well so that is a bonus. I very bravely decided to declare I’d be trying to read and finish three books this week but likely not going to happen now.

Current reads are:

• Jade War by Fonda Lee, on page 221 of 587. (37%)
• The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan, on 140 of 403 (Roughly 25%), currently reading on audio

In terms of books I bought, I did (naturally) fall into Dubray on my way home from dinner with boyd last night. Picked up these two. I’d like to remind everyone I am currently in a Tolkien shaped rabbit hole so Middle Earth will feature for a bit. I preordered Natalie Haynes’s new book yesterday as well so felt natural to grab her previous one.

Comics: What about there?

I continue to be wildly behind on my comics, I had hoped to get caught up on at least two series this week but alas the mood was not with me. Hopefully by next week I will be. In terms of reading them, I did prep for going to see The Batman and finally read The Long Halloween. Definitely one of the best Batman outings that leans heavier on the detective work. So all is not abandoned.

For upcoming comics, I’m trying to saddle back up since a lot of series I follow are wrapping up or are done now. I am faithfully tied to Sandman forever as you all know and this week saw the covers dropping for the new upcoming Corinthian series.

My heart absolutely lost to this variant by the genius that is Jenny Frison. I’ll share it with you so you can drool too.

Movies, TV and streaming; what about those?

A week ago now but I finally saw The Batman and it’s still in my head. I love Batman movies with every bit of me and to see such a great undertaking in it from Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson was fantastic. I was overjoyed to have Colin Farrell and Zoe Kravitz do equally fabulous.

Outside of that, I’m slowly tiptoeing my way back to true crime and watched the Dennis Nilsen Netflix doc.

I found this very chilling, as a lot of things I learn to do with Nilsen are. But the angle it took really didn’t suit the length of it. It takes a lot of the angle of how homophobia in Britain (be mindful and look into TWs if you want to watch it) and how that ultimately was a huge factor in the media and police force. But it might have been better like Ripper as a series. Would recommend for a bref insight.

Links, they’re great. What about those?

I obviously live on the internet. So I do spend a lot of time looking at links and things that I think are ultimately cool and relevant to my interest. Gonna share a few here in case you too might like them!

• Another hint to upcoming Locked Tomb novel number 3 with a dramatis personnae and fun stuff from Tor! https://www.tor.com/2022/03/15/revealing-the-dramatis-personae-from-nona-the-ninth-by-tamsyn-muir/
• These amazing unseen Tolkien paintings (I warned you further up the post) from The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/26/unseen-jrr-tolkien-paintings-photographs-and-video-clips-released
• Take the Ring, an excellent Twin Peaks channel, had a live with the actor behind portraying Ray Monroe
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0HJJ-Jn4wE&feature=youtu.be

That’s all I have for you this week! Do let me know what you think of these style of posts, I do enjoy doing them and this seems a bit more of a way to open up talking about what other things I do outside of books. If you have a similar style of post, I would love to see it too!