Weekly Update: April 14th, 2024 | The One Where I'm Not Sure I'll Ever Get These Out on Friday Again 

Everytime I see a new Into the Multiverse video, it is an automatic play and like for me. Glad to see you are getting back to it. Also, I love it when reviewers allow themselves a change in their opinions when it comes to lists. Inspired me to read ASOIAF this next quarter.

Quote for the day: "turn your brain off and have some fun" I love it!! I would absolutely love a Stardew Valley adaptation whether written or visual. Such a great story!

I've been reading Howling Dark, almost halfway through now. WOW. Can't say enough how much I'm loving it!

Walton Goggins IS fantastic. Currently reading Morning Star (first time reading the Red Rising books) and Empire of Silence. Currently watching... whatever my 5 year old wants!

I need to read some Blake Crouch! Will definitely be picking up some more King soon... Cannot wait to see your Faithful and the Fallen video! Truth & Courage. Will

It’s sad to hear Booktubers leaving the community. I just joined this year and really enjoy it. It’s such a supportive and encouraging place to be and has really helped filled a void in my life. However, I can also understand when things stop being fun or meaningful for you, and no longer wanting to spend any more energy trying to rekindle your love for it.

In reviewing more media than just novels, you have effectively become the weekly Gardner Dozois of "BookTube". I miss his annual 'World's Best Science Fiction' anthology. He would start each volume with a detailed essay about what the prior year had offered: short stories, novellas, novels, movies, tv shows, pop culture. Thank you for the channel, and very nice to meet "Mrs. Mike" on your livestream from Friday.

Hey Mike! Love the updates! Also your lighting for the videos has improved tremendously. Great job, keep it up :)

Hi Mike, thank you so much for all of your reviews. I was a single mom for years, so I did not read books that scared me. As a result, I did not read a lot of Steven King. However, based on your review I started 11 23 63. So far so good!

Love the Green Lantern mug!

I've just finished reading Revival after your mention of it on another video and I thought it was amazing!

Great video, man. I want to add a thought about Library of a Viking's video. I watched that video when it came out because I've been mystified for a long time about this whole phenomenon of BookTubers just starting channels and then quitting when they either get burned out or when they've spent two years doing it and their growth is slow. So this is just my opinion, obviously-nobody needs to get offended; I'm sure my take won't apply to everyone. Here it goes: I have been doing BookTube for several years now and I NEVER get burned out and I probably never will as long as RU-vid exists. Why? Because I just do it for fun and make videos at my own pace and I don’t worry at all about keeping up with the Joneses or getting hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I make a video when I feel like I have something to say; I make a video when I’ve read something good and feel inspired. I don’t understand why it has to be all or nothing for a lot of people. I’ve long said that I will stop doing this when it ceases to be fun. It has not ceased to be fun. I love doing this. Has my growth been meteoric? No way. I’m just now closing in on 2,500 subs. I make a video like every 3 weeks, haha! I’ve never expected it to be meteoric. As an aspiring novelist, a husband, a full-time high school English and philosophy teacher, a club adviser, a musician, etc. etc., that’s about as much as I can do without getting burned out. But as Dirty Harry says, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I’ve found the perfect balance. The people who say BookTube is stressful and burning them out can literally. Just. Stop. Burning. Themselves. Out. By. Making. Fewer. Videos. And. Chilling. Out. Just my two cents, brother! Keep on being the GOAT. Cheers!

Excited to hear what you have to say about Streets of Laredo!

I think Your idea about video games-books is smashing! As far as I know, there was a couple of novels about The Elder Scrolls series that were published when the Morrowind game came out. Thanks for the amazing content, i listen to your videos while being on the road!

The Myst series was one of my favorite video game series…and there were prequel and sequel novels that were fantastic!

I know what you mean about Lonesome Dove - missing it. Those characters never leave you and you think about them often. Such a wonderful impact that book.

Streets of Laredo is solid. Listen, Lonesome Dove is a unicorn. But Streets is a solid 8.

I loved Lonesome Dove and really like Streets of Laredo. It's a completely different tone, if you go in expecting more of the same you'll be let down. If you go in expecting a good story with familiar characters you should enjoy it.

The entire four-book Lonesome Dove series is fantastic. While Lonesome Dove, itself, is an A+ book, Streets of Laredo, Dead Man's Walk, and Comanche Moon are each A tier. So maybe forgive them for not being A+, but they are still excellent.

I can't remember if you are a firefly fan but I just found a set of books for them that immediately went on my tbr and into my book hoard that I'm looking forward to. Also the zelda twilight princess manga was amazing. All of the Zelda manga are really well done.

Jennifer Connelly… a man of culture.

When the Sanderson fans start grumbling, Mikes “Dad voice” comes out!!!

Fallout adaptation is awesome and very faithful imo. They nailed the quirkiness. I just wish they’d used more of the actual songs from the game and gone to town on the main title theme in the score

The best video game book series is warcraft, halo, and starcraft. those were quick reads that just had an amazing amount of lore

Fallout series was great. Watched it all the last two days.

Mike, my husband found another coffee we love, Starbuck’s Breakfast Blend Medium Roast. It is very smooth, not bitter like most Starbucks!!

Reading Dandelion Wine right now and I can see where the love you have for Ray Bradbury stems from. I also looked up Larry McMurty and discovered he wrote the original novel of and co-wrote the screenplay for The Last Picture Show, a great damn film. Getting more and more interested in this guy.

Hi Mike! Congrats once again on your 5 year anniversary of BookTube !! 🎉🍾 keep going! I recently finished watching The Expanse !! So later on I will read the books ! 📚

I was shocked that they nailed the tone of Fallout. I also immediately loaded up Fallout 3.

Hey Mike, happy to hear you're over the slump after your kitchen. Always sucks when it happens. And gives me a sign of things to come for myself hopefully! I can totally empathise now. I'm having my Bathroom renovated and the stress has completely ruined my reading and my overall mood. I cant wait for it to be over, and get back to normal!

Mike, if you haven't read it already, I highly recommend His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.

I completed 3 books this past week - The Burning Sea by A.E. Rayne, The Exorcist’s House by Nick Robert’s, and a reread of HP and the Order of the Phoenix. I needed that because I’ve been struggling with my allotted TBR monthly reads.

I started watching fallout and had never heard of the game. I didn’t think I’d like it but I really love it so far!

Mike. I think making a video where you talk about video game universes that should be made into a novel is an awesome idea. Nothing stupid about that. I have even searched for novels based on certain video games and was unsuccessful. So the topic has relevance and would be great to see. Please do this one. Love your channel Mike!

Maybe do a top 10 Sci fi/fantasy universe video. This way you can rank the cosmere against the multiverse, suneater, realm of the elderlings, etc. I think that would be a great way to lump some of those multiple series universe books together to rank them.

Downtown Anderson! Goggins is great. He cracks me up in SOA too 😂

Yay Streets!!!🎉🎉🎉

A Bioshock adaptation would be fantastic

Just finished Jurassic Prac, great story

Ah. Novelizations. There is a thought that novelizations are less than original concepts. As a matter of fact, Criminolly on his channel spotlights novelizations during his garbology reading event in August every year, giving a big middle finger to the "society" that looks down on novelizations and other "trashy" fiction. I, for one, think novelizations are great. Sometimes they use characters from other media to tell new stories like Star Wars and Star Trek. Other times they just use the fictional universe like D&D or Aliens. I think you have a wonderful idea with putting a spotlight on the video game worlds that would be great to have novelizations for. World of Warcraft would fit nicely in that. Of course, some novelizations might end up being fan fiction, and it would concerning what kind of fan fiction comes from DOA Extreme. Happy reading, everyone.

I finished up Roadside Crosses last night. I decided to pick up Paradise Lost and No Easy Day: The Story of the mission that took down Osama Bin Laden this week. I am going to try and get back to Green Angel Tower this week and finish the last 200 pages of part one. Did you happen to catch the eclipse on Monday? My wife and I lived directly in the path of totality. It was pretty spectacular to see

I would be up for some video game inspired novels. Like you say some great universes to tap!

I would love to see a faithfully adapted version of the Mass Effect games. Kinda in the vain of Star Trek or something. Think it would make a really great sci-fi show.

Loved the updated Top 10 Fantasy Series, the one from 2022 I believe is how I found your channel. I finished The Emerald Storm by Michael J. Sullivan. I’ve really enjoyed all of the Riyria books so far. Although, I must say, if Heir of Novron is much like Rise of Empire the series will be a bit lower in my Top 10. I’m currently reading Children of Dune by Frank Herbert, and I’m really enjoying it, just as I did books 1 and 2.

A lot of booketubers are quitting because they add nothing. It's just the same old Cujo review 😅... No offense to Cujo. Dreamcatcher was one of the firsts SK books I read. I liked it enough so I went and picked up Duma Key. Have been a constant reader ever since...

Has Mike watched the Lonesome Dove miniseries? As someone who’s not yet read the books, I consider the miniseries one of the greatest pieces of western media ever made.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on BookTube-ing!!!

Im reading Empire of the Damm and watching X-Men '97....if you know, you know....

Sounds like a good idea about the video games idea for a video

Bring Forth The Goggins-Verse, Boyd Crowder, Baby Billy and now The Ghoul All great performances among others

It is WILD to me that people feel the need to tell you what YOUR favourite books should be 🙄 Congrats on 5 years! Here's to many more 🍾🎉

Fallout show was great! I wonder if now that the super hero media blitz has finally started to crop out if we will get a golden age of video game TV/movie adaptations

Just finished binging the Fallout show. It's surprisingly good! Had a lot of fun!

I actually think about video game to book adaptations quite a bit, so I would love to see your thoughts! Personally, I think Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age would be good ideas.

Mike, I've played Fallout 4 for 14 Playthroughs but I absolutely hate the TV series

I’d love to see video game to book adaptation type of video.I remember one of Philip Chase’s early videos he did with one of his students about video games and storytelling and find that topic interesting. I’m loving the Fallout series so far. I’ve not played the games but watched the kiddos play. Loved The Three Body Problem series so much it encouraged me to pick up the books! Looking forward to Dark Matter adaptation. Really loved the book.

Hey Mike. Hope you’re doing well. I’m about to start The Bound and the Broken. But I have to ask: are you aware of the advanced reader copy for Joe Abercrombie’s new book “The Devils”? Because I’m super excited to get something new from him and he hinted at this book 2 or 3 years ago. Be great if you have any news on this!

I read and enjoyed Dreamcatcher a long time ago. I remember being pretty disappointed in the ending, though, which happens with King's novels pretty often. To be fair,, that happens with a lot of writers pretty often. Endings are hard! - After I read and loved Lonesome Dove, I saw that Streets of Laredo came out, and decided to pass. Then later, the prequels came out, and I read them and loved them also. Still haven't read Streets of Laredo. If you get interested in Larry McMurtry, you have a lot of good reading coming. Horseman, Pass By, Last Picture Show and Texasville are all very good to great and there are still a mess of others that I have not read. Enjoy! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Mike, now Philip finished Arabasta saga would you consider to continue with One Piece in near future? I am not saying yo should do collab, it is up to you two ofc but i really enjoyed your reviews and i would love to hear your thoughs on story.

I have always wanted a Bioshock adaptation. Feel like Fallout has some of the same feels...espeacially the music.

I don't know what You're talking about, I like your voice 🎙️

This week I read One summer in Savannah by terah shelton Harris i absolutely enjoyed it and divine rivals by rebecca ross it was also great This weekend I watched the movie miranda's law it's based on a true story The show queen of tears im loving it warrior season 3 brilliant show

Reading shards of earth and started the other mothers and the lotus sutra

Seeing Kyle Maclachlan as Overseer Hank was a bit of a shock because I hadn't seen him in years barely recognized him

Was that a first edition of Dreamcatcher? SSDD

I still think Arcane is the best adaptation of a game. ❤

Oo video game universes that need novels could be a super interesting take to hear!!! 😮😮

Did you ever finish the last air bender? wondering what you thought of the ending

i think the idea of games having books is a neat idea. i have heard that the Halo, Resident Evil and Doom books were good so why not more. also im excited for dark matter live action as i read this book a couple months ago and i loved it

The first 100 or so pages of Dreamcatcher is amazing, I think. Strong 'It' vibes in those pages. And then things happen, there's a scene in a bathroom, and it all goes downhill from there. It felt like King wanted to be nasty to all these great characters he created. Now I know in a horror novel, we should expect bad things to happen to characters, but I don't know, it felt pointless to me. This is the only Stephen King book I gave up on, and I'm a big fan of his work. Very interested to hear your thoughts once you finish. 🙂👍

I have loved Fallout so far 😍 Makes me want to play the game too

I’d love to see the video game series as books vid!

Did I miss any final thoughts on Avatar the Last Airbender(original, not the Netflix adaptation)?

Never played Fallout but I’m enjoying the series. I’m not usually into gore but the lore and acting sucked me in. Also it’s appropriately funny without being jokey if that makes sense.

I’ve been hoping for a Metal Gear Solid Movie for years now.

I would love to see a Metro 2033 Series, between the books and the games there is enough lore, but don't let netflix touch it, or it will go the way The Witcher went 😂

Top 5 Crouch books?

Never played Fallout and watched the first two episodes. Different. 😂

Video games = Books ? Make it so. 👍😎

Yo Mike! Why do your 'Stros gotta start getting their act together against my Rangers man? 😆

His wife DOES exist :D

I've been reluctant to watch Fallout cause i never play the games and i do not trust Amazon, but at this point i've heard enought person saying is good, so... Maybe tonight. 3 Body Problem was a huge disappointment for me.

I am starting to realise why Stephen King is such a big deal

Hey Mike can I tell you about a game that is a novel. It's Halo I have two books and they are fun to read.

Walter Goggins as Boyd Crowder in Justified!! Raylan who? And network tv casted him a single dad in the Unicorn.. FYI he is very attractive!! Not everyone has to be Brad Pitt, Anson Mount as Christipher Pike & Cullen Bohannon is another one of those actors, like Goggins who just have “it”. Damien Lewis too, do not want to forget about Damien! 😀. Go Mets! Ya Gotta Believe!

First

Denzel wannabe's acting is so bad, his facial expressions look like the crazy chick-fil-a cashier.

Fallout may be good. But boys is a terrible show. It’s not good