10 Books I Would Buy If I Wasn’t On the 500 Book Challenge

[@snowysnowyriver]

Here's a clue about why your subscribers like you so much Michael. Hemingway to Hellboy. Homer to Superman. Harlan Ellison to Ancient Rome & Persia. It's always a wild and informative ride!! (.....by the way, I like Hemmingway too! )

[@Unpotted]

I think you should absolutely repeal the “no comics” condition of your challenge. No one should be forced to miss out on limited print titles they want in their library. Maybe you could buy them, but not read them until you finish. Or maybe you can do the challenge with a “vacation week” every 100 titles. Don’t live in a jail of your own making! It makes me sad for you. 😢 Have a great weekend! 😺✌️

[@gratuitousfootnote1183]

I grew up with Harlan Ellison's commentary on the Sci-Fi channel in the early 90's, didn't read his stuff until recently, beginning with I Have no Mouth and Must Scream. There was a line in Delusion for a Dragon Slayer that just "slayed" me - "A man may truly live in his dreams, his noblest dreams, but only, only if he is worthy of those dreams." I also love his commentary in the C.A. Smith Documentary. He was a fascinating character.

[@waltera13]

My sweetie came in, saw that I was watching you, yelled "HELLO!" At the television (she always returns your greetings, enthusiastically) saw what you were talking about and said: " Oh boy, if the lady of the manor sees this video he's going to be sent to the lodge without any hounds!" And also: "No. You can't send your friend any books!"

[@MustReadMore]

I'd also like to have those collections of Blackwood and Clark Ashton Smith. For a long time, Blackwood's The Willows was my favorite short story, and I could recall the long first sentence entirely ("After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Buda-Pesth..."), and Clark Ashton Smith's The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis is an awesome story I've never heard mentioned on Booktube, and it counts for Rocket Summer, too.

[@davidosborn6714]

This reminds me of when I was little and I'd buy my Dad MAD paperbacks for his birthday because I knew he'd just give them to me...😂

[@PeculiarNotions]

I know exactly how you feel about Harlan Ellison. He was smart and combative.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

This does sound like a dumb challenge. As others have said, the variety of books in this video is wonderful

[@Vicshade]

Harlen Ellison! I will have to check that out. I remember buying a beat up copy of his Gentlemen Junkie book. I was hooked.

[@saintdonoghue]

Surely your fans will supply all of these unreachable items? As long as you insist on continuing this weird, otherworldly challenge?

[@beerye9331]

Unsolicited donations only 🤣

[@constancecampbell4610]

Ellison is responsible for the title to beat all titles in my opinion. “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”. Makes me shudder every time I hear it.

[@charliedogg7683]

One of the Hocking Conan novels (the unpublished one I assume) was serialised in one of Marvel's recent and thankfully now ended Conan titles. It was definitely the best thing in their half-hearted attempt to relaunch Howard's characters and the Hyborian World in comics. My former colleague's brother, a well known fantasy artist among other subjects, was friends with Ellison and spent many an evening with him and Mrs. Ellison. According to the brother, after an excellent dinner you basically sat back and let Harlan go - no questions, no interruptions, just full-throttle Harlan.

[@SEKreiver]

This year is the centennial of Merritt's THE SHIP OF ISHTAR. Voted the best novel EVER published in Argosy/All-Story by the pulp's readers, beating out novels like A PRINCESS OF MARS. It was an inspiration to the likes of Clark Ashton Smith, CL Moore, Kuttner, Brackett, Ed Hamilton, Moorcock, Tim Powers and many, many others. Well worth reading, centennial or not.

[@binglamb2176]

Adrian Goldsworthy also writes good historical fiction. I've read and enjoyed his 6 book British Army Napoleonic era series.

[@jamesholland8057]

Why Clark Ashton Smith is not remembered as Lovecraft, Poe, Howard and Bradbury is tragic.

[@glockensig]

Just think about that mountain-top expereince when you accomplish the 500 book challenge!!........ I hope it happens in my lifetime!😅

[@bookMark2967]

Great video Michael, with such a long challenge it would be cool to see these from time to time as I had no idea about the new Blackwood collections! I hope you are able to appreciate just how far you’ve gone already. 180+ books! Most people would never have the willpower for that!

[@terrystewart1973]

The Blackwoods are from Hippocampus Press. They also publish volumes of letters from interesting authors. I recently got their The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, 'Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill' It's well worth checking out publishers like them; I particularly like Tartarus Press, for works by Arthur Machen, or volumes of essays by Mark Valentine (writing about interesting fiction from the past - these are great)

[@bookMark2967]

Thanks! I wasn’t aware of Valentine but that sounds interesting. Going to check it out 👍🏻

[@terrystewart1973]

@@bookMark2967 His volumes of essays 'Haunted By Books' and 'A Country Still All Mystery' are pretty good places to start

[@DuckRon626]

Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea is one of my favorite books.

[@DavidWiley7]

You have no idea how envious I am of that magnificent Ellison volume!

[@brianjauch9958]

CAS rules!

[@salty-walt]

Indeed he does Brian, indeed he does!

[@gcpoulides]

Funny in the last month I got both the Peter Green’s Argonautika and Emily Wilson’s Iliad and Odyssey, heard Green is the best adaptation of Apollonius, I’ll report back as I heard the same with Wilson on Homer, next year I’m doing a challenge of all translated books and these are on the 2025 TBR! Another great video!

[@tonette6592]

I seriously commend you on sticking out the challenge, Michael. I thought you cut yourself some slack about the omnibuses? I hope that your better-off fans take charge and send some to you,(I hope you aren't inundated with Hemingway.) I enjoy reading Hemingway because it is like listening to someone with an interesting accent. I love Hellboy. You have as eclectic tastes as I do, in other words, we are both well-rounded,(and maybe crazy).

[@nedmerrill5705]

Harlan Ellison wrote the Star Trek (TOS) episode _The City on the Edge of Forever._ So he must be great. I'll need to check him out.

[@grantross2609]

Harlan Ellison's short story collections are about as essential as it gets !

[@glockensig]

By the way.....this is belated but....congratulations on 1,000 videos🎉🎉🎉

[@sleestack13]

Michael, in more "buying friendly" times, you should also check out Emily Wilson’s somewhat recent translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

[@ProductionsFromBeyon]

I don’t even think I own 500 books 😂 the past few years I’ve been focusing on library collections, and only buying the occasional obscure book that libraries have a difficult time acquiring.

[@duffypratt]

An additional comment. I too like Ellison. His short stories vary in quality, but some are astoundingly good. Also, very fun, are the collection of columns he wrote for an LA free newspaper, published in a book called The Glass Teat. They are hilarious, and held up really well in the nineties even though they were about 1960s TV. And there’s a collection of other essays, published as With An Edge In My Voice, that are great fun, especially one on the difference between Oreos and Hydrox cookies (Hint: Oreos are basically a harbinger of the downfall of civilization.)

[@d.r.martin6301]

You commented on messed up e book formatting and I totally agree. Drives me nuts. One and two character indents. Straight rather than curly quotes. Excess space between paragraphs. Ragged right instead of flush right. And so on. I won't buy any ebook that has these issues, cause they take me out of the story. It's not hard to properly format an ebook; I've done it a dozen times. If you can't, hire a pro formatter.

[@4yd3kco4]

This is a will defeating exercise, the opposite of catharsis.

[@ellesse3862]

uh oh .. thats my pick for Cimmerian September. I'd like your thoughts on '10 out-of-print books you'd buy' and how many versions of The Iliad do you have or have read, and by whom.

[@duffypratt]

I suggest you adjust your challenge. Bump it to 1000 books. It’s a nice round number. But allow yourself to buy a book for every book you unhaul in your library. That would give you a bunch of flexibility while actually accomplishing the goal of curating your library.

[@RichardSheehan]

Some great books there. I got the Harlan Ellison recently and it's the first time I've read a collection of his stories and I'm enjoying it immensely.

[@jamesholder13]

Given how expensive and difficult to find comic omnibuses are after their initial release, an exemption for the Superman omnibus should be allowable.

[@nunyabidness4220]

Some challenges are better to fail. I only regret NOT buying some books when I could have... I never regret any I bought. A few things I passed up are now too rare and expensive to get, so, nope, I'm never agreeing to anything like that.

[@secretfirebooks7894]

No fantasy fan should be parted from their Corum novels 😢 You have my condolences, sir.

[@stephennootens916]

This is seems like an early Christmas list.

[@waltera13]

This seems like a "Get me to Christmas list!"

[@missstarbuck]

I think you should make a rule that you may buy limited edition comics/books which go out of print, OR get very expensive afterward. It's supposed to be a challenge, not a torture 😉

[@fredflintstone1485]

I love your videos first because you are a breath of fresh air ! Love your welcoming introductions and your enthusiasm for reading. The devotion of your sidekick Roger proves that you are one "To Ride The River" with(see June on the Range :)PS:Re Hemingway, his Old Man and the Sea was one of the only books I ever read where the Movie was Word For Word the same ! (darn good read by the way)

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

I have that Conan City of the Dead and The Harlan Ellison collection and they are very handsome 😍

[@NmDPlm31]

I don’t know if I could force myself to stop buying books until I read a predetermined number of owned books. That’s brutal. And I don’t know why it’s trendy to hate Hemingway. The guy was a brilliant writer.

[@michaelsamerdyke108]

I read "Rome and Persia" earlier this year. It is interesting. A bit hard to follow. (It seems like for a while everyone in the ancient Near East was named Mithradites or Tiradites.) But he does a very good job on the last big war between the Persians and the Byzantines.

[@freelivefree7221]

You need to get reading! Hemingway at his height was overrated, but now is underrated. This is due to the image of him as a romantic man's man. (Which was half-real and half-bullshit.) Ellison was one of the great short story writers and I was always fascinated by him as a person. I don't know if I would have liked him as a person. It would largely depend on whether he liked me. He was usually great to his friends, but horrible to his enemies.

[@Yesica1993]

You're doing great on the challenge!

[@TheDukeofMadness]

I know a challenge is a challenge but those books that are not in your collection are important. I lost the chance to get a manuscript of A Mind At the End of It's Tether by H.G.Wells years ago and I''ve never passed on an opportunity to get a book I wanted since.

[@nunyabizness6595]

Have the essential Ellison and other Ellison books. My biggest stupid thing was when I needed money I sold off a buncha stuff including a signed copy of Deathbird Stories. Yea I'm an idiot.😮😮😮

[@salty-walt]

Gifting Harlan Ellison: Greatest Hits - Barnes & Noble has their own *unique* edition with bonus materials, including the manuscript of "On the Downhill Side", with notes and corrections in Harlan own writing. Same cover, uglier color. Just a note if any of your people were feeling generous, they should probably go that route so you don't get the FOMO

[@StormReads]

This is why I could never do this challenge lol.

[@RobynHoodeofSherwood]

Why can't the Lady of the Manor get the Superman omnibus for you? That shouldn't count for your 500 challenge. I just went to a library book sale and got a box of books for $5.00. Mostly hardcovers, including a Richard Bachman book that looked like it had never been read. I have never gotten more than 1 or 2 books at a sale before so I was really pleased. I even found a couple Westerns for next year's June on the Range. Very happy with my haul.

[@salty-walt]

I seem to remember omnibi being excluded (not from reading, but from the buying prohibition for this very reason.) But I certainly may have missed a rule change, or some other arcane subtlety.

[@RobynHoodeofSherwood]

​@@salty-waltOk. Thank you for explaining. Have a great weekend!

[@JeffMPalermo]

You’re buying pastiche Conan now?!?! Zounds!!

[@petercollinson8039]

No, he's not, but I wish he were. Nobody's reviewed that City of the Dead novel and I'd like to know what he thinks.

[@craigcarlin2918]

Ace doubles are thin and count as 2 books.

[@craiggerrard5117]

I've never liked Harlan Ellison but I did have a letter published in Playboy, sometime in the 1980s, criticising an article he had contributed. I bought Playboy every month back then, most of the article were interesting, even the ones I didn't agree ith like the Ellison one. Some of the pictures were quite good as well but that's not why I bought it.

[@user-tw1qr6ni4w]

When I finish Rome and Persia by Goldsworthy I will pass it along to you. I don't keep my books so it will be yours next. I bought mine brand new so it will be nice.

[@KodaMeansFriend]

I love this!! 💛

[@jackwalter5970]

The 500 Book Challenge is pure evil!

[@salty-walt]

Perhaps you sent Corum in a box to a loving fan 2 years ago?

[@Jamikel351]

Something to add to your book-buying FOMO: That Harlan Ellison collection coincides with rereleases of Dangerous Visions 1 and 2 in anticipation of The Last Dangerous Visions finally getting published later this year.

[@waltera13]

The new editions of Dangerous Visions are pretty weak, but I am looking forward to Last Dangerous Visions coming out on October 1st.

[@Jamikel351]

​@@waltera13 What's weak about them?

[@buckocean7616]

@@Jamikel351 Good question. I'm curious as well. Hope @waltera13 responds.

[@DDB168]

No Altas Shrugged ? Gosh 🤣

[@yuleham]

Yessssss

[@terrystewart1973]

If you sold or gave away a couple of the books you already own that you've read and didn't like, could you get around your "no buy" rule? The number of books you own won't change after all. Or, does your no-buy rule cover buying books for your friends? If so, maybe do that and drop a few hints.

[@VelliMak]

If you already had these books in your collection, they would be part of the 500 book challenge and you’d be dissappointed you can’t buy any new ones.

[@ToddsBookTube91]

great idea for a video!

[@tommonk7651]

Michael, I have to say that I have been consistent in my distain for this stupid challenge. Life is short. Get the books you want.

[@woolybooger7770]

Time to coordinate who is going to buy which book for Michael. 🤔

[@MysteryandMayhem-gr7nn]

I'm not sure I could restrain myself from buying any of them. 😆 Just to let you know, I sent you a Voxer message.

[@dylantindall5573]

If you can't buy ( your way out of the 500bk bondagephon) , why not beg, or ... borrrow? When was the last time you used your library card? You do have a library card don't you ? MIchael? Say it ain't so. Are there still libraries in America ?

[@JeffMPalermo]

Wow not buying Epic Collections?!?!?

[@aaronedgell9426]

Seems to me you already own the Clark Ashton Smith books and could just get a new version.

[@redwawst3258]

If one wished to gift you a book, where would one send it? 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

[@snowysnowyriver]

Was just wondering the very same thing!!

[@glockensig]

michaelkvaughan eat ya hoo dot *^! is a place to ask!

[@glockensig]

Trying to write his email but youtube keeps removing it. Just go to his homepage.....it's under his name. That's the place to ask

[@snowysnowyriver]

@@glockensig 👍👍👍

[@Yesica1993]

It defeats the purpose of the challenge if people are sending him books. Yeah, it technically doesn't break the rule if he didn't buy it. But, come on.

[@irinanka]

THERE 🤣🤣🤣

[@rogercroft3218]

Of course you can buy the Clark Ashton Smiths. These wouldn’t count as new books because you already own copies.

[@PaxRomanaYoutube]

Michael do you have a PO box?

[@Steve-wo7gt]

Mike, it occurs to me you read the same books a lot. Maybe it's a good thing that you are forced to not buy them over and over. 😆

[@michaelwood185]

Michael Hemingway is one of favorite writers also I would not like to meet him i think hd try to beat me up

[@ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

I disliked Hemingway before it was cool…

[@macrosense]

Disliking Hemingway seems like a california thing

[@Angel-sh7mn]

I like Hemingway's writing, but from the moment I started learning about the man I got bad vibes. I felt extremely vindicated when I discovered he was unironically KGB. Commies are always disgusting

[@j75099]

I've read quite a lot about Hemingway and have never heard this. Any proof?

[@waffle.23]

Wow. I thought you'd go another route as to why you got bad vibes from him. He was not really a commie but yeah capitalism is never-ever disgusting right?? It stands for everything pure in this world!

[@Angel-sh7mn]

@@waffle.23 did I say that? Communism and capitalism are two sides of the same coin, both invented by Marx. They reduce people down to nothing more than economic units

[@Angel-sh7mn]

@@j75099 I thought it was common knowledge at this point. He joined when reporting in the Spanish Civil War. You can go anywhere and read up on it, tho the KGB's official stance is "he never gave us any information" and I'm sure we can totally trust them on that. That's why he ran away to Idaho because he thought the FBI were after him for it(and they actually were, which is even funnier tbh lol)

[@j75099]

@@Angel-sh7mn I'll look into it but I'm still doubtful that he actually joined the KGB. Worked with Communists on the ground (in Spain) to get what he wanted - sure. But no more than that. Just to be clear I regard communism just as evil as facsism and wish these ideologies never existed.

[@stevendavis1940]

Yes, these kinds of "challenges" are stupid. Why not make it 5000?