Today is the last day of 2024. Christmas preparations are over, and the final blast of the holiday season is upon us.

As the new year begins tomorrow, it’s a good time to wind down if we can and escape into a good book just for the joy of reading. Here are three random books I’m starting off the year with:

Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League Et Al.: A Compendium of Evils by The Reno Kid with E.M. Rauch

This Dark Horse book is a true gem for Gen X Sci Fi geeks, a follow up to the original movie Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. World ending threats are still eminent, John Emdall is in across the universe is ready to take it on with his Hong Kong Cavaliers. I can’t wait to get into this nerd fest told by the Reno Kid himself, with the help of a E.M. Rauch. One of the things I love about this so far is it remains very much within the world. Even the introductory author preface is worth a read…especially when Xan chimes in.

The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and other Yuletide Monsters by Jeff Belanger

Hey, the 12 Days of Christmas don’t end until Jan 6. I love having fun collections of spooky lore to peruse in the winter months. Belanger is a well known researcher of legends and lore, and this time he tackles some Christmas and winter traditions around the world. If you’ve heard about Krampus, Belsnickel, The Yule Lads and La Befana, this is a good collection to have just for some quick fun reference. Take some of his commentary with a grain of salt, but enjoy the creatures within. One of my great-grandmothers was from Swansea, Wales, so I’m partial to the lore of the ghostly hobby horse Mari Lwyd. Winter is always a great time for spooky legends and ghostly tales, even after the sparkle of the Christmas season is gone. This is a good way to keep things interesting.

Tokyo Suckerpunch by Isaac Adamson

Okay, I’m going in cold with this book, but every reading list of mine includes a used bookstore find. This was the first novel by Adamson, and his first in the series of Billy Chaka Adventures. Chaka is Cleveland reporter for a Asian teen magazine in Tokyo to cover a martial arts event. He’s cocky, a bit high strung, and, “prone to hair-trigger fits of karate”. One of the reasons I picked this one up is my love for high-speed action manga style reads, but also the cast of characters he meets along the way (including a dog trained in the way of the Samurai) was irresistible. Honestly, it looks like great fun, and I can’t wait to dive in. I have a feeling I’ll be grabbing all of these books and chewing through them.

Even if none of these seem appealing, I still hope you pick up a new read to start off the year, and ride out the winter blues. Although the holidays are at a close, a new adventure in a book can begin.