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I Read Movies 2025 Novelization Round Up

Posted in Blog Series, books, movies, podcast with tags book review, books, fiction, I Read Movies, movie novelization, podcast, reading, writing on January 28, 2026 by Paxton

One more trip around the sun and here we are again at my previous year round up articles. As usual, I’m starting with my novelization podcast, I Read Movies. Which, coincidentally, just hit 100 episodes with this month’s episode. For those that don’t know, my novelization podcast is I Read Movies. It can be found on the Cult Film Club podcast feed as well as the CFC website. Every month on IRM I read a movie novelization and then I talk about the differences between the movie and the novelization. It’s really interesting to see the differences between the two because many times the movie novelization is written from a different version of the script. The most recent 100th episode doesn’t cover a novelization, but the 1975 draft of the Superman the Movie script that was written by none other than The Godfather’s Mario Puzo.

If you want to check out a list of all of the episodes online, you can find the show at IReadMovies.com.

All the episodes are nicely displayed there in a bookshelf format with book covers. Browse just like you do at the library!

So, let’s talk about 2025 real quick. I covered 13 novelizations this past year. I did two for Halloween in October. I finished out one of the movie franchises I had been covering. One of the novelizations I covered was a Holy Grail of mine that I had been hoping I’d get to cover on the show since I started it back in 2017. And one of the episodes was a previously released episode from my first podcast, Nerd Lunch, that I added to the CFC/IRM feed.

In this round up article I take a look at all of the novelizations I covered the previous year and pick my 5 favorites. And then I’ll go over some stats involving the authors I’ve covered over the years. Let’s see if I have 5 novelizations I can say were my “favorites” this year.

The images I use for each of the below entries are my photoshopped episode banners, assuming I made one, for that book. I really enjoy doing them and I want to showcase them a bit more. I’ll link each entry to the IRM show page on CFC.com. These favorites will be listed in the order they appeared on the show last year.

Let’s kick this off with…

The Net (1995) by Leonore Fleischer – The Net is a small cyber thriller from the mid 90s starring Sandra Bullock. An earlier, lesser known role; she had already been in Speed, Demolition Man, and While You Were Sleeping. But I love it. I’m not sure when I first saw it. I love 90s cyber thrillers, and this one is a fun one. The book is a good one too, it’s written by the Godmother of novelization authors; Leonore Fleischer. I really need to cover her more often on the show. If you haven’t seen this movie, check it out.

Mission Impossible (1996) by Peter Barsocchini – The very first Mission Impossible movie. If only we’d known what this little movie just started back in 1996. Surprisingly, this was the only entry in the franchise to get a novelization. I covered it in early May right before I went to go see the most recent entry in the franchise. This book was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the background it gave on a lot of the characters. I loved this movie originally, I started not liking it for a few years, but I’m back around to very much enjoying it.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) by David Morrell – I was very eager to cover this one. The first movie was adapted from an existing novel, but Rambo 2 and 3 were wholly new creations. And the script for Part 2 was originally written by James Cameron. And this novelization was written by the original author who created Rambo, David Morrell. I found all of that interesting and was very much looking forward to this book. And it delivered. Lots of fun and lots of backstory and action.

Spider-man 3 by Peter David – I finally get to finish out the Sam Raimi Spider-man novelizations. Spider-man 3 as a movie was much maligned. Rightly so, it has a giant web full of problems. But Peter David always has fun with his subject matter, especially if it’s a comic book subject. Check out his Iron Man novelization that I covered, or the book I covered after this, 2005’s Fantastic Four. Peter David always brings his A-game, and I won’t say he “fixed” the movie for me, but he did make it more entertaining.

Midnight Madness (1980) by Tom Wright – And last but CERTAINLY not least. The coup de grace. My own personal white whale of a novelization I was never sure I’d ever be able to do on the show. Midnight Madness. For years this was going to be my 100th episode. An early Disney/Buena Vista scavenger hunt style movie featuring David Naughton, Stephen Furst, and the very first movie appearance of Michael J Fox! I love this movie with my whole heart, and I really enjoyed reading this book and digging into the story and going over all the places they went to in early 80s Los Angeles.

So those were my favorite novelizations I covered on IRM in 2025. Let’s take a look at a few stats for I Read Movies.

Over the course of the show I’ve covered nearly 120 books and novelizations (includes regular episodes as well as appendix and other special episodes). I don’t officially number the episodes, but as I mentioned, Midnight Madness in December was the 99th episode. And if you look now, you should see that IRM episode 100 is out there right now!

Peter David continues his domination of the “authors I’ve covered” list. David is now at 7 books (Spider-man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-man 3, Fantastic Four, Return of Swamp Thing, Iron Man, Batman Forever). And I definitely have several more to cover from him in the future. Next in the author rankings is Craig Shaw Gardner with 5 books. After Gardner, like last year, it’s still a three way tie at 4 books each; Alan Dean Foster, BB Hiller, and Glen A Larson. After this there is another four way tie of authors with 3 books on the show (James Kahn, Jeffrey Cooper, Robert Tine, and William Kotzwinkle). And rounding out the list are a plethora of authors with 1 and 2 books that I’ve covered on the show.

So that was I Read Movies in 2025. I thought this was a really strong year, capped by one of my favorite episodes EVER on the show. And as usual I had a lot of fun putting it together.

Coming up next for IRM is going to be a special “State of IRM” episode where I talk a bit about the show, and I get around to answering all of those questions that listeners sent me last year. That’s going to be a fun one. I have the schedule for the next few years laid out, and there are some good ones I’m excited about. Can’t wait to talk to you guys about it.

Review of Oz Book 5: The Road to Oz (1909)

Posted in books, Classic literature, pop culture, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, book review, books, movies, Oz books readthru, Wizard of Oz on June 11, 2012 by Paxton

One year after Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, Baum released the fourth Oz sequel; The Road to Oz: In Which Is Related How Dorothy Gale of Kansas, The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome the Rainbow’s Daughter Met on an Enchanted Road and Followed it All the Way to the Marvelous Land of Oz. Yes, that is the “official” title.

(Via pixiepalace.com)

Like the other books in the series, this book is a “road trip” book. A bunch of characters start off walking and meet a bunch of other crazy characters before eventually arriving in Oz. And in this book, that summary is literally what happens. There’s really no villain in this book. No threat or conflict to resolve. The characters just journey from Point A to Point B and end up in Oz for a celebration. That’s it. So, the story is a tad thin. However, the illustrations by John Neill throughout the book are gorgeous and very detailed. In fact, in the front of the book, we are treated to a really nice illustrated map of the land of Oz and the surrounding magical countries that Baum keeps adding to the landscape in each successive book. And I’m sure this map will change as I get further into these books.

(Via Oz-central.com)

So, the story starts off with Dorothy back in Kansas. She’s out strolling around the Kansas plains with Toto (who returns for the first time since Book 1). Dorothy bumps into a wandering vagabond called The Shaggy Man. Obviously not fearing for her life that a disheveled hobo has shown interest in her, Dorothy begins giving him directions but stops because she believes this hobo to be stupid. Dorothy, again, in this book is kind of a dick. She corrects people’s grammar and, like just happened, she tells people they are too stupid to understand certain directions she is giving them. Anyway, the Shaggy Man is in possession of something called a “love magnet” (yeah, I know) that causes anyone that sees him to fall madly in love with him. Where he got it, he doesn’t say. Dorothy leads the Shaggy Man to a crossroads that should lead him where he wants to go, but as she turns to leave, the crossroads multiplies from 2 to 7 to 18 to infinity. Confused, the travelers decide to just pick a road and begin their journey to wherever the hell they are supposed to go. Along the roads they meet Button Bright, a child in a sailor suit who is anything but bright, and Polychrome, the rainbow’s daughter. It’s this group that will travel the fairy roads to Oz.

The first stop is in Foxville, home of a bunch of anthropomorphic foxes. The Fox King magically turns Button Bright’s head into a fox as a reward for being “clever” but doesn’t know how to turn it back when Button Bright objects. So the group leave and end up in Dunkiton, where a similar fate is bestowed upon Shaggy Man, except it’s a donkey head. The group is told that the only thing that will fix them is the Truth Pond, only found in Oz. So the adventurers head towards what they hope is Oz.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: The Frankenstein Papers book review

Posted in books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, reviews with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Book Report, book review, books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 20, 2009 by Paxton

Frankenstein book week continues.

After deciding that I would read Frankenstein this Halloween, I wanted to also read a few other books that were inspired by or based themselves on the original Shelley novel. One of the books I chose was Fred Saberhagen’s The Frankenstein Papers.

The Frankenstein Papers billed itself as somewhat a sequel to Shelley’s novel. Fred Saberhagen is a popular genre writer. He’s written several series of books including The Berserkers and The First Swords saga. Saberhagen has also written several books based on Stoker’s Dracula. The Dracula books (as well as this Frankenstein book) tell the events of the original novel from the monster’s point of view. It’s a clever idea that I found fascinating enough to order it from PaperbackSwap.

Frankenstein papers

This book, not surprisingly is written in a very similar style to Shelley’s novel. The events in this book happen during and in-between the events of the original novel. The monster, after the events in the original novel, is trapped in the far North and finds the captain’s log in the abandoned ship, The Argo (titular ship from the original novel). The monster begins writing down his side of the story, which means the majority of this novel also happens in flashback. As I said, the style and writing is remarkably similar to Shelley’s novel. And, like the original, it starts off a tad slow. But as the story moves forward, the book gains momentum and you start to see the events of the original novel from the monster’s point of view. Also, several events in the original novel are expanded upon. In Shelley’s tale, Victor Frankenstein becomes interested in electricity after watching a tree get struck by lightening. A family friend who’s also an expert in electrical energy happens to be there to explain some of the science to him. This event is given even greater importance in Saberhagen’s book when the identity of the “family friend” is revealed to be Ben Franklin who begins searching for Victor and the monster as he feels partly responsible for the monster’s creation. This chase for the monster and certain revelations about the nature of the monster make this a fun read. The book answers the “truth” about Frankenstein’s monster and what really happened that night of the creation. And it’s…odd. Like completely out of left field. I have to admit, I didn’t see it coming. And it’s so weird that you will either love it or hate it. It’s gonna be that polarizing.

However, despite the ending, The Frankenstein Papers a good book that starts a little slow, picks up in the middle and has an intriguing ending. If you liked the original novel, I believe you’ll like this, however you may hate the ending.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

Weekly Geeks 2009 – 11 – My favorite historical fiction

Posted in Billy the Kid, books, pop culture, reviews, Weekly Geeks with tags Billy the Kid, Book Report, book review, movies, Weekly Geeks on March 26, 2009 by Paxton

Weekly Geeks #11. This week’s theme is about historical fiction.

Do you have a favorite book that really pulled you back in time, or perhaps gave you a special interest in that period? Include a link to a review of it on another book blog if you can find one (doesn’t have to be a Weekly Geek participant).

At first, I wondered exactly what they meant by historical fiction. Most commonly, historical fiction includes books that take place entirely in a past time period including a mix of real and fictional characters. However, there are newer books that have become popular that mostly take place during the present. Books like Angels & Demons and Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown as well as The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry and many of the Indiana Jones fiction books investigate and examine past historical events, but do it from the present. Many times including passages that take place entirely in the past. I really enjoy reading these newer books because they are usually good adventure tales, but it feels like I’m learning a bit of history too. I would consider this historical fiction, but looking around the net, it doesn’t seem like other people do. I was set to pick one of the above books, but I’ll dig back into my “Books I’ve Read” shelf a bit further for a more traditional historical novel. It takes place in one of my favorite genres that, now that I think about it, I haven’t read in years; the western. I used to love reading books about and that took place in, the Old West.

I think what actually got me interested in the Old West was the 1988 movie Young Guns staring Emilio Estevez. More specifically, it got me interested in the history of one William H Bonney, aka Billy the Kid. After seeing the movie I read everything I could get my hands on having to do with gunslingers and the Old West. Many of the books I read told the real history of the west, but I also started reading fiction based on legends of the Old West. There was an old “Garage Sale” store in Birmingham I used to go to in order to search for old and interesting books to read. In fact, this was the same store in which I would purchase my collection of Back to the Future movie novelizations. Inside its musty book room I found a ton of old paperbacks featuring gunfighter stories. Louis L’Amour’s The First Fast Draw, the Cemetery Sam western series, old fiction books about Wild Bill Hickock and Butch Cassidy. I bought them all and devoured them. Especially anything that focused on Billy the Kid, my favorite western gunfighter.

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Reviews of My Christmas Reading List

Posted in Agatha Christie, books, Christmas, holiday, pop culture, reviews with tags book review, Christmas on December 18, 2008 by Paxton

santa_reads1 Well, December is upon us. The year is almost over. So, even though stores started putting up Christmas decorations 2 days before Thanksgiving, I waited until December 1 to really start thinking about Christmas. A few weeks ago I decided to read nothing but Christmas books through the end of the year. I thought it might help “jump start” myself into Kris Kringle mode. I picked my festive list of books first before I started reading because I wanted to be prepared and not caught off guard by finishing a few and then having to scramble to find some more. Many are older classics that I never really got around to reading in the first place and one is one I re-read because it was short and I enjoyed it.

So, I finally finished my Xmas reading list and I thought I’d let you all know what I read and what I thought about them. It’s an eclectic list, and I didn’t enjoy everything I read, which is to be expected, I guess. But enough of my incessant babbling, here’s the list of reviews. Some of this stuff may put you in the Xmas mood, some of it may put you in the mood to punch some random Salvation Army Santa in the gut. Pick your poison, my friend.

The 13 Problems
A Christmas Tragedy by Agatha Christie – This is one of Agatha’s short stories found in The 13 Problems collection. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. The events of this short story just happen to take place during a Christmas party, that’s pretty much the only tenuous connection to the holiday. The mystery is short and sweet, but not one of her best. I find that Agatha is best at the novel length stories where she can build character and suspense. When she writes short stories, there is no time to build the suspense then have a nice reveal. It’s too quick. So, this was only a so-so entry to my holiday reading list.