Episode #343: I Think, Therefore, I Continually Create Stories

A bobble-head that cost me about 20 Bazooka comics and $10 back in the early 2000's. I also have a half dozen Bazooka Joe t-shirts purchased the same way.  Obviously taken where I used to work back in the bad old days of being a wonky worker bee.

It's been a loooooong while since I did a writing updater. But a lot of things have been going on since my last update, so I thought now would be a good time to do just that.

Since 2021, I have periodically alluded to four different writing projects (originally five, but one was published shortly after retiring): three that involved either re-writing or polishing up and one that involved republishing a previously published novella.

As you already know, I have succeeded on the first three projects: this novella, followed by this novella, and completing a fantasy series under this tag. The fourth project, which was republishing a currently published novella, took me a few years to complete, as I would periodically work on it while working on other things.

During the second half of August, I was able to work with yet another graphic designer, who came highly recommended to me, on a fresh cover for my upcoming novella, entitled "Evil Has A Conscience."

For comparison, this was the original cover for the same novella, entitled "A Taste Of Pain".

~~~~~

I've also been busy on the short story front. For the past few years, I've been going through my over-sized pile of mediocre short stories that were previously published on my now closed short story blog, and cherry picking those that seem to hold the most promise for being revisited and rewritten.

To date, I've written fifteen short stories overall, with three being one hundred percent original. All of them range from G-rated to that R/NC-17 rating that would sometimes make people cock their eyebrows, and I would like to think that applying a skill set that has evolved over the nearly fifteen years since they were originally written, vastly improved the original content of the story.

My main goal with my short story writing is to finish with at least twenty, so that I can create two balanced short story collections. A small side quest to this particular goal, is to write more original short stories, because if I'm being perfectly honest, what I have left for short stories to pluck from is more than a little south of 'meh.'

However, on the bright side, I acquired the ability of writing from a basic outline, as I'm now treaty those originals as a jumping off point in which to create a better story from those original elements.

That's about it for a writing update: republishing a new and improved novella, and learning something new when it comes to re-writing short stories. I sincerely hope that your week is going in the direction that you're driving towards, and that moving at the speed of slow is always a good thing to explore.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #342: The Sputtering By-Product Of Wood Pulp: Newspapers

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. This was taken in mid August at my local Dollar Tree store. I won't even show you what I found the next aisle just yet, but you can probably guess on the first try.

For those of you who may not know anything about my previous employer beyond the fact that I am a retired govt employee, my very first job with he state of Connecticut was helping prepare old CT newspapers for microfilming (preservation).

Short info dump: back in the late 80's/early 90's, CT, along with dozens of other states, received grant money from the feds to catalog/microfilm old local newspapers from the 18th through the 20th century.

History lesson: during that extended time period, local newspapers is where you really got the nitty gritty of local town life, both the good, the bad and the fugly (any true crime podcast with integrity will often use local media sources for the bulk of their research).

Back then, local newspapers were, more often than not, the purveyor of good solid journalism. If you wanted a good take on a particular event that was maybe covered in a regional paper with a short paragraph, local was the way to go.

Unfortunately, by the late 1980's/early 1990's, all of that good journalism slowly made its way to the sewer system, as consolidation started taking place and it was not for the better. Just like today, where less than six companies control AM/FM radio and the podcast world nationwide, back then you had a lot of companies scoop up and purchase small town weeklies to make 'money' and to promote uniformity.

One of the most egregiously crass companies (in my opinion) that help accelerate the trend of "all the news that you will read will be printed", was a media company called The Journal Register Company. Apparently, they thought that dominating the market would bring them credibility.

Problem was, they went about it in such as horrendously bad way, that they made everyone else that you would have a low opinion of, look good.

Lets use my home state of Connecticut as an example of what this company did to the majority of the weeklies (and a couple of dailies) that they ultimately acquired.

Prior to being bought out by JRC (now 21st Century Media), the average weekly in Connecticut was between 48-72 pages and cost about 75 cents to $1 per issue (this was in the 1990s). Each one was unique to the community they served.

After being bought by JRC, the following changes were made:

1. the page count was slashed to 16 +/- pages with a 25%/75% ratio of print to ads (larger percentage to ads), plus a 50% price increase.
2. the masthead was changed to conform to a particular corporate standard. In other words, no individuality that would make the paper unique to the town.
3. what little news was published wasn't really local, but more regional than anything else.

We had a wonderful weekly in my town, but the corporate mandate gutted the newspaper so thoroughly that they turned it into a free weekly mass mailed before they quietly discontinued the title.

Now if I want local news that's fit to read, my fix is divided between a classified weekly that gets mailed out to a tri-town area that features 6-10 pages of local town news; and a monthly magazine that has local and syndicated news (mostly all purpose like home improvement, medicine, etc), with spotlights on various residents and businesses.

My state is simply a large sample of what this company did to the media properties that they had acquired. I believe this uniformity, plus other corporate malfeasance, led to the downfall of this company, and ultimately led it to being acquired and rebranded.

This kind of crappy corporate behavior, in my opinion, is a majority contributing factor to why the American media is on such a downward spiral to irrelevance. You don't treat subscribers as a commodity that can be bought and sold, and express shock (SHOCK, I SAY!) when people go elsewhere for their news.

This kind of bull fritters is why I stopped being a newspaper consumer going on now for two decades, and instead get my news fix elsewhere, where I can get more bang for my dollar.

Have a fantastic week, and remember, newsprint is a fantastic way to waste your money that could be better used on that Dunkin' Donuts mocha latte with a shot of espresso.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #328: It Certainly Isn't Christmas, But We Can Still Celebrate Them Movies

Say "Hi!" to the squirrel that we love to hate on. As I've previously stated we came to a non-peaceful resolution (like the US and the rest of the world), and so long as he stays in his lane, I'll stay in mine.

Like most of you, I grew up on the Christmas specials and movies that were part and parcel of our existence. And like some of you, my tastes changed as I grew older. For example, by the 2000s, the only Christmas specials I would watch would be the Charlie Brown Christmas movie and the annual 24 hour showing of A Christmas Story on TBS.

Fast forward to the mid 2010s, and the only Christmas movies I was watching were on Hallmark, which included a multitude of remakes of A Christmas Carol. Note: George C Scott and Harry Winkler had excellent versions, while Jack Palance made a truly bizarre one set in the west where the famous refrain of "Bah! Humbug!" was replaced with "Blah, blah, blah."

Fast forward to 2026.

I'm at the point in my life where I now enjoy an eclectic mix of Christmas movies that oddly enough, run the gamut of today's movie rating system (American style). So in this post, I would like to present three charming examples of the type of Christmas themed movies that I enjoy (and will try to buy copies of because physical media is cheap).

1} A Grandpa For Christmas (2007)

This charming movie features Ernest Borgnine as a divorced grandfather who is also a retired actor, is estranged from his daughter via parental alienation. One day he receives a phone call from a distant hospital telling him his daughter was badly injured in a care accident and that his granddaughter needs a temporary guardian.

It's one of those gradual family reconciliation movies, where the daughter finds out what her father was really doing for her behind the scenes. It's not quite maudlin or a tearjerker, and fortunately it's not one of those typical Hallmark-type of movies, but comes very close to it. It feels dated, in that everything is circa early 2000s (e.g. IPod) but it's an enjoyable movie.

2} Lost Christmas {2011}

I have mixed feelings about Eddie Izzard. Much like a few others who I can't tolerate as a person but their output is fantastic (e.g. Sean Penn, John Cusack, Kevin Spacey), he is a good actor (except at IMDb has him now listed as an actress) and this movie, that I found on cable, is no exception.

The very short non-Wikipedia synopsis: "As night falls on Christmas Eve, an enigmatic man named Anthony awakens on the streets of Manchester (UK) with no memories of the past and the unique ability to locate the lost."

To me, the underlying theme of the movie, which I only understood after watching it, was "What if?" What if one choice was made instead of the other, would the trajectory of a person's life change?

Actions have consequences, and the actions of one had a profound effect on the lives of others. This movie is particularly dark, but I believe it realistically portrays a slice of life that is often overlooked during the Christmas season.

This movie has a ranking of 7/10 on IMDb and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

3} Bad Santa (2003)

I like Billy Bob Thornton as an actor and as a person. His first one, which he wrote, directed and produced, Sling Blade, is a fantastic movie about a simple man trying to reintegrate back into society after a long stay in an asylum. Highly recommend.

But Bad Santa is an over the top film of crass mayhem. Billy Bob plays one of those mall Santas, who plans a dept store robbery with his "elf". Along the way, he comes an authority figure to a young tween who severely needs one, and brings his "girlfriend" into the mix (there is a memorable three word exclamation that I cannot say on this blog, but if you mention it, most people will automatically know what movie you're talking about).

It should come to nobody's surprise that I really enjoyed this movie, which also features Bernie Mac in one of his last movie roles and John Ritter, as it had reminded me a little of Animal House with its controlled chaos.

I think one of the reasons that I enjoy these three movies, is that Christmas isn't overwhelming the movie, but it's more like a good background noise that isn't too intrusive, but let's you know it's there. To me, these movies have good stories that are enhanced by the Christmas season, instead of being overwhelmed by the same, and that makes them enjoyable.

Thanks for stopping by for another round of what G.B. likes to watch in celluloid. Have a fantastic week.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #323: How To Respectfully Write A Hot Button Topic {1}

We all need a little flashback to our childhood when life was a little magical and whole lot innocent.

As long as I could remember, I was always ambivalent about religion. I do believe there is a higher power of some kind, and I do believe in the concepts of Heaven, Hell, Limbo and Purgatory.

But I was always inquisitive about those concepts, to the point where I would often search out books and articles, both hard copy and digital, about those very concepts. I think I spent the better part of a decade researching those concepts until my curiosity was (mostly) satiated.

Fast forward to the tail end of the '00s. I watched an old movie that basically changed the way I viewed concepts and cultures as it applied to my writing. The movie in question was Defending Your Life, starring Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep, who plays a man defending his life in the AfterLife so that he can be reincarnated.

That movie inspired me to re-imagine how I wrote about certain concepts and cultures: basically, I turned them into small conglomos/business entities.

While I made a good solid attempt at turning the few religious concepts mentioned above into conglomos that were deeply intertwined with each other in a novel that ultimately fizzled, I spent the next decade or so refining and adjusting that particular concept into something that once could consider to be commonplace.

Fast forward to 2022.

I'm two years into a happy retirement and I'm starting the fourth of five writing projects that I had originally set up for myself in the spring of 2021: this fantasy series.

I had decided early on in the story that I was going to turn the Aztecs into a modern day crime family , thus they have their fingers/hands in all kinds of illegal pies. And just like a modern day crime family , they are judge, jury and executioner, all of which ties in perfectly with their real world application of human sacrifices.

The other modern day reality: during my belated research, I was not able to definitively ascertain what the Aztec's cultural views were on homosexuality, either through the real world or their mythology. So I decided to have them implement the infamous (in some quarters) "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the US military in the 1990s. I won't bore you with the gruesome details of the policy, but I did apply a vicious little twist to the policy that would satisfy even the most ardent opponent of the policy.

The olden day reality: Now if you take into account, and you really should, because if you know anything about common sense, you should never apply today's often warped societal mores. So because we are dealing with a world where certain customs were just done until modern times, we decided that although the Aztecs did believe in the concept of marriage, they did not believe in the concept of divorce. But they did believe in a concept called 'unmarriage', which I would venture to guess (which is odd, because...yeah) it would be similar to what an annulment is.

Another olden day reality that I touch upon is slavery. For those of you who believe that slavery was just a White European Thing, then you deserve the ridicule for how you voted in the last three presidential elections. Slavery was a worldwide multi-millennia hardcore economic realty (and in some places, still exists). Slavery is what the victors do to the vanquished after war/reading parties.

This is also touched upon in a very realistic way, as I drew upon my knowledge of world history and U.S. history, in order to create a very real background for one of my main characters. Which is something I'm very proud of because if you're going to write about a particular culture, you need to showcase everything, warts and all.

Thus ends part one of this two part post. Tune in next week when we cover how I chose to work in the concepts of Hell, Purgatory and Limbo into my fantasy series.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode # 321: The Family Bookcase {5}: Encyclopedias

Items that you can buy with bubble gum comics: bobbleheads!

If you're somewhere in the general vicinity of my age (60 1/2), you didn't grow up with the Internet to use for research purposes; you grew up with ye olde fashioned public library, which contained among other research items, encyclopedias.

Or perhaps, your house may have contained a semi-up-to-date set of the (usually) Encyclopedia Britannica, or some other quality encyclopedia set.

If perhaps you're a member of the younger generation, your definition of "encyclopedia" is probably just an actual encyclopedia, but more to the point of having it attached to a pop culture item.

Today's post is going to focus on both types of encyclopedias: those that have now turned into a search engine as Google, Bing, FireFox and Opera; and those which are connected to the genre of pop culture along with all of its sub-genres.

Regular encyclopedias:

While I no longer have that original set of Encyclopedia of Britannica from my childhood, I do have a 2,500+ page monstrosity called The Columbia Encyclopedia. Yes it was published by Columbia University, and yes it is one volume. (about 4 1/2 inches thick, cover-to-cover), and it was published in 1969.

Here are some examples of some long articles you can find. I should note that the font size in this book is around 4-5. For comparison, newspapers is around 8. To confirm, open any blank document and drop the font size to the aforementioned size for a better understanding.

1} The Hussites: religious movement.

2} Writing and the alphabet: complete with examples like cuneform.

Then we have non-traditional encyclopedias. We have quite a few complete sets, courtesy of my brother, who likes to salvage while performing home improvements for others.

1} Funk & Wagnells Wildlife: and you thought they were just a Carnac the Magnificent bit.

2} Illustrated Encyclopedia of Animals.

3} l Want to Know: what would considered to be Middle Grade.

4} Our Living World: published in conjunction with the Dept Of Interior.

Then we have the non-non-traditional encyclopedias. These are primarily oddball/pop culture collections that people would slap the "encyclopedia" label on to make it sound really interesting and a lot more expensive to purchase.

I have found the following types in our family bookcase:

1} A half dozen different types of baseball encyclopedias.

2} Various music encyclopedias.

3} A Cliff Notes version of Britannica.

4} Pro Wrestling.

5} Horror Movies.

6} Gun Design.

7} Antiques.

8} Boxing records.

As you can see, it's very much quite the eclectic haul of encyclopedias we have in this house. And rest assured, they will be treated like the last days spent with the previous owner: unwanted, unloved and most importantly, unread.

Now I will admit that the pro wrestling books are mine, and one of them is remarkably out of print (having come out around five years prior to the explosion of Hulkamania), but the other as previously stated, were not acquired by me, nor would they be something acquired by me.

My speed has always been the oddball collection like the Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, coffee table books like on the Rolling Stones, or extended collections that I had touched up on months ago from the now defunct Time-Life Imprints, or even one on Warner Bros Cartoons. Most importantly, the books I decide to acquire, I will actually read.

I know, imagine that, spending one's hard earned money on books that you enjoy reading, sometimes repeatedly. It does boggle the mind (a game I have played only once in my life) though, that some people, like myself, enjoy reading so much that they would have no issues in pulling out a random volume from a set of encyclopedias, flipping to a random pages and just start reading.

Fun fact that you may or may not be able to deduce from reading this post: I have a rather ambivalent attitude towards the encyclopedia, no matter what form they may come in.

I won't go out of my way to purchase a set, not even if it's on a topic that I like, True Crime for example. If one happens to be available and is reasonably up-to-date, I will be more than happy to use it, if only as a jumping off point to help me confirm something that I have knowledge of.

I leave you with one last thought: on a personal note: I would highly recommend, if you have a school age child that has an inquisitive mind and decent comprehension skills, that he/she be allowed to read the encyclopedia. It's an absolutely fantastic way to introduce your youngster to the world around them, both current and past, no matter what the topic, and give them a jump start on going down the rabbit hole of knowledge when something piques their curiosity.

Because as the old saying goes, reading is fundamental.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #317: The Family Bookcase {4): Gaming

I was searching through the family bookcase looking for something interesting to blog about when I happened across a few RPG rulebooks/guidebooks. Now I am one of a good chunk of the population who are quite familiar with RPGs, but I never had the itch to play one. I prefer to use my imagination and writing skills for the general fiction world of the novella & novel, but I have mad respect for those who enjoy RPGs and the worlds they can create.

Anyways, I performed a bit of research on the three books that we possess, as well as a brief skim through, and I have to say that I am seriously impressed with the amount of effort from a collective to create these three books. Two of the three books are sadly out of print, as they were created by a close family member who no longer maintains that level of participation in the RPG community, although they have branched out in other ways {click here to see}.

The other role/guidebook was created by a company called West End Games, which surprisingly enough, is still in business under a different corporate umbrella. I won't bore you with the convoluted details, but please click on the link if your curiosity is piqued.

In general, I am astonished with the amount of work that went into creating these worlds (and their background, although it seems that the ones created and published by my close family member are heads above the corporate one), and so I will be explaining what each one is to the best of my ability.

~~~~~

The first of the two books created by my cousin is called Twin Crowns and Other Lands.

Considering I'm a serious neophyte when it comes to RPGs, what impressed me the most while I was thumbing through the book, was the incredible amount of detail and back story that were created for this particular RPG. I always knew that worlds were created for fantasy novels/series, but I always assumed that they would be limited to what would be actually needed for the story (like mine is), but I guess with RPGs, it skips to a whole new level of thoroughness.

The second book that my cousin had created was a role-play for the Twin Crown world that was based on Live Action Role-playing, which was something that I had never heard of before. Think of it as dressing for a Ren fair and then playing a D & D adventure, or one of those dinner theater mysteries.* And yes, my cousin and her gaming friends are featured on this cover.

*okay that last one is pulled directly out of the definition from Google of Live Action Role Playing.

Again, just like the first, it's extremely dense-not so much concentrated on the extensive background dump, but more concentrated on the characters and their  respective KSAs, as well as the assorted ephemera that makes a fantasy world function.

The third book seems to be the only part of an entire box that was left behind somewhere. Not knowing much about RPGs, I'm gathering there's other components that are needed in order to successfully play this particular adventure called Torg: The Possibility Wars.

If you check out the link for West End Games, it goes into greater detail about the origins of this game, and the company, which was found in the late 70's, and created a lot of well known RPGs for some very popular IPs such as Star Wars.

~~~~~

My views on all three games are decidedly mixed. On one hand, they have really opened my eyes to the amount of worlds building that is required to have a successful RPG (or fantasy series, both written and celluloid), so having top notch writing skills is a major plus, with a solid imagination a good second (especially if you're creating  your world from scratch and not using an established IP.

On the other hand, the amount of world building, along with the extensive KSAs involved with that particular world, is incredibly daunting and challenging to a neophyte such as myself, who has a very hard time putting that much effort to playing an RPG to begin with (which is why I never migrated beyond sports when it came to video games in my young adult years).

In spite of this kind of game not being my cup of tea by any stretch of the imagination, I do like learning about a facet of life that a lot of people enjoy participating in because it works both as a stress reducer and  a way to build a skill set that you can successfully apply to the real world.

Gaming is a great way to improve your critical thinking and problem solving skills, no matter what type of game you enjoy playing. Try one today. Or as my cousin used to say on her podcast, "happy gaming everybody."

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #315: Let's Talk Celebrity Books!

"Here he comes to save the day...maybe!"

I like books that are either writing about celebrities or are written by them. In regards to the former, I enjoy reading those that are created with at least the tacit approval of the subject in question. Those tend to be the most interesting because the biographer can often perform a deeper dive into the subject when they know they have unfettered access to them.

Example: I recently read a very good bio of R.E.M. Even though the band declined to be interviewed directly/participate, they made it known that they had no qualms with any member of their families or extended friendship circles actually participating.

Now I have read or almost read biographies of those who did not want to participate and made it known that they were not nor would they going to give their approval, so the finished product had a tendency to be wanting. Robert DeNiro, Paul Simon, Ringo Starr and John Prine fall into this particular book category.

In regards to the latter statement, books written by 'celebrities' have a tendency to fall into two distinct categories: memoirs and topics that they have an in-depth knowledge of. While I enjoy both, I should let everyone know that my definition of 'celebrity' is probably a complete 180 from yours. To me, a celebrity is someone who is well known from any and all walks of life, and not from the usual fields of sports and entertainment.

For example: over the decades I've reads memoirs from a diverse group of people such as Eric Roberts, Sissy Spacek, Mike Campbell (founding member of The Heartbreakers), Dave Grohl, Steve Boone (The Lovin' Spoonful) and John Lyndon (aka Johnny Rotten). 

However, I have also read memoirs from people who are well known in their chosen field, however niche it may be, but not known to the general public.

For example: I have read a memoir from an internet personality with the nome de plume of The Bitchy Waiter (who also has a movie out); a very strange bio about one half of a duo that makes up the popular YouTube channel Jolly (the book was ultimately written as fundraiser for a theme park in Australia; and a memoir from a popular TikTok/YouTube personality, Hayley Morris.

Now if we switch over to the other type of 'celebrity' book that I have enjoyed, you'll find that my reading list is just as eclectic. I have read memoirs that doubled as history books.

For example: professional wrestling. I've read memoirs from Bob Backlund and Pat Patterson, both of which also cover the golden age of what is now the WWE prior to Hulkamania. I've also read (and have a copy) a memoir from Lynn Denton, who was a professional wrestler under the name "The Grappler" and worked primarily in the Northwest part of the US. His memoir doubled as a history of territory wrestling prior to the massive national expansion of the WWF/WWE

If we switch one more time, we move on to books that have been written by people who are very well known in their chosen niche field. A well known Michigan attorney, Steve Lehto, has written a slew of books covering true crime and the automotive industry. The only title that I have is "American Murder Houses: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses of Homicide". It's actually a really good & fascinating book and I highly recommend it and his other books.

Another book that I have is written by podcaster Patrick Wyman. He's a former MMA sportswriter turned legitimate historian who specializes in Medieval, Roman and early World history. His 1st book is called "The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years That Shook The World 1496-1530", and he examines that forty year period through the eyes of ten real people. Highly recommend this book as well.

In general, I enjoy reading books written by people who are well known in their particular field of work and have become 'celebrities' in their own particular way to the media platform they choose to use. I enjoy  memoirs written by people who may not be what we sarcastically call "A, B, C, & D" list celebrities, but are still celebrities in their own right.

One more thing: I often find those quirky memoirs and biographies at my local public library, from FB, from YouTube and from podcasts. These platforms have a tendency to weed out the fluffy ghostwriter money grubbers from those who actually know what they're talking about and are willing to show the good, the band and the fugly about themselves.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #311: My Bookcase {4}-Capitalizing Thy Punishment

A kindly heads up to my readers: I rarely talk about hot button issues on this blog, simply because of the amount of static I would receive and the fallout afterwards. This is one of those hot button issues that has divided the nation into two distinct camps: pro-criminal/anti-victim and pro-victim/anti-criminal, and you can probably guess which political party today is the former and which is the latter.

I am a very strong proponent of capital punishment. Always have been, always will be. I always believe that if you commit a heinous crime that involved multiple people or certain types of people becoming a fond distant memory for others, then you should suffer the ultimate consequence. This philosophy has made me a very usual person in my very blue state of Connecticut, as the pro-criminal/anti-victim Democratic party eliminated the death penalty in the early 2010's.

I won't go further into the weeds or how broken the system is and other assorted tangents, because this post is not about the (mostly) factual rantings of a "senior citizen". This post is about a book whose topic of choice is Texas's death row.

~~~~~~

I'm not entirely sure when I had picked up this book beyond narrowing it down to the late 2000's. I've always been interested on how death rows work in the states that do have them, so I figured, 'why not?'.

The book itself is an interesting read, as it first spends a few pages talking about how the death row in Texas is run; the rules and regulations, and the like (fun fact, no tobacco products are allowed with your final meal). The rest of the book is set up encyclopedia style in chronological order (but not in the way that you think).

In short, each entry contains the following:

1. The name of the criminal(a);
2. Brief synopsis of the case;
3. Brief bio of the inmate;
4. The amount of time spent on death row;
5. Last meal, if any;
6. Last statement, if any*.

*There is an appendix for some of the inmates who gave very lengthy (usually one to two book pages) statements.

I should note that this book covers the modern era of the Texas Death Row, when the lethal injection was the standard method of execution, starting in December 1982 through the publication date of this book,  April 2007.

I will say that this book is a good read, although not terribly enjoyable for the average person or even true crime aficionados. People who are into criminal justice or social justice may find it a very good read, as well as those who enjoy reading about the history of capital punishment in the U.S.

This book does not sugarcoat the heinousness of the crimes the inmates were convicted of, and the author presents a well balanced look in at capital punishment in Texas.

As I stated in the beginning, there's a lot of things wrong with how capital punishment sentences are carried out, and this post isn't about the end result of a deep dive through the internet (among other things), just a book review/recommendation for those who are curious about the death penalty and how it's applied in the U.S., with a specific focus on Texas.

Thank you for coming to my blog today, your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

{c} 2026 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #302: When Music Clashed With Reality, It Made You Think

What advertising was like back in the mid 2010s: cartoonish and cringeworthy.

Back during my younger years (that would cover 1980 thru 1999), I used to hear all kinds of songs that were based (sometimes loosely, sometimes not) on real events. Those songs would always make you think and sometimes search out the event in question that piqued your curiosity.

For example, my earliest memory of a good song based on a real event was Ohio by CSNY (listened to it a lot on oldies radio). Unless you've been living under a rock or in a non-Western country, the song was about a shooting that took place during a protest of the Vietnam War at Kent State University.

As I grew older and expanded my musical horizons to include non-commercial  radio stations, I would often hear other songs based on real events that received a lot of notoriety upon release.

The punk band The Dead Kennedys performed a cover of I Fought The Law but reworked the lyrics to have it based on the shooting of Harvey Milk and George Moscone by Dan White (he of the Twinkie Insanity plea). I heard this one on college radio because no same commercial radio programmer would in fact, add it to the playlist.

A few years after the previous song listed, the Boomtown Rats (Bob Geldof's original band) wrote a song based on a school shooting in California called I Don't Like Mondays, which was the reason the shooter gave for shooting up the school. Now that song still gets fossilized on the classic rock/alternative radio stations. Song itself has quite the orchestral feel to it, which is perfectly suited for the lyrics.

Fast forward almost two decades, and now you have a solid major label debut from one of those flavor of the month 90's alternative bands that had one banger of a release then got forgotten about. Seven Mary Three released an exceptionally dark c.d. that produced two radio friendly hits: Cumbersome, and Water's Edge. Water's Edge, according to the band, was based on a real life event that took place in Chicago. It seems that a young woman was being chased by two drug dealers and they boxed her in on a bridge. Frantic, she took her only route available for her to escape: jumping off the bridge into the water below, where she ultimately drowned.

Staying in the same time frame, R.E.M. created the song What's The Frequency, Kenneth, which was based on an incident involving CBS news personality Dan Rather, when he was attacked by a mentally ill man who kept repeating that phrase throughout the attack (note, he wasn't caught until almost a decade later).

Drift back to 1991, you have the song Tears In Heaven that Eric Clapton wrote as a tribute to his young son who tragically passed away after falling out of an apartment balcony.

These few rock songs are the only ones that stick out to me, if only because the majority of songs like this are done in other genres, like Bluegrass, Americana & Folk, which can pack a more powerful punch and leave a far reaching lasting impression.

Are there any songs that you know of that are based (loosely or completely) on real life events?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #301: Back In Ye Olden Days When Comedy Was Memorable

A blast from the very distant past: sidewalk art via the road, circa 2010's, as performed during the annual Waterfall Festival. It's funny how images can conjour up a tenuous connection to a random song, in this case, The Spirit of Radio.

As most of you know, I am quite ambivalent to most forms of audio that originated during my teenage years which are currently being fossilized on an hourly basis on commercial radio.* There are however, a few exceptions, of which one is comedy. I grew up/came of age in what I consider to be the 2nd golden age of comedy (late 70's through the 80's) and is where I often retreat to when I want to listen to good comedy.

*the stuff being fossilized today I remember listening to when it was actually fresh.

I actually have quite a bit of comedy in my record collection that ranges from old time (Lily Tomlin), to really old time (Victor Borge), from crass druggie (Cheech & Chong) to the strangely topical (Vaughan Meader and Rich Little), to name just a few. But I rarely venture beyond that 2nd golden age of comedy, simply because the majority of today's doesn't really do anything for me (I will admit to watching some Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in their collective prime though).

However, amongst the baker's dozen or so of comedy records that I own, there are three that I do cherish from my favorite comedian-turned-to-very-competent-actor, Steve Martin.

~~~~~~~~

Pictured to your immediate left is one of those albums, which in today's world the front cover featured would probably get you into trouble for being the "T" phobic word.

Like most adults who grew up in the seventies, my initial exposure to Steve Martin was through his novelty song "King Tut" (also had my first exposure to censorship on vinyl with the B side called "Excuse Me"). This novelty song of his piqued my curiosity enough to search out his comedy albums, of which three: the one pictured to your left, "A Wild And Crazy Guy" and "Let's Get Small", are part of my collection.

I felt his humor really connected with me on a personal level and some of his bits, like the aforementioned "King Tut" and "The Cruel Shoes" became absolute comedy classics. The man was an absolute legend as a comedian and I personally believe he was way ahead of his time with his comedy.

I for one, was truly sad when he stepped away from being a comedian and moved in other forms of entertainment, like acting (the majority of his movies were commercial/critical successes) and music (he dipped into bluegrass with his banjo playing, and became quite the solid entertainer in that endeavor). In general though, his comedy is still, some 40+ years later, my go-to humor of choice whenever I want to have a chuckle or two.

He was my introduction to the type of comedy that you really don't see much of these days: clean with the occasional swear word thrown in. In my later adult years, I came to appreciate his comedy as well-written sketches that actually relied on talent with the English language as opposed to 50 ways to use the "F" bomb in grammar. I think subconsciously, I wanted to emulate that with my writing: playing around with the English language just enough to make my stories interesting without an over reliance on select adjectives (trust me, creating a kneecap insult that replaces a swear word/multiple swear words is not the easiest thing to do).

He will always be a comedic legend in my book. A legend that people often strive to emulate but haven't yet completely succeeded in doing so.

So I leave you with this question: who is your favorite comedian, past or present, that has influenced you in a particular way?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #300: My Bookcase {3}-Curiously Odd Non-Fiction

Flashback Monday of sorts: just to give everyone an idea on how long I've been blogging, this is a pic of my daughter that I had used in my photo blog back in the late 2000's. She is now 24 1/2 and a university freshman pursuing a dual PhD/Masters (already has a BA) in neuroscience; the two stores in the background filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and were (mostly) liquidated.

As I've mentioned previously, non-fiction is my preferred genre to read. It started with the Guinness Book of World Records, but quickly spidered off into other sub-genres under that umbrella, including one of my perennial faves: true crime.

Now I know that sounds weird, but true crime really became my go-to non-fiction genre for most of my adult life. Whenever I had a problem in finding something to read, I could always depend on true crime coming through for me.

Fast forward a few decades. Having exhausted most of what I have chosen to read about in true crime, I moved on to other topics under the queasy literary umbrella that is death that happened to strike my fancy. One of the odder topics that had struck my fancy was how people passed away performing/pursuing certain outdoor activities (aka The Darwin Awards), of which one, visiting a national park, is the subject of this post.

~~~~~~~

I had first heard about this particular book while I was watching a documentary about North America a few years ago, so I decided to check it out. As the subtitle suggests, it contains all kinds of Darwin Awards activity (along with some that were decidedly not Darwin Awards eligible) that has happened since Yellowstone was first opened back in 1872.

The one thing that stood out to me was not the fact they had records of untimely deaths dating back to 1872, nor the fact that the book was written by (at the time of publication) a member of the NPS, but the fact that this book is an updated second edition, circa 2014, with the first edition being published in 1995.

It kind of boggles the mind that a second (and apparently final) edition had to be produced in order to bring this darker side of Yellowstone to completion (as of 2014).

Not to weird anyone out any further than they already are by reading this post, but I found this book to be quite the engaging read. While some of the events are distasteful to read, Lee managed to weave in the history of Yellowstone quite effectively throughout his narrative. Essentially, you're not just reading a book about smart people doing stupid things, or nature doing stupid things to smart people (with tragic results), but you're also reading a thoroughly researched history of Yellowstone too.

If your secret guilty pleasure is reading stories about people who nominate themselves for a Darwin Award, this book is for you. It's well written, highly enjoyable tome that treats the profoundly stupid, the simply careless and the those who were in the wrong place at the wrong time with equal gravitas, thus letting the reader judge for themselves the merit of each and every story.

I sincerely hope that this latest installment of my personal bookcase has met or exceeded your expectations this week.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #297: The Family Bookcase {3}

Before we get into the meaty part of the blog post, a little rant is in order. To refresh, back in the day, I had Yahoo! as my main e-mail provider. That didn't last very long as I eventually moved over to Hotmail and Gmail as my two main e-mail providers, leaving Yahoo! to collect all kinds of junk mail (this turned out to be a smart move as Yahoo! was hacked some 12 years ago, in what turned out to be the largest data breech in history).

Anywho, I'm getting very disappointed with the quality and the amount of spam that I have been receiving at my Yahoo! addys. I feel so neglected and unwanted because I no longer have any decent micro fiction stories to read any more.

Now, the meaty part.

I have two more book choices I want to pontificate on, with one of them actually being my wife's. She's the epitome of a non-reader as she averages about one book read every seven years, shorter if something piques her curiosity. Maybe. Anyways, she was prompted to buy this book because she got hooked into the original version of the BBC series that was shown on PBS back in the day.

Now personally, I'm not quite sure how I found my way to the James Herriot book series. I distinctly remember reading the entire massive four book hardcover series (which after doing a bit of research for this post, was a compilation of his other books) that I had borrowed from my public library. I also remember listening to the books on tape versions that were read by the lead actor of the BBC series Christopher Timothy, so I'm guessing I made it to the book series that way. And of course, I watched the BBC series on PBS back in the 80's and 90's.

For the uninitiated, James Herriot was the pen name of English vet James White (who had good biography written by his son some several years after his death) and his adventures working as both a big animal and little animal vet in Yorkshire, England.

If you enjoy animal stories, as well as stories about the veterinary trade and life living in rural England, I highly recommend this wonderful author, his book series and the original version of the BBC series that ran in the 80's/90's (I can't speak of the reboot, as I did not have the opportunity to watch it), because if a writer can get my very non-book reading wife interested in reading, imagine what they can do for a member of your family.

~~~~~

With this particular book, the back story is usually the same as how other books are acquired in this house: I have no idea. 

And to be brutally honest, I have no idea how this book caught my eye, beyond the cover catching my attention. There wasn't much of a back cover blurb beyond a few blurbs by three well known publishers of the day (1982), and I don't believe that I had developed my book choosing routine yet.

Curious fact about this book, the copy that you see is actually part of the second run of the mass-market version, and the third version (as of 1982) overall. I did a bit of research for this book as well, just to satisfy my curiosity and the first author listed was/is quite prolific and well known in the sci-fi genre.

Looking back on this novel, which is set in a futuristic version of  California (that we desperately wish was still around) that suffered through the upheavals of a global war, the use of RPG's (for the uninitiated, role playing games, e.g. Magic the Gathering or D&D) as the main setting for a very interesting murder mystery was something I don't believe I read previously.

I didn't do too much of a dive for this post beyond checking for the catalyst of this story, the murder itself (which is actually quite ingenious for its time and I've only seen used one before in a Keanu Reeves/Dan Aykroyd movie), as I wanted to make sure that I wasn't misremembering a key part of this book. The book itself is quite yellowed with age, so I didn't want to risk losing pages from opening the book too wide.

I found this book to be interesting enough for me to consume quickly (how quickly I cannot say, other than there was a very long stretch of time where I consumed books in the same manner that frat boys would consume beer in a week). I don't remember what my opinion of the book was back then either, but it did manage to stick in memory just enough over the decades that some 35+ years later I'm able to write about with a good deal of clarity.

What I can say with confidence was that I truly enjoyed this book, especially one that clocked in over 400 pages. I'm quite particular when it comes to reading sci-fi and the various sub-genres that fall under that umbrella, where I lean more towards stand-alones than series. I do like series, but when they go on for far too long (Robert Jordan soured me on fantasy series in more ways than you can possibly imagine) is where I have a tendency to say "no mas".

With that being said, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter of my family bookcase. I highly recommend both books, as well as both authors, as they seem to have enough of a back catalog to keep you occupied for quite a while.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #295: My Bookcase {2}: Time Life Books

Back in the 1970's through the early 90's, Time-Life book series were, more often than not, the pinnacle of craftsmanship. The type of craftsmanship that you don't usually see, unless you're participating in a Kickstarter project where one of the pledge levels features a leather bound book cover, Gilded pages and other fine material that goes into a limited edition book, which is capped off with an exquisitely detailed/thoroughly research story of non-fiction or fiction.

I had first come across one of these series called "The Old West" when I was a middle school student (that's circa '76/'77), and of course what got me interested was the cool photos of dead people (saw a pic of scalped soldier, which is still seared in my memory banks 50+ years later). But what stood out to me to begin with was the leather cover/binding, because to a kid anything out of the ordinary was a must touch/see.

Fast forward to now, or rather, the early 90's. The early 90's version of me was dropping serious money on Time-Life music cassettes (yes, I know, I know), when I decided to pay attention to one of the inserts about their many book series. I'm a US Civil War buff, so two of the book series stood out to me: one was a repro series of Civil War memoirs (ultimately 32 volumes) called "Collectors Library of The Civil War", while the other was one of those leather bound US Civil War series called "US Civil War" (yes, not very original), which totaled 28 volumes.

I also have a very short series on True Crime (9 volumes), but the two mentioned above are the ones I'm most proud of, and they will be the focus of today's post. I would like to note that these three book series were my biggest outlay of funds for book purchasing, and in fact, the total outlay, conservatively speaking $1,400 in 1980's dollars, has not yet been matched by my 30+ years worth of book purchases since.

So without further ado, two brief synopses of my favorite Time-Life book series.

Something that was quite prevalent in the late 19th century, were memoirs written of wartime experiences, either directly (e.g. soldier, spy, military officer) or indirectly (e.g civilian on the home front or part of the rear command), so the book series "The Collector's Library of the Civil War" features diverse topics such as: 

The Citizen Soldier (both sides relied heavily on the military draft/volunteers);

Army life in a Black regiment (self-explanatory);

The capitol of the Confederacy, Richmond VA;

The book pictured on your right.

All of which were written by the actual participants to the topics in question. These are the kind of books that good historians thrive upon, as they can give one a more in-depth look at a particular event in history, which in this case is the US Civil War. This conflict affected a wide swath of people on so many levels that only by reading the various memoirs of those who participated can one truly appreciate the magnitude of this monumental conflict. 

I do want to note that I haven't read any of those books. These books are so well crafted that even 35+ years later, I'm still afraid to crack any of them open beyond a couple of inches for fear of somehow damaging them with my bad hands. But as many are want to say, one can never say never.

~~~~

This particular series is one that I've actually read all 27 volumes of (28th volume is the master index) from cover to cover back in the early 90's. 

It covers the entire US Civil War, from the events leading up to the Civil War (1st volume is called "Brother vs Brother"), and everything connected with the war itself: the various military campaigns in the various theaters of the war, such as the one picture to the right, which features the Rebels counter offensive in two different battles; the life of a typical soldier, the extensive involvement of civilians, and of course, the surrender and assassination. 

The articles/essays are expertly written with not a smidgen of bias to be found (which is a novel concept in today's journalism); are easily digestible/understandable to the average person who only has a smattering to zero knowledge about the Civil War; and are written in such a way that when you're done, they'll make want to search out more books on whatever topic that has piqued your curiosity.

Time-Life Books, when they were around (sold in 2003, and ended business in 2024), created a quality product that was basically sold directly as a subscription and is still highly desirable today. As an example, the Old West series I had mentioned at the beginning, I found for sale on Etsy for about $230. If you can find any of their book series, and they produced quite a lot in their many decades of existence, I highly recommend purchasing them, as they both a fascinating read and a research culture encyclopedia.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #294: My Bookcase {1}

This is my personal bookcase, which has a little bit of everything: knick-knacks, books, music and down below out of view, various used computers (out of date Chromebooks, Win XP and Win 7).

The book collections that stand out the most, are from Time-Life Books, two on the US Civil War. One set contains 31 (of 32) volumes of leather bound reprinted memoirs; while the other set is a leather bound original set covering all aspects of the war. Total dollar value, in 1980's dollars, is in the neighborhood of $1300 +/- (each volume had a price range of $17.99 to $21.99; the other is a true crime set of about nine books that came out in the early 90's, with a dollar value of $220 +/-.

What we'll be concentrating on in today's post is music, specifically boxed vinyl record collections.

Back in the 1970's/1980's, boxed vinyl record collections were all the rage. Whether 45s or LP's, they were always a great addition to one's personal collection. For me, I have almost one dozen in total decided between 45s and LPs. The boxed sets of 45's include artists like The Carpenters and Little Richard, while the LP's included artists like Bob Dylan, Jethro Tull and Dr. Demento (I know, not an artist, but he came out with a 7 record sampling of novelty songs from the 40's through the 80's).

My favorites though, were some boxed sets from Reader's Digest. Back in the day, Reader's Digest branched out from their condensed books and started releasing record collections. I managed to acquire about five or six from my late grandfather's modest music collection, and oddly enough, they were from artists that I had grown up listening to. One such artist was a well known country singer Marty Robbins.

I was introduced to Marty Robbins as wee lad via my late father, who would often play an album on the stereo while he was grading tests/exams. Like most kids, I did not like or appreciate the music of my parents at that age. But as I got older, I learned to appreciate the music that my parents, especially my father, had exposed me to. In fact, I have come full circle with musical tastes, as I more often than not, will pivot to those genres (and sub-genres) for my listening pleasures.

Like most boxed sets that are programmed a certain way, so too were the Reader Digest box sets. 

With this particular box set, it was programmed as follows: record one features a greatest hits compilation; record two has songs from Hawaii and country classics; record three has sad love songs and ballads; record four features songs about women (remember these are from the 60's and 70's) and more love songs; and record five features story songs (story songs were a major thing back in the day) and even more love songs.

I believe this is probably the basic programming outline for any artist that comes out with a box set these days: start off with the greatest hits, then slowly work their way through their vast catalog for different themes (emotion, personal faves, deeper dives, etc).

In general, while I do appreciate the box set collections that come out, as it can be a great way to sample a favorite artist's back catalog if you don't want to go the other route (aka buying each individual release of a fave artist), I will often balk at the excessive price tag that seems to be attached to those box sets these days, even if they're mainly on c.d.'s instead of vinyl (which, IMO, is turning into a major grift/cash grab these days).

Whether you enjoy compilations or not, a box set from a given artist is often a fantastic way to sample an artist's back catalog without spending an escalating amount of money in acquiring every single release of that artist.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #293: The Family Bookcase: {2}

Before we get into the meat of the post, a word from our sponsor, the US Constitution, in regards to our perpetual flavor of the year: the 1st amendment.

SCOTUS has ruled, repeatedly I might add, that while you do have the right to unfiltered, unfettered and uncensored free speech, your right to that unfiltered, unfettered and uncensored free speech comes to a screeching halt like putting a car into 'park' while driving 65 down the highway the second you cross the threshold to your place of employment. Because at that point, they have the authority to regulate what you can and cannot say on their time; and as an added bonus, they can regulate what you can say on your own free time, because reputational damage is a very real thing.

And now back to our previously scheduled blog post.

The book pictured above, One Good Deed by Dave Rosi, is a mystery of some renown, that is currently out of print. The publisher of this particular book, Hard Shell Word Factory, was in business from the early 1990's thru the early 2000's, and they were an early embracer of digital technology, as you were able to purchase downloads and floppy disks (the 3 1/4 inch version) of their published books.

This particular book stood out to me due to the simple fact that I was looking for a decent book of fiction that I could take my sweet time in reading. My reading is often cyclical in nature, in that I have long periods of wanting to read a plethora of books in the shortest time period possible. Those long periods are intermingled with equally long periods of wanting to move at the speed of slow with my reading, which is not conducive with borrowing books from the public library (even though my public library has basically eliminated fines in favor of perpetually renewing a checked out book until the patron decides to return it).

So among the many dozens of books of fiction, this particular book jumped out at me. The cover art was eye catching and the back cover blurb intrigued me as well (low level drug dealer, hurricane, lost stash of drugs, murder of what is now derisively called a 'White Liberal Savior', etc.), with the actual hook being: "the decision he makes will measure how much his life can be changed by one good deed".

The book itself is but 364p in length, which, in my opinion, tells me it can be a solid enough read that should any draggy parts be encountered, the rest of the story will pick up the slack. So far, with about 70+ pages read, I have not encountered any draggy parts.

I like fiction, but just like I'm finicky with the type of non-fiction that I read, I'm also finicky with the type of fiction that I like to read. This book seems to fit my offbeat criteria for what I feel comfortable in reading for fiction.

~~~~~~

One final advert, this time sponsored by me: I now have print copies of my latest book, To Live Is To Die Young, available on Amazon KDP, as well through me. The copies available through me are roughly 40% off the list price (plus CT sales tax) and I cover the S&H. Details can be had at my book blog, Books By G.B. Miller.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #292: I'm Popular In A Bad Way

I needed something relaxing to look at while I'm writing this particular post, because the topic of choice is something that I thought I would never have to deal with in my blogging life, but here we is.

I was comparing my weekly Statcounter reports with the amount of page views that this blog and my book blog had been getting for the past month or so (as well as my other dormant blogs) and the math wasn't mathing.

Example: last week I was averaging a daily page view for this blog of 4.9 and the book blog of about 1 per day. Yet looking at the view count for my last blog post was sitting at 196 views, while my book blog post was sitting at an aggregate total of 561. 

I ruminated on this troubling statistic and I eventually came to the sadly plausible explanation for the sudden uptick in page views was that all of my blogs are being scrapped/pilfered for content. Obviously I'm none-too-pleased about this depressing development.

I spent a solid week ruminating on what I was going to do about my blogging going forward, and the few ideas that I had come up with, weren't really feasible for me. The first idea that crossed my mind was simply writing a short blog post on my Facebook author's page then link to here on the blog. While I did change the settings for the page so that you don't have to be a member of Meta to view it, but I have not figured out how to paste the link to a FB post elsewhere, and would inconvenient to everyone if I said on a blog post, "hey, look for my FB post dated xx/xx/xxxx to read the blog post."

The second idea was to create a newsletter that people could subscribe to in order to read my blog posts. But that was problematic on sooooo many levels that I sent that idea to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

So having discarded those ideas, I'm still left with the quandary of what to do about my blogging going forward. While I don't plan on giving up on my blogging (been doing it now for the better part of seventeen years), I do plan on making a bunch of changes going forward.

I plan on tweaking what I actually blog about. Instead of ruminating on whatever happens to strike my fancy, I plan on narrowing my scope to simply the following four items.

1} My family bookcase: I have a huge eclectic bookcase to share with everyone. Archival memory is always a good thing to have, especially when it comes to books, and trust me, my memory is quite encyclopedic when a given situation calls for it.

2} My personal bookcase: mine is about the same size in totality, as it kitty corners, and is chock full of all kinds of interesting things to explore and opine about.

3} My vast music collection, which is located in that kitty corner and my den

4} My writing: which is the original topic that all of my blogs were predicated on. I will still opine about that, but will try to tighten it up to make it not so specific, unless I'm promoting one of my books.

In regards to my other blogs, I started the process of shutting down 99% of three remaining blogs that people could actually peruse: Cedar's Mountain; Father Nature's Corner and It's Always Saturday In Suburbia (my adult blog). I say 99%, as I turned all but one post into draft mode, eliminated the page tabs and any out-of-date advertising on them. My short story blog has already been completely deactivated using the same method, going on now for at least five years. Because of this, any links that you may come across directing you to the first two blogs will be broken and unusable. My picture blog will stay open for those to peruse at their leisure.

So my friends, this post is probably not what you're expecting to read, but it's the one that needed to be made, albeit quite reluctantly. Next week we will be back to our semi-abnormal self covering one of the aforementioned topics.

Have a fantastic start to your week.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #291: The Family Bookcase: {1}

In my basement we have two monstrosities that pass for bookcases: the family bookcase that basically stretches some ten feet across a side wall, and mine that stretches some four feet down the side wall in front of my den. Starting with this post, we'll be doing a skewered exploration on the contents of the family bookcase, and alternate a few about my bookcase.

Our family bookcase contains about 60 years worth of books collected in a few different ways: directly purchased from bookstores, acquired on the dirt cheap (aka free) from various people who were bringing/purging their collections. 

Just to give you a basic idea of what kind of books/reading material taking up space, we have the following: old mystery/sci-fi magazines; religious materials, encyclopedias, fiction, pop culture and different types of non-fiction that one would find in schools/universities. Like I said, this is just a sampling.

Wherever I walk by the bookcase, I'm always on the lookout for a particular missing repro book from the late 19th century, specifically, memoirs from the US Civil War (I bought some 35 years ago, two different Time-Life book series that totaled almost 65 volumes, each one costing, on average, $14.99 (not counting S&H) in 1980's money). When I was creating my own personal bookcase, I discovered I was missing one volume from the memoir series, thus the need for perpetually searching the bookcase.

Because of the type of books we have stashed in a bookcase that will never be read, there are titles/topics that often jump out at me, simply because of how strange the topic is. For our first example, we have this:

To be honest, I do not recall how this particular book made it to our family bookcase, but since my brother is a bit of a mild hoarder, I'm thinking it came to us courtesy of him.

Now, I know absolutely zero about cricket and I'm 100% positive that no one in the house knows anything about cricket. I think I tried watching it once or twice, but when you don't know anything about a sport that is popular everywhere except the US, you kind of say to yourself, "No." and move on.

This is but one of about two dozen sports oriented books housed within that large bookcase, which run the gamut of encyclopedias, memoirs, histories and compilations, covering mostly baseball, with a few football and one emphasizing World Cup soccer....and one that's a short history of Bundesligia, which is German soccer (fun fact: our local PBS affiliate used to host a weekly German soccer game called "Soccer Made In Germany", which my dad used to watch every Sunday.

~~~~~~~

I have five of these highly informative baseball encyclopedias. This particular baseball encyclopedia was around from the 1970's through 2009, was a baseball junkie's wet dream. It had everything a junkie would want: a detailed synopsis of every season (both AL & NL) as well as the final standings; with a statistical breakdown of each team's total player stats; it also included a breakdown of each world series (and divisional playoffs); divided the entirety of baseball (1876 thru 2009) by periods/eras; lifetime stats were also divided by the same periods/eras; and even included the two years that the Federal League was around (1914 & 1915), fun fact: Wrigley Field initially belonged to the Chicago Whales, the Federal League ball-club before they disappeared with the Federal League did. Overall this was a fantastic detailed history about Major League Baseball.

This baseball encyclopedia was the catalyst for me getting into the minutiae of baseball for a number of years, and everything else that I've managed to come across I compare to this encyclopedia, and I found those...wanting.

This was and remains to this day, my absolute favorite encyclopedia of my absolute favorite sport (I became a NY Mets fan since I got cable t.v. in the late 70's), and it still has an influence on me as a person and as a writer to this day.

As the title of this post states, this is the 1st part of what I hope to make a reoccurring feature on this blog: a sampling of books that were read maybe once or twice, then became a part of a very eclectic collection of books that me, myself and I would ever read, as I seem to be the only hardcore reader in my household.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved