Back in January, I got an idea, inspired both by others doing the same and my own attempts the last couple years to read classics from my favorite genres, to read through titles from AD&D’s Appendix N. I sat down wI ith the list and copied it as a checklist into a pocket notebook I’d picked up on a whim.Moleskine pocket notebooks haven’t been the best with my wetter pens, but the size factor is great for carrying everywhereI had already started using my pocket notebook to plan a session of Cyberpunk Red for some players in my group, so I quickly ran across another list of inspirational media. Thus began a digging through my various RPG books for their equivalents to Appendix N. So far, I have the recommendations from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, the bibliography and filmography from Cyberpunk Red, the inspirational films from the Eberron Campaign Guide, books and films listed in Daggerheart, filmography and bibliography from Dolmenwood, Appendix E from 5e 2014, a list of books featured in The Science Fiction in Traveller, Pathfinder First Edition’s Appendix 3, Numenera’s “Fiction Bibliography,” Call of Cthulhu 7e’s reading list, and a checklist of Urban Fantasy favorites written by Seanan McGuire. In all, there is probably years of reading material in those lists, even after accounting for overlaps like H.P. Lovecraft or Jack Vance or Edgar Rice Burroughs.Dots are unread, circled dots are things I own and I X the dots as I finish themHonestly, the first thing I can say as an effect is that it’s supercharged my reading this year. I think that might just be an end to decision paralysis or at least a guide to an end of decision paralysis between books. Basically, if I don’t explicitly have a next book picked out when I finish the last, I grab one from the lists.For context on expanded reading, when I set my reading goal in StoryGraph and Goodreads at the start of the year, I use 35 as a good base, figuring a book a week with some wiggle room each month in case of an extremely long book or an extremely busy week. So far, as of March, I’m up to 17 books on the year with 8 in March alone.And I’ve really been enjoying the reading, even when the book itself might be something I only rate three stars on Goodreads or StoryGraph. It’s just really fun to catch things like “so that’s where that trope comes from!” Whether it’s Excellent Prismatic Spray in Mazirian the Magician or a whole scene with a party trying to figure out how to open a mysterious locked door in The Moon Pool, it just makes me smile to see something familiar and learn a bit of where it came from.Then there’s the thought I get to have about the convergences and divergences of the lists. Like Pathfinder gets joked about as D&D 3.75e, but has both modern horror (The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, adapted into Hellraiser) and ancient mythology (The Odyssey) as touchstones that are absent from the D&D lists. Or Lord of the Rings appears on almost all of the lists (because of course it does) with Daggerheart listing it twice (under books and films, no argument there).Like Martin Ralya’s progress, I’m building in lots of detours as I read, as well as using multiple lists to get a mix of genres as I go.I’m enjoying the process of reading through all this. I’m really looking forward to some of the authors I think I’ll be sticking with.
