Alrightreads: Boxsetember

My toddler's future bookshelves didn't need more boring prescribed picks, but I couldn't resist a bargain second-hand Penguin Children's 60s boxset.

I remember seeing these in bookshops at the time as a junior bookworm, but I only parted with 60 pence for one 60-pager back then. That was more down to my unadventurous taste than the quality of the selections, though the recency bias of inevitably forgotten '90s medal winners amid the time-honoured classics is pretty rad. Those are going to seem just as dated by 2030.

There's bound to be something decent in there, and the mini format is appealing to young readers, to the point that she's pretending to read them already. I might give them a try too. Just to make sure they're suitable, like. Then back to my big boy books.

The exquisite adaptation of the Red Dwarf Trilogy

No one would have believed, in the last years of the 20th century, that novelisations of low-budget BBC science fiction comedy series would turn out to be just about the peak of literature. In another similarity to the Hitchhiker's Guide, the Red Dwarf novels are a trilogy that can't count.

Alrightreads: Comixx

Jim Davis, Garfield at Large

1978-79 (collected 1980) / Ebook / 130 pages / USA

**

It turns out Garfield was never funny, but his obese origins make a bit more sense. Reading them back to back as unintended is a gruelling experience.

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Book I

1984-85 (collected 1986) / Ebook / 123 pages / USA

***

I was aware of these origins even as a child, but loyalty to the zany Adventures comic and general lack of interest in gritty Frank Miller parodies meant I'd only ever checked it out briefly as a weird novelty. It's not good, but interesting to see just how much of it made it to other iterations intact. Not interesting enough to read a more substantial collection though.

Jeff Smith, Bone: Out from Boneville

1991-92 (collected 1996) / Ebook / 144 pages / USA

***

Pleasant if generic cartoon wanderings. Nice to visit if it pops up in your anthology comic, but not the most gripping saga.

Gary Larson, The Complete Far Side

1979-2003 (collected 2003) / Ebook / 1,278 pages / USA

****

They're not all winners, but I'd like to see anyone churn better. Gets a bit wearying after the first few years though.

Richard McGuire, Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series

2005-15 (collected 2016) / Ebook / 588 pages / USA

**

I felt I had what it takes to give each stick drawing the attention it deserves if they were simply printed in sequence on the same page, but the shockingly wasteful design at least makes it a functional if cumbersome short story flipbook.

Faves: 'Three Friends,' 'Knife Fork Spoon Love Triangle,' 'Mountain, Cloud, Tree, Flag, Man, Sun.'

Alrightreads: TV IX

Paula M. Block, Terry J. Erdmann and The Topps Company, Star Trek: The Original Topps Trading Card Series

1976 (collected 2013) / Ebook / 216 pages / USA

****

Shallow retro fun. Presents every cheap and nasty card in all its muddy, error-riddled, suspiciously Suluphobic glory, with arguably undeserved commentary.

Bobbi Katz and Isidre Mones, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Don't Do Drugs! – A Rap Song

1991 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA

*

It would be easy to mock this well-meaning cringefest, so I'll just point out that the characters have their action figure skin tones, which I found mildly interesting. At least it's American and not Fleetway or Grandreams having a crack go.

Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, The Deep Space Log Book: A Second Season Companion – The Essential Unofficial Guide

1995 / Ebook / 110 pages / USA

****

The official companion would prove to be worth the wait, but these serialised supplements would have filled in nicely along the way if they hadn't ended here. Behind-the-scenes trivia, candid interviews and informed reviews of a generally underappreciated season, certainly one of the six best anyway. With half a book to go, they (presumably) reprint some of their first season guide and look with bated optimism to the future.

N. E. Genge, Millennium: The Unofficial Companion, Volume 2

1997 / Ebook / 144 pages / USA

**

The abruptly final half-season guide before the writer, the publisher or the readers lost interest (probably all three), the promise of forensic analysis of a developing series falls short when entire episodes are ignored for digressions on serial killers and other tangentially related topics.

Jem Roberts, Soupy Twists!: The Full Official Story of the Sophisticated Silliness of Fry and Laurie

2018 / Ebook / 320 pages / UK

****

As comprehensive as ever, though insufficient obsession on my part meant it was mainly a primer for notable sketches and curios.

Alrightgames: Disney's Frozen Mini Top Trumps Card Game

Disney's Frozen Mini Top Trumps Card Game

2014 / Trumps card game / 2+ players / UK

**

I figured she'd end up with a more educational or substantial set for a special interest at some point in the future. This one was for the sake of having an accessory to a film she likes for under £2, and saving me from having to actually watch it.

The actual game isn't very appealing, even if a one-year-old was capable of understanding it. She prefers our Find the Snowman variant with vocalised Family Fortunes sound effects.

Alrightgames: Star Wars: Heroes and Villains Puzzle

Star Wars: Heroes and Villains Puzzle

Jigsaw puzzle / UK or something

**

Donated

A sturdy, decently-sized floor puzzle that may even hold some nostalgia this time, so it's a shame they used such a blurry image. Distinguishing between white people wearing mostly white was also more tedious than satisfying.

Alrightgames: Disney's Beauty and the Beast Puzzle

Disney's Beauty and the Beast Puzzle

1994 / Jigsaw puzzle / France

***

Not very appealing to look at, especially as a 35-year-old man, but rotatable stones and indistinguishable birdies made it suitably fiendish. That may just be how things work out by chance rather than skilful design though. It was nice of the previous owners to spare us the fun of having to add the glitter ourselves.

Ranking The Who albums

Just found out they done a new one. Shows them Beatles up a bit, doesn't it? Lazy.

Here are My The Top 12 The Who The Albums. Thankfully not so productive that there's a mound of stagnation to dig through, appreciated.

Ranking the Green Day albums

Are the ones you liked as a teenager the best because they're the ones you liked as a teenager? Yes, obviously. This isn't Beethoven.

Let's hear what the damned kids are listening to with The Top 13 Green Day Albums.

On the Omnibuses: August

Various, The World Treasury of Science Fiction

Ursula K. LeGuin, Nine Lives (1969) ***

Clingy clones.

Anthony Burgess, The Muse (1964) ****

Bogus journey.

Steve Allen, The Public Hating (1955) **

Simplistic celebrity satire.

Fritz Leiber, Poor Superman (1951) ***

Dense dystopian deception.

Thomas M. Disch, Angouleme (1974) *

Back to escapism, plz.

Damon Knight, Stranger Station (1956) *****

One of the best SF stories I've ever read.

Boris Vian, The Dead Fish (1955) **

Terry Gilliam's Mr Bean.

Kirill Bulychev, I Was the First to Find You (1977) ***

Ancient astronaut autoarchaeology.

Walter M. Miller Jr, The Lineman (1957) *

Fifty boring pages of vintage bigotry. Great pick, man.

Tor Age Bringsvaerd, Codemus (1968) ****

There's prophetic satire and then there's just now.

P. G. Wodehouse, The Jeeves Collection: Three Books in One Volume

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963) ***

A significantly later permutation on the same old thing, on a more sustained scale. Time has not dimmed nor developed the purgatorial saga, though the back references are tellingly excessive and calling a character 'Stiffy' is surely taking the piss by this point.

Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions

The Aleph (1949) ***

I remembered this being disappointing after the previous one. It's largely back to the fabricated epitaphs of his first book, whose purpose and value escapes me, but we're back in the philosophical and literal labyrinths before the dazzling finale.

Faves: 'The Immortal,' 'The Writing of the God,' 'The Aleph.'

Terry Pratchett, The Rincewind Trilogy

Sourcery (1988) **

I couldn't resist the price per story of this seemingly arbitrary and incomplete omnibus, but hadn't been looking forward to further Rincewind tales after the first one put me off reading a second Discworld book for a decade or so. After reading some (slightly) later books, this seemed disappointingly light on the trademark wit and not entertaining generally, unless you're actually into the story. It would probably be more palatable as animation.

Eric (1990) **

I didn't read the original illustrated version, which is surely more worthwhile. Along with the brevity, that would've been a more fitting format for these generally. A shame the story itself was just a straightforward literary parody sequence, though the bit about eternity was clever.

H. P. Lovecraft, The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft

The Thing on the Doorstep (1933) ****

A comparatively straightforward later horror that's enhanced through the presumably unintended ambiguity of mental illness or a gullible con job. I misremembered it being a bit pervy too, which is all Alan Moore's fault.

The Haunter of the Dark (1935) *****

A fittingly haunting and comparatively restrained swan solo. Public domain access and cartoon critters have made the writer overrated as hell generally, but he was really good by the premature end.