Going Back to BASICS!!!

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Welcome to the TBR video for June 2026.

[00:00:02]And this month, we're going back to basics. This is pretty much a hard reset on reading for me. Recently, I did a video where I was talking about how I ran into a brick wall for all of my motivation to continue reading what I was reading. And last month, I kind of mixed in some mood reads and then while finishing up some of the series that I had ongoing. And this month, I kind of have an opportunity here to start fresh.

[00:00:27]And instead of starting fresh on new reads, what I decided to do is just read a handful of books from some of my favorite authors of all time. First off, they've been kind of getting neglected because I've been doing everything else with all these new things, which is great, but I've been neglecting my favorite authors. So, we're going to hit the pause button on everything new and we're just going to read some beloved favorites.

[00:00:58]Now, when I say that, none of these are rereads. These are all new to me, but they are my favorite authors. Spoiler alert, every one of these would show up on my top 10 favorite authors list. If you haven't seen that video, you're going to know a lot of the authors on it. Anyway, as usual, the the format for the video will be the books that I'm going to read this month, the Patreon pick for winner for this month, and then the manga that I plan to read this month. Now, let's start off. Actually, there is a series that I did start last month that I will be continuing this month because it dovetailes so perfectly into this month and it is the litany of the long sun. I what is it called? The lake of the long sun. Lake of the long sun is the book that I will be reading this month. I started it last month. I read Night Side, the Long Sun. It was wonderful. I really loved it. It was really good. But this month, book two, which is, you know, these are so itty bitty, it won't take long. There's actually going to be a couple extra books on this list because so many of these are just these tiny little blink and you miss it books, which is also going to be really nice for the reset.

[00:02:00]Just such quick little light reads that are just beloved to me. At least the authors are. And it's going to be wonderful. I'm super excited. I'm looking forward to it. The Book of the Long is like this priestish guy whose church has been bought up and he's trying to get the ownership of the property back within the church. And uh he's kind of also under the guidance of a god or the god of this ship that he's on, which is like a generation ship moving through space. That's about all that you have so far. He's kind of just now on this mission and he's got this mission that he's going to do or group of missions that he's got to do for this guy in order to get the ownership of the church pack. And that's pretty much where we're at at least as far as the start of book two. First book took place in literally like a 24-hour period and just kind of moved right along. A lot of fun to read. I'm looking forward to book two for sure. After that, we're moving on into good old Stephen King. And this is one we'll see how this goes because this is one I've been wanting to get to for so long. And it is the Tommy Knockers.

[00:03:14]And I am very well aware that this is the book that like made him stop doing drugs or his wife made him stop doing drugs. After she read the Tommy Knocker, she is like, "You've had enough. It's um it's time to stop." And I like this book gets such mixed reviews. Some people adore it. Not very many, but the people who love it love it. And most people consider it to be either over long or a mess. But I'm really excited to get to it. I've been It's been on my TBR for so long. And if I'm going to get back into Stephen King, I want to do it with something bonkers. And I shouldn't say get back into Stephen King. I never really left him. But if I'm going to prioritize something from Stephen King, I want it to be something wild that I really am excited to get to. And that's the Tommy Knockers. The Tommy Knockers is a woman is digging in her backyard and she hits a piece of metal and finds out that it is a spaceship and they start to dig and uncover the ship. And the more they uncover it, the more it starts to affect the town's people and everybody starts to act a little bit strange and weird things happen the more they uncover what's in the ground behind her house. It sounds very much HP Lovecraft, very much color out of space.

[00:04:34]And uh that's fine with me. Color out of space if it was written by a cod Stephen King. I'm on board. After that, let's do something much more normal and we're gonna do The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishaguro.

[00:04:52]Now, this is probably his most famous and beloved novel of all time from what I can gather just by listening to, you know, the discourse on the internet. And this is the one about a butler and he's been a butler for 30 years and now he's retiring. and he goes on a drive, I want to say, and he just reflects on his life, his time, his service to his gentlemen, I guess, essentially, and really just uh reflects and reminisces on what his life is, the meaning of his life, the meaning of his service, and everything in between. And it just sounds like the perfect vehicle for Kazuo's writing. He is so good at this style of storytelling and reflection and humanity and what it means to be human and feels like to oh my gosh this but like I said it just feels like the perfect vehicle for his writing and he's so good at this. I expect nothing short of utter greatness from this book especially considering that you know it's probably his most famous work. So, see if it lives up to the hype. See if it's worth all of the praise that it gets. Next up, we're going with my boy Philillip K. Dick. And I think I'm going to go with Counter Clockw World this month. I don't think I already said it. I already picked it out, so that's what I'm going with. But Counterclockw World, this one is I'm going to have to read the back of this one because I don't have a very good description for you. And this is just wonderful. Anyway, in Counterclockworld, time has begun moving backward. People greet each other with goodbye, blow smoke into cigarettes, and rise from the dead. When one of those rising dead is the famous and powerful prophet Anarch Peak, a number of groups start a mad scramble to find him first. But their motives are not exactly benevolent because Anarch Peak may just be worth more dead than alive. And these groups will do whatever they must to send him back to the grave. Like, I don't know what to say. Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors of all time. I have been in love with his writing ever since I read Do Android Stream of Electric Sheet years ago. And I just I that sounds amazing. If that doesn't sound good to you, I don't know what to tell you. Next up, I will be moving on into Herooqi Morakami. And we will be reading, let me get this right, colorless Takuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage. I probably said that wrong.

[00:07:43]This is one I think this has been nominated for the Patreon pick a couple of times along with Command Killing Commander Tori. And I just This is the one I went with honestly because it's a little bit smaller and I was trying to fit more books in. If I picked the little ones, I could fit more of them in because I was going to go with Killing Commander and I just and I I don't know.

[00:08:04]I just said, "No, let's do this one because they both sound about equally interesting to me." Herukqi Morakami gives us a remarkable story of Takuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by great loss, of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present.

[00:08:27]It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages, which is super vague and pretty much doesn't tell you anything about the book, which is actually fine because sometimes I'd like just going in as blind as humanly possible. And there's not much really to sell me on for a Herukqi Morami book. He is absolutely one of my top tier authors and one of my favorites of all time. And there there's just a reason for that.

[00:08:53]And if I ever get around to doing these why you should read certain authors series, I might actually start with Herooqi Morakami just because I I I feel like there's stuff to be said about him and he people need to be sold on this man.

[00:09:09]He's wonderful. Actually, there's a lot of authors I feel like people need to be sold on. Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything. Let's move it on to the very last one and it's going to be The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Leu. And this is going to be this is it for me. This is once I've got this under my belt. I have literally read absolutely everything this man has written and I I I love it. Every little last bit of it. And this one I might just throw in my work bag and carry it around with me because this one's a collection of short stories. So I can just kind of read bits and pieces here and there as I go through it. And if it's anything like the paper managerie, it's going to be a perfect 10. I mean I I can't imagine this is it sounds great.

[00:10:00]Here we go. We'll read this one, too.

[00:10:02]From interdimensional assassins to a steampunk dystopia destroyed by plague.

[00:10:07]From black mirroresque tales of blockchain cryptography and internet trolling to artificial intelligence and the singularity, there are 17 interlocking visions that explore what it is to be human and what it is like to abandon or transcend that. And once again, if it's anything like the other works that he has produced, it's going to be just a near masterpiece or utter masterpiece. He's had one miss with me and it wasn't even that big of a miss.

[00:10:40]It was just average. Um, which when it comes to Ken Leu, average feels like a huge letdown considering how just masterful he is. Next up, let's talk about the Patreon pick. The Patreon pick winner for the month of June is going to be The Inverted World, and it was nominated by the patron Johnny B. And this is an interesting idea. It's a uh it's 1974 science fiction novel that I've never heard of, but we're going to go with it and see what happens. And it is a novel by Christopher Priest, about a massive city, Earth City, that is constantly moving on railway tracks across a strange planet, laying new tracks ahead and removing old ones behind to escape a crushing gravitational field. The story follows Hellward Man as he grows up within the city's secretive guilds, learning about the precarious existence and the bizarre physics of its world, which involves time dilation and hyperbolic landscape, leading to a major twist about the true nature of their reality. The train itself sounds like the Iron Council from China Mavo. Um, which is interesting, but it sounds really good. really. I mean, I'm I'm I'm excited. I'll have to get my hands on a copy of it and we'll go from there. Now, after that, let's talk about the manga that I'm going to read this month. And this month, I I wanted to be on brand. I wanted to be on theme with this whole idea of reading my absolute favorite authors. Well, if I have a favorite mangaka, and I do, it would be Tsuto Ni. And out of everything that he's written, he's got several actually that I haven't read. And I'm going to maybe look into getting my hands on something that's out of print like a bi Omega or an Abara, but I those seem to be basically impossible to get.

[00:12:40]So I will kind of look around. I'll see what I can see, see what I can get. If I can't get anything like Bi Omega's extreme, they're they're extremely expensive from what I can understand.

[00:12:52]And you can even get them digitally, which is kind of Like really, just if you're not going to print it in paper, just give it to me digitally so I can at least read it that way. But whatever. And if I can't get my hands on either of those, I'll just run down to the local store and grab myself some Tower Dungeon and call it a day, which is not the preferred thing that I'd like to do, but I might just do that. You know, see what he's up to nowadays. See where Tower Dungeons at. I read the first couple chapters of that when he first started printing them. I was doing that when you could only get them online and it was like, you know, I forget there's a name for it where people like take the scans and do their own translations of them. There's a word for that. Anyway, I was reading I read like first two or three chapters that way, but I haven't really looked into it since. So, I'll grab a couple volumes and go with it. Anyway, that's pretty much where I'm at. Taking a hard reset, just kind of refocusing my efforts and energy. I kind of reset myself already.

[00:13:49]Um, but you know, it's better to just do it again. Do it right. Do it I don't know. And then next month, I think I have some pretty fun ideas of where I want to I have a project in mind for next month, I think. But we'll talk about that when we when we get closer to July. Anyway, everybody, as always, the link for my Patreon's in the description below. The link for my Discord's in the description below. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.

[00:14:18]Heat. Hey, Heat.