Building a Better Shelfie - Part 3

This is the halfway point. Shelf four is all business. 

There are pencils, dice, scissors, and a stapler next to my glasses and some dice I find handy. The cup holds all of my loose change. 

The books on the left are either favorites I like to reread or stuff I need to read. 2010, Sanctuary, How to Make War, and Project Hail Mary are current favorites. The others are things I need to read. On the right are my glasses and a copy of Chainmail which was POD at DriveThruRPG. For less than $8, it was a steal. Under that is a copy of  A Billion Suns by Osprey. I had no idea Osprey made games. Hmm. 

Under that is the book, City by David Macaulay. This is a fascinating read and look, Macaulay's artwork is amazing. I hope to do a review of every one of his books. Back in the 1994, it was made into a 5 show series on PBS. You can buy a copy or watch on PBS or Youtube. 

PBS decided to rename it Roman City. Fair enough, it's about a fictional Roman city. It also improves upon the book by giving a larger scope to Rome's mythology and history. 

Building a Better Shelfie - Part 2

I expected to be done unpacking a while ago. If you've ever moved three times in a 12-month period, you'll understand why it isn't done yet. That and the lilacs are in bloom, the sage, thyme and dill is running wild in the garden, and I've spent a lot of quality time with the family. 

Here is shelf 5, 6, and 7. 

The fifth shelf is at eye level which is why I started with it last time.  I'll hop up to shelf 7 because it has the smallest number of items then move on to shelf 6. 

Like shelf 5, it has some family remembrances. The popcorn buckets are from Spider-Man: No Way Home. I took Paul, Nathan, and Catherine to see it back in December. It was the first time we went on a family-fun outing since COVID started. My wife, Kitty, elected to stay home which has its own story. 

The short version is that my wife sent us out to see it twice because they kept giving us a free bucket of popcorn when we left. She doesn't like superhero movies but enjoyed No Way Home best. 

The clock is nothing special, other than I like blue and coffee. The T.I.E. Fighter was put together when I had to hang out at the house on an especially cold day while waiting for the gas company. Click the link for the assembly gallery. 

Shelf six has some great stuff on it. 

On the right is the game Talisman: Kingdom Hearts edition. I have to review this one someday. 

Kingdom Hearts has a special place in our hearts as a family. It was THE GAME all three of my children played. Kitty is a Disney nut and this totally won her over on gameplay for children. 

Three days after Christmas in 2018, we scored an opportunity to play a pre-release version of Kingdom Hearts 3 in Disney Springs. We got several tries at Toy Story and Olympus each. They had a virtual queue and all kinds of merchandise. 

The KH characters apparently don't appear in Disney World. However, you can have a bit of fun with them. At Be Our Guest, my daughter asked if the Kingdom Hearts characters ever appeared in the park. Belle put her hand on my daughter's shoulder and whispered, "Kairi's sleeping, dear." 

Anyway, the rest of this shelf is full of stuff I have reviewed, other items I want to review, and a few items I will never review. The list of "never review" is short: all of the e1 AD&D books. There is really nothing I could say about them that hasn't already been better said by someone else. Since they were the first thing I wanted to replace, obviously they are a favorite. When I speak of D&D, e1 is probably injected into those comments without even meaning to do so. 

I want to review The Basilisk Hills Ultimate, Knight Hawks, and The Castle Guide. 

Surprisingly, I have reviewed The White Box game prototyping set, Into the Wild, Battletech Compendium, 2000's Star Wars, Serenity, Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn, and Cepheus Light. I can't believe how many games I reviewed last year. 

Strangely, Star Wars and Battletech are tied for my favorite rule sets. Star Wars is d20 or 3 point something D&D with a cool HP system. Battletech is a fast and frantic system that is easy and fun.  

Cepheus Light has my mind and heart for having the coolest name. 

Anyway, I have a couple of more shelves to fill. 

Building a Better Shelfie - Part 1

I have six shelves to fill. I thought it would be interesting to make a post about each one as I fill them up. 

Today, I filled shelf five. Why start at five? It's at eye level. 

The books are a favorite of mine. The image is blurry, but the title reads: "The New Junior Classics". 

Volume 1: Fairy and Wonder Tales
Volume 2: Folk Tales and Myths
Volume 3: Tales From Greece and Rome
Volume 4: Heroes and Heroines of Chivalry
Volume 5: Stories That Never Grow Old
Volume 6: Old-Fashioned Tales
Volume 7: Stories of Courage and Heroism
Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
Volume 9: Stories of To-Day
Volume 10: Poems Old and New; Reading Guides and Indexes 

It was published in 1912 by Collier as an answer to the 51-volume set of Harvard Classics. They are contemporaneous publications, one for adults and one for children.

My grandfather purchased a set for my father in the 1950s and of course, my dad gave it to me. While mine was lost, I have made an eBay investment so that my children may each have a copy. It is not as pricey as you'd think, but even at 10 times the price, I'd do it. 

Just reading through the titles of each volume sparks ideation. I can't tell you how many ideas have leapt off the pages and into my D&D campaigns. They are really good for that sort of thing. My personal favorite is Tales from Greece and Rome. 

On the right side of the shelf is a family favorite, rug checkers. The story about it is here in a post from September of last year. 

I mentioned this post to my children and they issued a correction. Darien Lake, both the theme park and the State Park has a set of checkers like this. So do all of the Boy Scout Camps we've ever visited. 

Yes, this simple checker set gets a premium spot on the shelf. 

I should be emptying boxes for weeks to come. As I find more stuff for the shelf, I'll update the blog.