I love chatting with fellow authors and finding out what’s on their #tbr pile. I find it so interesting to see what we’re all reading and I always end up adding more books than I really need. Wait…did I just admit that? Gah…I obviously need more coffee because who am I kidding – one can never have too many books on their #tbr pile!
Guest author: Timothy Friend
I perpetually buy books far faster than I can read them, so my TBR pile is always several dozen books deep. That being said, I usually have a stack of five on deck on my bedside table, their order constantly being adjusted according to my enthusiasms. Here are my current five.
Bride of the Gorilla by Tom Weaver– The third in film historian Tom Weaver’s Scripts from the Crypt series that focuses on horror and sci-fi movies from the fifties. These are filled with anecdotes, production history, and interviews, as well as the original scripts. Weaver has been writing about the cast and crew of “Monster Kid” favorites like this for decades now, and he leaves no stone unturned in his research. This stuff is catnip to movie obsessives like me.
Jack Rabbit Smile by Joe Lansdale– Lansdale’s newest Hap and Leonard novel has been at the top of my pile for a couple of weeks now. I keep bumping it down because I always like to have an unread book by a favorite author lying around. That way if I hit a run of lousy books I have a sure thing on hand to sweep all that bad writing out of my head.
Rain Dogs by Sean Doolittle– After reading Doolittle’s Safe he instantly rose to the top of my gotta-read-everything-by-this-guy list. His style is so compelling it practically forces you to keep turning the pages. How did I not know about this guy before now? Seriously, internet, you’ve let me down.
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers– This is the second in Chambers’ Wayfarers series. The first, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was a sweet, funny, exciting sci-fi hangout novel that I could have read for a thousand pages. I’m hoping for more of the same with this one.
Ralan by Elmore Leonard– This was Leonard’s final book, and one I should have read by now. I just keep waiting. I haven’t been able to bring myself to read the last piece of work from a favorite author. I like knowing it’s there, one more Leonard book, holding the last Raylan Givens story I’ll hear. So I wait. But maybe six years is long enough. Maybe it’s time to move this one to the top of my pile. That new Lansdale can wait a little longer.
Let’s chat desserts and coffee…
My favorite desert is a chocolate brownie, chewy not cakey, and preferably slathered with peanut butter.
When I read I like to drink coffee. Lots of it. And you know what goes well with a book and a cup of coffee? A big chocolate brownie slathered in peanut butter, that’s what.
Steena here: I’ve never had brownie slathered in peanut butter but now I’m totally craving a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup!
About Timothy Friend…
Timothy’s newest book is Rocket Ryder and Little Putt Putt Go Down Swinging, from Coffin Hop Press.
Timothy Friend is a writer and independent filmmaker whose fiction has been published in Thuglit, Needle; A magazine of noir, and most recently Switchblade. He holds an MFA from University of Missouri- Kansas City.
He can be found online at timothyfriend.net and @Timothy_Friend.