Reducing My "To Be Read" Books

I have been on a mission since August to reduce my "to be read" or "TBR" books.  I have made a few offhand remarks about it, but those remarks must not have been clear enough for readers to realize what I was doing.  As I made comments about struggling through books that I was reading, I received unwanted advice and implied criticism that really bothered me.  It's nobody's business why I am reading a certain book when I remark that I am struggling to read it.  I must have some reason.

Here are my responses to the advice I was given. 

1. You have been purchasing the wrong books.

My tastes have changed in the last decade.  I purchased some books in the late 2000s that I had never gotten around to reading.  The books no longer interest me.  The purchasing decisions were not bad at that time, but I am not the same person now.

2. You should not read books that do not interest you.

See above.  I am reducing my TBR pile.  I purchased books more than 10 years ago that I have never read.  I must try each book to see if it interests me now.  If I struggle too much, then the book goes in the "to sell" pile.

Also, I sometimes greatly enjoy books, like the entire Rick Brant series, that I never ever thought I would enjoy.  For that reason, I must try to read each book before I get rid of it.  I don't want to miss out on a hidden gem.

3.  You should use the library instead of buying books.

I read vintage series books that are 30 to 100+ years old.  The library does not have those books available

I looked for articles about working on TBR piles, just to see if I what I was doing matched the advice offered online.  I found the following article.

10 Reading Hacks For Finally Getting Through Your Overstacked TBR Pile

Interesting... My process does include steps from the article.  Below, I have copied and italicized the relevant steps from the article.  My additional remarks are below each step.

1. Step one: whittle it down.

This is self-explanatory and is what I have been doing.  I have tried reading the books and have removed many of them.

3.  Make sure it's an actual, you know, PILE.

This means to have the books together.  Most of my TBR books have been shelved together for years.  I moved more of them together in August.

4.  Organize by date.

The pile should be organized by longest in the pile to most recent.  I have been working on reading them or tossing them in the "to sell" pile by going straight across the shelf.  I try to read each book in the order that the books are on the shelf.  If I like the book enough, I will read it and keep it.  Otherwise, the book goes in the "to sell" pile.

10.  Make your TBR pile a priority.

And that I did beginning in August, which has caused me to spend time partially reading books that do not interest me, which then caused those books to go in the "to sell" pile.

I have cleared around six feet in shelf space.

I have been very aggressive in this endeavor.  If the books put up for sale do not sell in the first month, I reduce the prices.  If the books still do not sell, I reduce them again.  This is a fire sale, and I want these books gone now.

My entire set of Grace Harlowe books were put up for sale.  The set is gone except for one lone book that I had in duplicate.

The Grace Harlowe books were followed by my Shirley Flight books, since I will never read them.  Four books have sold, and I just did the first price reduction on the remaining 12 books.

My Dorothy Dale books were listed.  I lowered the prices, and all of the books have sold.  My Motor Girls and Bob Dexter books were put up for sale.  Some have sold, and some remain.  Prices have been reduced.

I put some of my Chalet School books up for sale.  I just did the first reduction on those.  If I can get some from the first group to sell, then I will put others up for sale.

The most recent books that were added to my TBR pile are the Sweet Dreams books.  I read some earlier in the year and have now resumed reading them.  Most of the books that I have already read or tried to read have been put up for sale.  I won't be reading them again.

As I have read through my TBR pile, I have also removed some international editions and variants from my collection that are no longer important to me.  My collection should be a reflection of what I like now, not what I liked 15 years ago.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Girls of Rivercliff School and Little Miss Nobody by Amy Bell Marlowe

In The Girls of Rivercliff School, Beth Baldwin desperately wants to attend Rivercliff School so that she can become a teacher.  The Baldwin family does not have enough money to send Beth to Rivercliff.  Unknown to Beth, Mrs. Baldwin sells a family heirloom, giving the family enough money to send Beth to school for one year.

During Beth's first year at Rivercliff, she mends the stockings of the other girls in order to earn money so that she can continue attending Rivercliff.  She is ostracized by many of the girls, since she is from a poor family.  Beth is unjustly accused of theft, and this worsens her situation.

This is a very good book.

In A Little Miss Nobody, Nancy Nelson has no idea who she really is.  She has attended school ever since she was young, and an attorney, Mr. Gordon, pays for her needs.  Nancy is then sent by Mr. Gordon to the very exclusive and expensive Pinewood School.  Nancy goes to see Mr. Gordon, but he will tell her nothing.  Nancy feels like "Miss Nobody from Nowhere."  She is terrified that the girls from Pinewood School will discover her secret.

This is a very good book.  I did skim some passages during the second half of the book, but most of the story held my interest well.

The Girls of Hillcrest Farm by Amy Bell Marlowe

In The Girls of Hillcrest Farm, Lydia and Phemie Bray live in a miserable city apartment along with their sickly father.  Mr. Bray gets worse and is hospitalized.  Even worse, a fire upstairs causes the Brays' apartment to be damaged by water.  Aunt Jane suggests that the family move out to her vacant farm, which she does not like or use.

Lydia and Phemie get settled on the property and struggle to make ends meet.  They suffer from the taunts of the town girls, who do not like the newcomers.  The girls ignore the taunts as best they can and hope that they will be able to stay on the farm.

On page 12, a fire is on the upstairs floor of their tenement.  Lydia believes that they are not in danger, since the fire is above them.  She thinks that the fire will stay above them and will not harm them.  This is odd reasoning.  If not put out, the fire will burn through the ceiling.

Lots of dialect is used, and this slowed down my reading.

The book is quite slow-paced.  There is the slightest hint of a mystery, but it stays in the background for most of the book.

I overall enjoyed the book, but it is a bit too slow for my taste.

The Nancy Drew Game Fan Meltdown

I mentioned in a recent post about Midnight in Salem that the Big Nancy Drew Fan Meltdown of 2019 was not the only Nancy Drew fan meltdown of the year.  The Nancy Drew game fans have been been upset and annoyed for most of the last five years, and have had multiple meltdowns as the game was delayed or as Her Interactive made various missteps during the process of getting the game finished and released.

Two major game fan meltdowns occurred this fall. The first one occurred on October 1.  Her Interactive had announced October 1 as the date that the game would be available for pre-order on its site.  Just a couple of hours before the pre-orders were to begin, Her Interactive pushed the date back two weeks.  Fans were livid.

The second major meltdown began on November 30.  Her Interactive released the trailer for the game.  The dialogue did not match up well with the movement of the characters' mouths, and the trailer also revealed some problems with the graphics.  Fans did not react well.  The meltdown that began on November 30 became worse, if that's even possible, when the game was released on December 3.

The meltdown is still underway.  The Nancy Drew game fans take the Nancy Drew game franchise rather seriously.  While the Nancy Drew book fans are obsessive and judgmental about adaptations of Nancy Drew, the game fans are 100 times more obsessive and judgmental about absolutely everything that Her Interactive does.

The comments about the Midnight in Salem game are similar to the ones made by book fans during the meltdown about CW Nancy Drew.  One person stated that this game has ruined all of the previous Nancy Drew games.  Others want Her Interactive to go out of business and have actually told them so.  They would rather have no more Nancy Drew games ever than to have any additional Nancy Drew games in the new format.

Some fans canceled their pre-orders of the physical game.  Other fans returned their digital game on Steam right after they began playing it.  So long as players play the digital game for under two hours, they can return it.

Some people have refused to purchase the new game.  They would rather go without than experience a Nancy Drew game that is at all different from previous games.

Some fans use strong language, like calling the game "garbage" and calling the graphics “trash.”  One person is "emotionally scarred."

Those who have played the game are complaining about how Ned is being treated in the games.  They don’t like that Nancy, Ned, and Frank might be in a love triangle. Some fans have sent Her Interactive hate messages about this.  It should be noted that Her Interactive hasn't done anything that Simon and Schuster hasn’t done with the franchise, and Her Interactive hasn’t even done as much as the publisher.  Yet somehow, Her Interactive is evil and has ruined Nancy Drew.

Fans don’t like the new voice for Nancy Drew.  I just hope that they haven’t contacted the voice actress, because she’s just fine.  The change was jarring at first, but I adjusted to the voice rather quickly.

Someone said that they were going to complain to Simon and Schuster if they didn't get their money back from Her Interactive.  It's like they see Simon and Schuster as the parent who will get Her Interactive back in line.  It doesn't work that way.  The companies are separate from each other.

Other fans have expressed concern about the tone of the complaints.  These fans are worried that the complainers will force Her Interactive to quit.  I fall into this group.  If I worked for Her Interactive, I'd want to quit.  I don't see how they put up with the behavior of their fan base.

The company has made some major missteps, but we are so lucky that we were ever able to enjoy any Nancy Drew games at all.  We are very fortunate to have 33 Nancy Drew games.

Take some time to read the following article, which will explain what happened to Her Interactive.

The Case of the Disappearing Nancy Drew Video Games

From the article:

The bulk of Her Interactive’s funding had always come from a venture capitalist who helped found some immensely profitable biotech companies.  The venture capitalist supported Her Interactive not because he thought the company would net him another billion, according to [Stuart] Moulder, but because he thought that making logic puzzle games for girls was the right thing to do.

If that person had not invested in Her Interactive, we never would have had any of the games.  The company allegedly has been in trouble for more than five years.  Will Midnight in Salem keep Her Interactive afloat?  I hope so, because I'd like to see more Nancy Drew games.

Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Review (No Spoilers)

I finished the Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, on Tuesday, one week after I started playing it.  The game is not awful like what has been reported by many angry Nancy Drew game fans.  The game might not be to the liking of all fans, but it is still a good game.

I played the game via a digital copy purchased on Steam, even though I also purchased a physical copy that still has not arrived.  Steam tracked how long I played the game, and it says that I played for 22 hours.  My actual time played was probably less by at least an hour or so, since I sometimes did other things while the game was open.  I did that because it would have taken 15 minutes to get the game started up again.

The game is different.  It has fewer puzzles and is very dialogue-heavy.  I had to play the game with the settings on low graphics, so the graphics are not as good as in all previous games.

The player movement is difficult to master.  I was never able to master the town square and kept going in circles.  It's like the town square has an invisible path with obstacles placed in such a way that the player cannot figure out how to proceed.  It is difficult.

Despite the problems, it still felt just like a Nancy Drew game to me.

I used Her Interactive's strategy guide to get me through several difficult parts of the game.  I have no patience for puzzles that require me to study obscure pieces of information and then use the information to figure out how to do something.  On the other hand, I love the puzzles where I have to turn and slide puzzle pieces into place.  This game has a difficult three-dimensional puzzle that involves turning and moving pieces around.  I never use spoilers for those puzzles since I'm pretty good at figuring them out.

I mentioned in my tips post on getting the game to run better that I clicked on each line of conversation to force the dialogue to flow better.  That works everywhere in the game except for during the cutscenes.

A cutscene is a place where the game play stops, and the player watches as an event occurs.  The player cannot pause the cutscene or interact with it in any fashion.

The end of the game contains two cutscenes, one immediately after the other.  The second cutscene consists of a lengthy conversation that lasts for 10 minutes, as reported by other fans.  For me, the second cutscene lasted for around 20 to 25 minutes due to extreme lagging in each line of conversation.  Since I could not interact with the cutscene, I could not force the conversation along.  I was so frustrated.

In hindsight, I probably should have restarted my computer and then the game right before the two endgame cutscenes.  My advice is to restart your computer when you reach the life-or-death climax part of the game.  You'll know because you'll probably be given a second chance when it doesn't end well.  When you get a second chance, make sure the game is saved at that moment, and restart your computer.  That might help with the two cutscenes.  It is worth trying since the second cutscene was torture for me due to the lagging.

Aside from the torturous endgame cutscenes, I enjoyed Midnight in Salem.  The game is not perfect. The graphics are a problem, and it's clear that the text of books and documents was not proofread as it should have been.  All that aside, the game is good, and I hope that Her Interactive can stay in business and continue making Nancy Drew games.

Amy Bell Marlowe's Books for Girls Series

Amy Bell Marlowe's Books for Girls series was published by Grosset and Dunlap.  This is a Stratemeyer Syndicate series that was written by W. Bert Foster.

  1.  The Oldest of Four, 1914

  2.  The Girls of Hillcrest Farm, 1914

  3.  A Little Miss Nobody, 1914

  4.  The Girl from Sunset Ranch, 1914

  5.  Wyn's Camping Days, 1914

  6.  Frances of the Ranges, 1915

  7.  The Girls of Rivercliff School, 1916

  8.  When Oriole Came to Harbor Light, 1920

  9.  When Oriole Traveled Westward, 1921

10.  When Oriole Went to Boarding School, 1927

This set is similar to the May Hollis Barton set, which was also a Stratemeyer Syndicate series.  In my opinion, the Barton books are overall much more interesting reading than these books.

I will only have reviews of the books that I actually liked.  Here are some brief comments on the books I didn't like or couldn't manage to read.

When Oriole Came to Harbor Light is too juvenile and cute for me.  I abandoned the book in the first chapter, so I didn't try to read the other Oriole books.

Wyn's Camping Days has a plot that jumps around.  I partially skimmed the book, and then I quit.

The Oldest of Four has lengthy passages that I found quite boring.  The story of the shipwreck is told over and over by different people, each time with a small piece of new information.  I felt like I was wasting my time.  I skimmed the book and didn't read that much of it.

Frances of the Ranges is not compelling.  A few parts are interesting.  The story had great potential, but the execution was lacking.  I skimmed the book and skipped a lot of it to read the ending.  I didn't care.

Tom Swift Inventors' Academy #3 Restricted Access

In Tom Swift Inventors' Academy #3, Restricted Access, Tom's class gets to spend the night locked in at Swift Enterprises.  The field trip is expected to be great fun, until Tom learns that he is to be shadowed by Rowan, the son of a reporter who wants to write a story about Tom and his school.  Rowan has a body camera, so everything Tom says and does will be recorded.  Soon, Rowan is the least of Tom's concerns when Swift Enterprises goes into an unexpected quarantine.

I don't want to spoil any plot specifics, but Tom does some exploring in this book that is a lot of fun.

Tom Swift is in the 7th grade, so these books are aimed at a younger audience than the Nancy Drew Diaries and Hardy Boys Adventures books.  The book is quick and easy to read.  It is a bit simplistic.  However, I consider it to be a stronger, more engaging story than most of the Nancy Drew Diaries books.  This book is also stronger than some of the Hardy Boys Adventures books.

As compared to the most recent entries in the Nancy Drew Diaries and Hardy Boys Adventures series, I enjoyed this Tom Swift book the best.  The only Tom Swift books that I have ever read are the three books in this set.  Since I have no preconceived ideas about Tom Swift, then I can enjoy the books for what they are.  With the Nancy Drew Diaries books, I cannot help comparing the books to what I think Nancy Drew should be, which results in me not liking many of them.

Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Tips (No Spoilers)

This post contains no spoilers.

Before I get to the main point of the this blog, I want to assure those who are awaiting their physical copy of the new Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, that the game is nowhere near as bad as people claim.  In fact, the game isn't bad at all.  The game does have problems with functionality, some of which will be mentioned presently.  Even so, the game is enjoyable.

I wrote a post about the Nancy Drew fan meltdown of 2019, which was a negative reaction to CW Nancy Drew, but in truth, that was not the only meltdown this year.  The Nancy Drew game fans have had at least two meltdowns in 2019.  The most recent one was a week ago when Her Interactive published the game trailer on YouTube.  The Nancy Drew game fans immediately were in an uproar since they felt that the graphics were inferior.

Fans were so upset about the trailer that I decided that I had to check out the game on the day it was released.  Even though I had a physical copy on order from Her Interactive, I purchased a digital copy of the game on Steam.  I also was curious about Steam, since I had heard a lot about the site.

On Tuesday, I registered on Steam and purchased the digital copy.  My initial reaction to the game was disappointment.  The game took forever to load, and the first room seen in the game is so ugly, in my opinion.  The conversation lagged horribly, and I found the game impossible to enjoy.

I read many comments about the game and tried various suggestions to see if I could fix the issues.  I was able to improve my playing experience, but some problems simply cannot be fixed unless one purchases a brand-new gaming computer.  For most people, the game will have functionality issues, since most computers cannot handle the graphics.

The game does take forever to load on most systems.  On my computer, the game takes 10 to 15 minutes to load.  I am referring to the game after it has already been installed and played on the computer.  It does actually take a solid 10 to 15 minutes to start up every single time.

To keep this issue from being annoying, initiate the startup, then go prepare your snacks.  You are going to snack while you play the game, right?  Once you are ready, then the game will probably have loaded up.  As long as I find myself something to do while the game loads, it doesn't annoy me.

Once the game has loaded, it will be on the menu page.  Before you play the game for the first time, go to the settings and make some changes.  I want to emphasize this:  Save yourself some grief and change the settings first.  Unless you have a new gaming computer, you will need to change the settings.  I wish I could go back in time and do that first.  I hated the game on my first attempt to play.  It was that bad.

Not all suggestions that I read about the settings helped my situation.  The following settings are the ones that I used.  I doubt that they are the best ones, but the game does play decently for me.  Making these changes does cause the game not to look as nice.  I personally prefer a less attractive game that can be played over a pretty game that crashes immediately.

My audio settings did not help.  Some of the conversations are too low with the music too high, but I don't know that the settings can fix that problem.

The best piece of advice that I found online is to use the mouse to force the conversations along.  The conversations are awful unless the player intervenes.  The captions on the screen hang and don't match the sound.  After a character finishes a statement, the screen hangs for 10 or more seconds.  This was what really upset me.  After I learned how and when to click on the captions, I was able to begin enjoying the game.

As a character speaks to Nancy, watch for when the character reaches near the end of the caption that is on display. As the character reaches the last one to three words of the statement, click on it with the left button of the mouse.  Actually, I think you can click anywhere on the lower part of the screen, but I aim for the caption.  If you time it right, then the sentences and captions will match up perfectly and flow quickly from one statement to the next.  I mastered the timing pretty well once I figured out how this worked.  I began enjoying the game once I solved the problem of the lagging conversations.

The characters do flail their arms around randomly in slow motion as the player forces the conversations along.  The characters look pretty demented, but I ignored that.  The dialogue is still fun, as always.

The navigation is very different in this game.  I am about halfway through the game, and I am beginning to be able to navigate without much trouble.  The navigation is counterintuitive to how I think, so I have really struggled with it.

Even though I have not finished the game, the story is good, and the player gets to do activities that are similar to the previous Nancy Drew games.  The spirit of the Nancy Drew games franchise does live on in this game. 

The beginning of the game is quite jarring and different.  I liken it to reading a modern Nancy Drew book set in first person after having always read Nancy Drew books in third person.  I felt the same way as I began playing this game.  Once I adjusted and had played around 20% of the game, I truly felt like I was playing a Nancy Drew game for the first time in years.  And it has been years.

I hope that Her Interactive will be able to publish more Nancy Drew games in the future.  I always enjoy them.