 Hi guys! So, as of the time of this recording, I have just reached 30,000 subscribers, which is, like, it's ludicrous. I mean, by the time this gets out there, I'll probably have like 32 or 33,000 if this current rate of growth keeps up, which is, who, man, it's something else guys, let me tell you. I still remember, because it wasn't that long ago, that I had, like, 30 subs and I was just doing this for fun and my videos would get, like, 4 or 5 views on average. And it wasn't that long ago that I had really resided myself to the fact that I was never going to be big on this platform. I was never going to have an actual fan base. I was never really going to reach that many people with my opinions. I was never going to make money off of it, yada, yada, yada. And I was kind of okay with that. I kind of accepted it just because I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed getting up here and doing whatever this nonsense is. And now there are thousands of you that tune in and listen to me, so just, thanks a lot. I really couldn't do this without you. But the problem is that over the past, like, month, my channel has experienced a big surge in popularity. So even though I wanted to do something to celebrate 30k, I didn't really know what to do and I didn't really have time to prepare. So over the past couple of days, I've just been thinking about it and I realized, well, what if I just did, like, a compilation of a bunch of different reviews? And who knows, that might be fun. And I'm probably planning something else I might do to celebrate as well, but for now, yeah, let's try this. And so I'm just going to review a bunch of books real quick that I just don't have a whole lot to say about that I don't think I can make an entire review about. Some of these are books that I have read recently and I just didn't think I had enough to say. Some of them are ones I read a long time ago and just haven't gotten to talk about. And, yeah, beyond that, you know the drill. Let's get going. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So the first one I'm going to talk about is How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Graham Smith. And just to be clear, I did get an advanced copy of this in exchange for an honest review. And this one, I just read the other day, I really, really loved it. It's great. It's basically just going over horror movies and it's saying, like, if you find yourself as a character in one of these, here's what you should do to make sure you make it to the end credits. And it's humor. You know, it's poking fun at all the cliches and tropes and character archetypes and such that horror movies have. But, one, it is genuinely really funny. Like, it's got a lot of little jokes. It's got a lot of bigger jokes. I mean, obviously the whole idea of finding yourself in a horror movie is kind of ridiculous to begin with. But the thing that really makes it work, I think, is that it's definitely coming from a place of genuine passion and love for horror movies. Like, a lot of times these sort of spoof and parody things will come across as a bit mean-spirited. At least the bad ones will. Like, it feels like they're looking down on people who enjoy that sort of thing and just saying, look at how much better I am for poking fun at the parts of the thing you like. And, you know, it can just, at that point, you lose most of the humor. But this one, like the guy who wrote it, actually is a producer on horror movies and you can just tell throughout the whole thing that he actually really enjoys the genre. And at the end, he actually has a list of horror movies which he thinks you should check out. Like, The Thing and, well, Obviously It and Rosemary's Baby and just stuff like that. And so you can tell that, yeah, he actually does really like the genre and so the humor comes through better and it just, it doesn't feel mean-spirited. Like, not to sound too repetitive. But, um, yeah, if you are a fan of horror movies, then you'll probably get a real kick out of this. I know I certainly did because I like horror movies. If you don't have a strong opinion on them, then you can still check it out. There's still some stuff in here you might find funny. If you don't like them, I don't think you'll enjoy this as much. I don't think the humor will quite tickle your funny bone the way it does for the rest of us. But for everybody else, yeah, I definitely recommend this. This is a really funny, quick read. Whatever, keep going. Up next we have Miss Marvel, No Normal. And this one is just a collection of the first couple of the Kamala Khan issues of Miss Marvel. And, I mean, I don't normally read comics all that much. Like, when I do, I usually read graphic novels or manga just because these, like, superhero ones don't really have a beginning or an end. So it's hard to tell, like, when you should start and it's hard for there to really be stakes involved when you know it's just gonna go on forever and ever. That being said, this is a pretty solid origin, I feel. Like, it gives me really strong, like, early Spider-Man vibes because Kamala Khan and Peter Parker were both sort of outcasts, but they're outcasts for different reasons. Peter Parker was just because he was a nerd and got bullied a lot. Kamala is just Muslim, so she's kind of outcasted as well and doesn't have all that many friends. And they're both kind of socially awkward, but then they both come across these powers and they realize, okay, well, I gotta use these to do some good. And, well, they're both just kids, you know, at the end of the day, so they're both kind of feel like they're in over their head. They both have a lot of humor in them, like, you know, they're enjoyable. And even though this one doesn't really have any, like, big epic story arcs or big epic villains or anything, I thought that Kamala and everybody was enjoyable enough that I liked reading it and I might get around to reading the rest at some point, but who knows? This is a good place to get into Miss Marvel if you're not familiar with her, because I certainly wasn't. Now we have Dune by Frank Herbert, and I can sum this up in three words. It's fucking weird. Okay, that's really all I have to say about it. Like, obviously it's kind of an amalgamation of epic fantasy and space opera, like, kind of, but a lot of people will argue that, like, no, no, it's just science fiction. There's no epic fantasy in there, like, whatever. I don't feel too strongly about that, but, like, just the way this book is written, where you can follow everybody's thoughts at one point or another, and just the stuff that goes on and the sorts of powers that people have, it's weird, man. But it's also a very complex story, which I enjoyed. The main characters are all likeable enough. I was always wondering what exactly was going to happen, or maybe not what was going to happen, but how it was going to happen, because it's one of those type of books where you know more or less what's going on. And then at the end it doesn't really surprise you. But anyways, that being said, it's just weird. It's really weird, but I liked it a lot. In fact, it was very enjoyable. And I'm excited for the movie that they're making, which is coming out next year, I believe. And I haven't read any of the sequels to this, admittedly, but this first book works pretty well as a standalone. So, I don't know, man, if you're into, like, science fiction that takes place over the course of, like, literally thousands of years and has just all kinds of crazy shit going on, then by all means, check this out. But if that's just a little too weird for you, I really don't blame you at all. But Dune, yeah, Solid, really good book. Up next we have The Stand by Stephen King. And this one is, you can see here, it is a monster even by Stephen King standards, and this is kind of a messed up copy, like you can see the ink is spread, because it got rained on one time, but that's not important. The important part is, this is actually kind of like a director's cut, if you will. Like, the original book was a lot shorter than this, and then this is like the sort of extended edition that Stephen King released later. But anyways, that being said, this one is just about a flu virus that gets out and kills 99% of the world's population. And then the survivors in the United States kind of clump into two major enclaves. There's one that is mostly good people around Boulder, Colorado, and then there's one that is like criminals and serial killers and various psychopaths that goes in Nevada. And the evil ones are following this dude named Randall Flag, who is, man, he is an interesting guy, because the thing is, in this one, he seems like mostly human, except he can do magic occasionally. But he does show up in other Stephen King stories in like the Stephen King cinematic universe, or the Stephen King expanded universe, whatever you want to call that. He shows up as villains in those as well. Like, he's the main villain in The Eyes of the Dragon. He's one of the main villains in the Dark Tower series. Like, he's everywhere. And the thing about this book is that even a review on the back kind of says that it has everything in it. It has romance. It has apocalypse. It has adventure. It has like some social commentary in there. But I would say Randall Flag is probably the best part of it. Because, you know, at the beginning when you're just like getting to know all the characters, because that's, you know, that's how Stephen King writes. You spend a very long time getting to know people, getting to know their struggles, their problems, their personalities, all that. And then once the apocalypse hits, it kind of happens in slow motion almost. Like, you're watching the world die, not all at once, because it takes place over the course of a couple hundred pages, I believe. Or maybe not that long, but it takes place over a long period of time in the story. And it's just, it's horrifying to watch. Like, you know, Stephen King is called the master of horror for a reason. And watching all of humanity get wiped out, and then the few left being threatened by this weird fucking wizard dude. It's a scary book, let me tell you. But, I mean, just like everything Stephen King writes, it's got a lot of heart to it. It feels very genuine, very sincere. The climax is a little, I don't want to say dull, but it's not that great. It could have used a lot of polishing, but it's not bad by any means. And, well, I'm kind of just rambling now. The stand, overall I say, very good book. If you're into apocalyptic stories, don't let the length intimidate you too much, because it really does fly by. It's Stephen King, the way he writes, it's not that hard to get into things, it goes by. But if you're into apocalyptic thing, apocalyptic type of stories, or just horror in general, I'd recommend checking this out. Now we've got the Republic of Pirates. And I didn't review this one when I first read it, because it's nonfiction, and those are just difficult to review for me, because you can't really talk about, like, oh, the plot had some holes in it, and the characters weren't that intriguing, because, like, it's real things. It's things that actually happened. But that being said, this one is kind of told in a narrative style, which means it's almost as though it's telling a story of what happened. Like I said, it's not like just long list of facts and figures, and, oh, the line of succession for kings and everything like that, because sometimes history books do wind up being that way. This one is the story of a bunch of pirates at the beginning of the 18th century who took over some islands in the Bahamas, and essentially made their own country for a couple of years. And it's usually referred to as the Republic of Pirates. And it had people like Edward Teach, Blackbeard, that were there, and it's a fascinating read, because even though it does get repetitive at some points, like, it's like, okay, the pirate crew took a ship, and then they didn't know what to do with all their loot, and they had to find a place to hide, so they went here, and then later they took another ship, but they didn't know what to do with their loot, and it gets a little repetitive. But you do really get a feel for what life was like back then. You do get a feel for why people would become pirates, why they would turn to that, and even though they are still bad people, it doesn't really paint them in a positive light, it does give you some empathy with them, and the good guys, I guess, are like the governors and the navies that eventually bring them down are kind of the same way. You know, it's real life. Usually good guys and bad guys, it's just sort of people that feel differently about things. Anyways, that being said, this is an absolutely fascinating read, I felt. Like, if you're interested in the history of colonialism, if you're interested in the beginnings of capitalism, if you're interested in just hearing about pirates that started their own fucking country, check this one out, it's a fascinating read of a story that's just not very well known to people. This next one is also non-fiction, it's called The Crusades Through Aerovies, and it is... I mean, it's exactly what it says on the tin, man. Like, it's the story of the Crusades all the way from the first one up until the later ones where it's just telling them primarily from an era perspective. And that's fascinating to me, because, well, it's not a perspective we get very often. And that's not to say that it's more correct than the other one, it's just that, well, neither of them is going to be totally correct. And I'm not saying that the truth lies in the middle somewhere, either. I'm just saying that it's good to know both sides of that sort of thing. Because, for example, when it first started, the Arabs didn't even realize that the conflict was religiously motivated. They just realized, oh shit, these dudes are invading, well, let's fight them to keep them off our land. And so it's things like that. Just little things like that where you realize, okay, there's a different perspective on it. The main issue I have with it is that the guy who wrote it, Amin Maloof, is actually a... he's a journalist, he's not a historian. And so, like, he did research it, and he did very good research because, you know, there's a lot of detail in here, obviously. But, like, he's not a historian, so a lot of the minutia of things would probably be lost on him. And even when he's going through sources and he finds claims that are kind of incredulous and not very well accepted by historians, he still threw a couple of those in. So just keep that in mind as you're reading. But just like the last one, this is, you know, narrative history. So it's very easy for laypeople to get into. You know, you don't have to be an expert on the Crusades to know what's going on. And it just taught me a lot of new things that I didn't know before. So I would definitely recommend this to pretty much anybody that is interested in the Crusades at all. Okay, so here I have the entire Rot and Ruin series. And some of you may remember... I'm gonna set these down because they're heavy, but some of you may remember that Rot and Ruin was literally the first review I ever did on this channel. And I wouldn't recommend going back and watching that because it's not very good. It's not very good, okay? Like, I didn't know how to conduct myself on camera. Anyways, I do think it's a really good book, though. And I never reviewed the sequels. And so I just want to talk about the series as a whole for a minute here. Basically, it is young adult, yes. And it's about this kid named Benny who lives about 15 years after the zombie apocalypse has wiped out most of humanity. And so most people just live in like fairly isolated little towns. And his older brother, Tom, is a bounty hunter who goes out and kills zombies and shit. And so Benny trains with him to become one. And, well, that's the basics of the series right there. In the later books, they actually leave the general area where they're hanging out and they run into different groups of survivors and there are conflicts between them and gang members or apocalyptic cults. And so, overall, this came out during the midst of the zombie craze. You know, like when the walking dead was first becoming anything and it was huge and everywhere and everyone was trying to copy it. Like, yeah, so this came out at that same time. And while I don't think it does anything particularly new with the zombie genre, I did think that it did it fairly well. So, like, even people that I knew that were, like, really, really tired of hearing about zombies all the time, they enjoyed these books all right. The main difference is that, like I said, it takes place 15 years after the apocalypse has already happened. And so it's a little bit different than stuff where the apocalypse is currently happening or it only happened a few months or years ago. So that was interesting because you got to see the new societies that emerged afterwards and how some people reacted to it differently and how the older people who remember the old world felt much differently about things than younger people who were born here or who were brought up almost entirely here. So I found that really interesting. And all the action scenes were really cool, too. I mean, well, yeah, I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I'm just like, yeah, that was cool. It feels a little bit weebish when the main characters use katanas so much, but whatever, it's not a huge deal. There are some genuinely fantastic villains in the series, too. I mentioned that they mostly fight gangsters at the beginning, guys that are just killing people for money, essentially. And those guys are pretty good. But then in the later books, they get into conflicts with this apocalyptic cult called the Reapers, who believe that humanity is supposed to be wiped out. That's why the zombies were sent by Thanatos, the God of Death. And so they aren't the most sympathetic villains, but they're very interesting. You can definitely tell that most of them believe what they're saying, and they're extremely intimidating as villains, as well. So they're very good. And the gangsters, again, they don't have much to... Well, they aren't very complex, but they're intimidating, so I felt they worked, too. Basically, overall, just good villains, besides the zombies, obviously. You had main character who got kind of annoying at times, and some of his friends got kind of annoying at times, but overall, I liked him. I enjoyed following him around enough that I wasn't, like, hurt by anything or super annoyed by anything. The main weakness of this series, I think, is just the ending, because I don't know, it just feels like it wasn't really earned. Like, things ended a little too happily. But overall, I have read this series twice, and I really liked it. So if just people going around being basses and fighting zombies appeals to you, then definitely check these out, because they're... it's a solid series. Next up, we have a book that I don't have a physical copy of, and that's The Andromeda Strain. Now, I read this back in May, and I just... I didn't have that much to say about it. I felt a little disappointed, in fact. I just... I... I don't know, because I love Michael Crichton, okay? I love Sphere, I love Jurassic Park, I am kind of ambivalent towards Kongo, but, you know, I had expectations going into The Andromeda Strain, and I was left a little unsatisfied by it. Like, this one is basically just a story about the U.S. government sends satellites up into space to try and find alien microbes, like bacteria and stuff, so that they can use it in biological warfare, and then when it crashes to the Earth and kills an entire town of people in Arizona, so they bring in a bunch of scientists to study it and figure out what's going on, and... well, that's the majority of the book there. It's mostly focusing on the scientists doing experiments, figuring out what's going on, and trying to contain this virus outbreak. And, like, it's not a bad book, okay? I... if you're into science fiction, then the premise will probably really appeal to you. If you're not into science fiction, then maybe not, but I don't know. But the point is that it takes up a lot of time with just characters who are all kind of boring and all kind of assholes. And that's my biggest issue with Michael Crichton books in general is that the majority of the characters are just assholes. Not all of them, but the majority of them. So, I don't really remember most of these guys' names or anything about them, really. Just, like, okay, they're the scientists who are doing the science stuff. And it does get a little difficult to get through at times because it's just hitting you with jargon and it's hitting you with explanations of them doing science experiments, and it's hitting you with just a lot of information about biology and about space. And so, yeah, at times it is just a little bit of a slog to get through, but it's never awful. Like, I never really considered not finishing it. And the climax, I think, is actually fairly action-packed. Like, it's better than you would expect for a book like this. And the ending... I have mixed feelings on Michael Crichton's endings as well because he almost always finishes books in such a way where it was impossible to do a sequel because, from what I understand, he hated writing them. But that being said, this one is super dark, but I feel like it's earned. I feel like it's appropriately dark. So, I don't know, I enjoyed that. And the message of the book is basically, like, be afraid of outer space and be afraid of going too far with scientific progress, which is the point of most of Crichton's books when I'm not that I think about it. But I don't know, honestly, for this, for the Androma Strain, I would recommend watching the movie from the 70s or 80s. I forget exactly when it was made, because that one does a really good job of really just copy-pasting the book. Like, they don't change much or add anything or take anything away, at least nothing major. Like, you can watch Dominic Noble's review on it if you want. Like, it follows the book very closely and it's over in, like, two hours, so it's a bit easier to get through than the book was. But I don't know. Like, if it really does sound amazing to you, like, the concept, then you'll probably like it more than I did. But to me, I thought it sounded interesting and I left a little bit disappointed. So that's all for now. I will probably, in fact, I will almost certainly be doing a part two to this, but for now, I think that's a good length to get to. I still have a whole bunch more books that I want to talk about in just these mini-reviews, and if you guys like it, I don't know, it might become a regular thing. But seriously, thanks again for getting me to 30,000 subs and thanks to all my patrons, including Christopher Hawkins, Joseph Pendergraft, and Melanie Austin and everybody else whose names you see here. You guys are amazing. I couldn't do this without you. And please consider liking the video, commenting, and subscribing if you haven't already. And I will see you next time. Bye.