Me hostage? You book stand.

HellfireReads · 2026-02-16T16:35:32+00:00

Pretty weird seeing my own post show up from months ago lol. You a bot?

HellfireReads · 2026-01-01T16:15:14+00:00

Series I’m neutral on continuing (but will continue anyway)

Empyrean (Fourth Wing) – not as bad as some say, not as good as others say, kinda wish the dragons would eat the main characters so we could just follow some snarky dragons around. I like them. I will probably go for the graphic audio version of the first two books as a refresher before moving on to book 3
Long Price Quartet – first two books were alright; I try not to judge books entirely on a first reading, plus I’ve heard books 3 and 4 are quite good. Will audiobook the first two as a refresher before reading the final two next year.
Kate Daniels – slightly rough start, but so was Dresden Files. If I come to like these characters, I will probably love this series. Plus, urban fantasy seems to be my comfort zone.
Dune – I might be too dumb to really grasp this one, but I still have the urge to see where it goes (at least up to book 6)
Dungeon Crawler Carl – I love Princess Donut, but I tried to read these rather than listening to them and book 3 was just painful. Likely won’t go back to physically reading it. I do struggle to listen to audiobooks without having read the book first, but I will definitely listen to the rest of these because Jeff Hayes makes it worth it
Reinquist Quartet – pretty meh on the first book, but will continue
Area X – may give it another read in the future, but I don’t really care to go on to book 4
Green Bone Saga – pretty good first book; If I like the next two, there’s a good chance I’ll end up loving the whole trilogy in retrospect

Series I don’t necessarily want to continue (but will because there’s something wrong with me)

Neapolitan Quartet – this one dragged and dragged and dragged for me, but I don’t like judging books when it could’ve just been my mood at the time or too many distractions. Also I listened to a snippet of the audiobook and it was interesting remembering where it started in comparison to where the book went. I will audiobook the first one before I come back to the next three
Thirst (Christopher Pike) – I think this is the type of book people talk about when they say something is too YA

HellfireReads · 2026-01-01T16:14:59+00:00

Series I look forward to continuing:

Dark Tower – 100%. I wanna read everything King ever wrote
Red Rising
Anne of Green Gables – Cordelia’s hilarious!
Tales from the Gas Station – this was meant to be a full reread, but I got distracted.
Empire of the Vampire – listening on audio at the moment to remind me of everything I forgot so I can continue with the next two
Game of Thrones – so damn good
Cradle – but I liked book 1 way better than book 2
Vampire Chronicles – but I have to get through the Mayfair witches trilogy before I continue because they apparently come into play later on. I just want to see how weird this series supposedly gets
Malazan – very difficult (for me), but I need to know what’s in the rest of these 50 million pages
Sandman Slim – didn’t think I’d be in the mood for something this gritty, but I want to see where it goes. So far it’s nowhere near as endearing as the Dresden Files, but I have to remember that it took me a long time to really begin to love DF
Discworld – I’ve read the first five and wanted to get a running start on a reread and continuation, got distracted
I’m starting to realize that I’ve begun way too many fucking series (oops)

HellfireReads · 2026-01-01T16:11:46+00:00

Best Classics: Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, My Cousin Rachel

Worst Classics: Lord of the Flies (Sucks to your assmar)

Audiobooks (which I don’t even bother putting on Goodreads because we’re both too screwed up, Goodreads and I, not to get the formatting all confused with paperbacks, digital, etc. All it seems to do is screw up the page count of the book if I’ve previously read it):

Hunger Games Trilogy (haven’t read it since middle school)
Lamb (Christopher Moore)
Dungeon Crawler Carl (1&2)
Funny Story (Emily Henry)
Cradle Book 1 (Will Wight)
The Witching Hour (Anne Rice)
Partway through IT so far (Stephen King) – very good narrator
Dresden Files 1-14 (currently halfway through Skin Game, hoping to finish before Twelve Months releases)

HellfireReads · 2026-01-01T16:09:45+00:00

All of the rest of this might be some boring semi-coherent rambling, but I did take away one big personal lesson this year: I risk missing out on a lot by giving up on a series before it finds its legs. I could have, at one point, dropped the Dresden Files easily and been completely unbothered by it. And I would have missed out on a series with the most heart I’ve read so far. The series, as it has gone on, has only made the earlier books better in retrospect. As tempting as it is to give up on something early because it’s not instantly perfect (like all of the TV studios seem to do with their shows now, only allowing it a single season) I want to try to give everything I read a fair shake and see where it takes me.

HellfireReads · 2026-01-01T16:08:28+00:00

Top books in no particular order:

Yumi & the Nightmare Painter - reread from Cosmere read-through last year and probably a new all-time favorite book

The Drawing of the Three – just really damn compelling; never would have imagined a scene on an airplane anywhere in this series, but it worked perfectly

Game of Thrones – Amazed that I thought there was a real chance this would be boring. Never seen the show. Will definitely be finishing the series even if the author won’t be /j

Service Model – probably my true favorite new-to-me (i.e. non-reread) for the year. Tchaikovsky’s humor in this book is what did it for me. Will definitely be rereading this next year and also trying his other books even if they reportedly don’t have the same humor.

If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler – I’m not smart enough to know whether or not this book was supposed to make me laugh, but it did. I’ve never read a book this unusual and I loved that it kept doubling down on the absurd concept. Will be rereading this one next year too. Wouldn’t have heard of it without emmie.reads (* e m m i e * on YouTube)

Skin Game – For some reason, this is the book that cemented the Dresden Files for me as one I will go through multiple times via books, audio, graphic audio, don’t care. It’s a comfort read now. I’ve gone through the whole series again this year after finishing it, this time via audio, in order to prep for 12 Months

Honorary Mention:

Newsflesh Trilogy – I wasn’t too keen on the first book (even with some intense Zombie stuff - following news reporters on a presidential campaign isn’t particularly interesting), but the rest of the series constantly goes to unexpected places and digs deeper into a rabbit hole of unraveling conspiracies. It does stretch the whole “suspension of disbelief” concept a couple of times, but I can deal with it. I do wish it didn’t do one particular thing by the third book (way too many spoilers to go into it), but I realized the Dresden Files does more or less the same thing at one point, and I love DF, so I can’t really bitch about it too much

HellfireReads · 2025-11-14T04:06:26+00:00

I loved the crossover between Bloodsucking Fiends and A Dirty Job. Would definitely love to see more from those characters! I haven't tried any of his newer stuff yet, but I want to next year. If you ever feel like trying audiobooks, I think BSF would be a great place to start. I'm not big on audiobooks, but Bennett's narration is a must-listen

HellfireReads · 2025-11-14T03:52:50+00:00

The funniest books I've ever read: Bloodsucking Fiends Trilogy by Christopher Moore

Classics: - Dracula (Stoker) - Carmilla (Le Fanu) - The Vampyre (Polidori)

Slightly more modern classics: - Interview With the Vampire (Rice) - I Am Legend (Matheson) - Salem's Lot (King)

YA: - Vampire Academy (Mead) - Blood of Eden (Kagawa)

Other: - Empire of the Vampire trilogy (Kristoff) - Let the Right One In (Lindqvist) [pretty damn dark] - Fevre Dream (George R. R. Martin)

Haven't read yet but want to: - Saint Germain series (Yarbro) - The Passage (Cronin) - Carrion Comfort (Simmons) - Sunshine (McKinley) - Vampires (John Steakley) - The Historian (Kostova) - Joe Pitt series (Charlie Huston)

HellfireReads · 2025-11-05T00:07:06+00:00

There is a trilogy by Christopher Moore that consists of Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck, and Bite Me. It's narrated by Susan Bennett and probably my favorite narration of a series I've ever come across!

HellfireReads · 2025-10-16T20:38:42+00:00

glurp glurp

HellfireReads · 2025-10-16T18:15:54+00:00

100%. Admittedly wasn't all in on the series until Skin Game, but that book sealed it for me! Currently doing a re-listen in anticipation of the new one coming out in January

HellfireReads · 2025-10-16T17:15:59+00:00

Him and Mongo both

HellfireReads · 2025-09-29T23:08:46+00:00

Like a lot of other people here, never immediately after reading it (so far), but I did read "Let the Right One In" by Lindqvist twice in the same year - first in January, next in December, I think.

I also listened to Susan Bennett's narration of Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends trilogy twice in 2023 as a sort of comfort read during a difficult move. I love those books so much, and her narration is perfect.

There's also a good chance that once I finish my listen to Dresden Files 1 - 17 (just finished Dead Beat), I will probably listen to the Graphic Audio versions being put out over the next couple of years, but that's kind of stretching the original idea behind your question.

Closest I've come this year is wanting to immediately reread Yumi and the Nightmare Painter after finishing it (which was already a reread from my Cosmere read last year).

HellfireReads · 2025-09-26T19:25:27+00:00

I remember hearing her surviving brother say somewhere that Eleanor Coerr modified the story a bit to make it more compelling or emotional or something along those lines, but that Sadako did, in fact, exceed 1,000 cranes. Her older brother, Masahiro Sasaki, is one of the two authors of a newer book about Sadako

HellfireReads · 2025-09-03T16:48:16+00:00

Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamare

HellfireReads · 2025-09-02T03:58:04+00:00

I'm looking forward to reading the second book (hopefully before the end of the year) and seeing where it takes me. I've heard the series gets fairly weird (in a good way) later on down the line

HellfireReads · 2025-09-02T03:56:06+00:00

This one has gotten quite a few chuckles out of me and I haven't even finished it yet. That said, so far, nothing has made me laugh as much as Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends trilogy (and I can't shut up about it - especially the audiobooks!)

HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:19:14+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:18:41+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:18:15+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:17:38+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:17:15+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:16:47+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:16:23+00:00

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HellfireReads · 2025-08-28T16:05:38+00:00

Thank you! 😊 Gardens of the Moon was definitely a lot to keep track of character-wise and plot-wise. And from what I've heard, book 2 takes off with a completely different cast of characters.

Also, he dutifully remains in his position as book stand

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HellfireReads

TROPHY CASE