I Read Movies’ 2022 Year End Round up
As you probably know, I host a movie novelization podcast called I Read Movies. Every month I read a movie novelization and then on the podcast I talk about the differences between the movie and the novelization. A few years ago, I decided to add a year end round up for I Read Movies to my other “year end” lists. It’s been fun and some of you seem to like it. So here I go again.
2022 was a good year for I Read Movies. It switched over to the Cult Film Club podcast network. It also got its own online home on the CFC website where you can browse previous episodes of the show.
I’m really liking how this online database is shaping up, I hope you guys like it too.
So, in 2022, I covered 12 novelizations for I Read Movies. I’m very happy with the group of novelizations I picked this year. I kind of love all 12 of these books for different reasons, but I took a few moments, really looked inward at myself and all I hold dear, and came up with at least 5 of the novelizations that were my favorites this year and why they were my favorites. I say “at least 5”, because I may cheat and include an extra or two. We’ll see.
So let’s see which novelizations I most enjoyed covering on the show in 2022!
FYI, I decided to use the photoshopped IRM episode images for these entries instead of just the covers from movienovelizations.com. They are so much fun to make and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to showcase them more. I’ll link each entry to the IRM show page on CFC.com.
This is list in the order of show release.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace by BB Hiller – The very first episode of the year. Cult Film Club covered this movie back in episode 31. I go back and forth on this movie. Sometimes I think it’s terrible, and sometimes I find it so bad it’s charming. My hope was that the BB Hiller novelization would shed some light on things, like Superman’s Great Wall constructing eye beams, and why he gets radiation poisoning from Nuclear Man. The book didn’t answer everything, and it’s a tad shorter than I’d like, but it has several deleted scenes from the movie, including the scenes with the first Nuclear Man, and it keeps the somewhat weird zany tone.
Batman and Robin by Michael Jan Friedman – This novelization was the only one of the original four (Batman 89, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin) that I didn’t read during the original release of the movie. And right up to when I did it for the show, it was still the only one I hadn’t already read. To be honest, I don’t love the movie, so I had never really intended to actually cover it on IRM. Then I was on the Authorized novelizations podcast talking about the movie and the novelization and realized there’s a lot of fun stuff to mine in that book. So after I recorded with Authorized, I decided to do this book. I still don’t really love the movie, but the book was a lot of fun.
Spider-Man by Peter David – I’m a big fan of Peter David. Throughout the years I have read the vast majority of his novelization output. And a good bit of his novels. I had read all three of these Spider-Man novelizations by the time I did this on IRM. I remember there being a lot of Easter Eggs pointing to other heroes in the Marvel Universe. This show was a lot of fun to do because I attempted to do the JK Simmons “J Jonah Jameson” voice. Regardless of the success of that, I enjoyed attempting it. This is a great novelization, if you like this first movie, you will love the novelization.
Blade by Mel Odom – I’ve owned the Blade novelization for years. I didn’t get it when the movie was out, I got it many years later, but before even IRM was a gleam in my eye. And I’d never read it. So digging into it for IRM was a lot of fun. There’s a lot of good stuff in this one. It makes me sad that Blade II is the only book in the series that did *not* get a novelization. Blade Trinity did. And I own it. I’d like to do it for the show, but I’m not sure I want to even read it. It’s a big one. Nearly 400 pages. I know when watching Blade Trinity recently the one thing I didn’t say was, “You know what, this movie should be longer.”
Return of the Living Dead by John Russo – 2022’s Halloween episode, voted on by you listeners! I love this movie. I discovered this movie during the 80s home video boom. I had this one-sheet in my bedroom for years. My dad and I were such frequent renters at our local video store that they pretty much gave us first choice on posters when they came down from the wall. I’ve since lost it, and believe me, this is the one poster from my childhood that I regret not holding onto. This novelization is really good and evokes the feeling of the movie; grungy and punk. Underground. Dirty. It’s a great adaptation of the movie. If you can find a copy, read it.
Home Alone by Todd Strasser and Home Alone 2 by AL Singer – The last episode of the season. Both original Home Alone movies. I’m not going to lie, I love both of these movies so I was very excited to cover both of these novelizations this past December. The booby traps and physical harm that happen to Harry and Marv don’t come across as bone crunching as it does in the movie, but they were both still a lot of fun to read.
So those were my favorite novelizations I covered on the show this year. Let’s take a look at a few overall stats for I Read Movies.
Over the course of the show I’ve covered just over 70 books and novelizations. That includes the 64 episodes of the main show, as well as the Apendix special episodes, and any other special episodes I did for Nerd Lunch and Cult Film Club. How about an author breakdown?
Currently, the author I’ve covered the most on I Read Movies, and the reigning champion from last year, is Craig Shaw Gardner. I’ve covered five of his books including Batman 89, Batman Returns, The Lost Boys, Back to the Future Part II, and Back to the Future Part III.
The rankings haven’t changed much since last year. In second place is still Alan Dean Foster with four books on the show (Star Wars ’77, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, The Last Starfighter, Star Wars: The Force Awakens).
Third place is a four way tie between James Kahn, Jeffrey Cooper, Glen A Larson, and Peter David, with three titles each. Then there are a bunch of authors where I’ve covered only one or two titles. Will any new ones emerge next year to join this list? Since I know what the book list is for next year, I’m going to say…yes, there is some movement in the rankings next year. Stay tuned!
So, that’s my I Read Movies year end novelization round up. Hope you enjoyed this past year of the podcast. I believe I have a lot of good novelizations coming up in 2023. I’m going to do something different with this year’s book selection. Normally I just pick the books I want to cover and that I think will make an interesting show. However, this year, I used a different method for picking the books, and it’s something I got from my other podcast, Crestwood House. You’ll hear all about it in I Read Movies’ first show of the year soon enough. And in that show I’ll be covering Adventures in Babysitting by Elizabeth Faucher. That should be a lot of fun.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
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