Book hauls are a staple of the book blogging hobby. Not quite to the same extent as our annoying and hip BookTube cousins, but an integral part nonetheless. After all, what self-respecting reader doesn’t enjoy showing off their latest acquisitions? A lot of bloggers will show their readers with wondrous images of all the latest gorgeous covers, or stacks of second-hand paperbacks. Personally, my book hauls have just been lists of books. Titles and authors. This might leave you wondering: How does a book haul actually work? Well, my friends, I’m here to pull aside the curtain and give you a glimpse into the tedious world of my Star Trek collection.

Part 1: Finding the Haul

Genrally speaking, I pick up Star trek books in used and second-hand shops. They’re widely printed, there’s a lot to collect, and it seems like someone gives away a sizeable collection every couple of months. However, I also keep an eye out online. It never hurts to go to eBay and search for ‘Star Trek book lot.’ You never know what you might find. In this case, I found someone selling off a collection in bulk. My eye was drawn by the complete nine-volume ‘A Time To…’ series, but between Stargazer, New Frontier, and The Lost Era, there was plenty to interest me.

Some of the books didn’t appeal as much. One was a duplicate of something I’ve already read. The numbered Next Generation books have never been my thing, and the numbered Original Series novels I could take or leave. Still, the good outweighed the dull, and I put in an offer. A little negotiation later, and I walked away with a nice batch of books for which paid, on average, one pound fifty. Factoring in postage, that’s a good price for books like these. I was a happy man.

Part 2: Researching the Haul

This is where the properly nerdy stuff kicks in. I keep track of every book that I read on a spreadsheet. For Star Trek books, there is an addition sheet. As well as the usual data, I also collect the Trek-specific components. This allows me to see which series and authors I’m enjoying the most, so I know where to look for my next purchases. It also drastically reduces the chances of me accidentally buying two copies of a book. I’ve included my TOS chart here, which features the most eclectic part of my collection. As you can see, this chart includes the rating I give each book, with the ones yet to be rated being the ones featured in this haul.

As well as sorting by series, I’ve also compiled an in-universe timeline of the books. Due to the amount of crossover, I shelve my Star Trek chronologically. Most of the relaunch novels include the approximate date in the front, while others can be established from context. Others remain a mystery. In this endeavour, the website Memory beta is an invaluable source. With over two centuries of storytelling at work, it’s a complicated task keeping everything straight. Below is just a small section of the timeline.

Part 3: Reading the Haul

Unlike some people, I have a concrete plan to read every book I buy. My goal is always to reduce my TBR to zero. With a book haul of this size, that goal becomes less manageable, so I immediately start thinking of how I’m going to tackle it.

My immediate instinct is to read chronologically. the earlier books tend to be fairly short, so I should get through the TOS era with ease. The outlier there is Diane Duane’s The Empty Chair, which is among the more sizeable books in the canon. It’s also the final book in the Rihannsu series, which I am not familiar with. Likewise, I have not read any of Perter David’s New Frontier books before. I might hold back on those until I’ve had a chance to scout out local charity shops a bit more.

The series that drew me in, A Time To… consists of a series of two-parters, so I’m almost definitely going to read those in back-to-back pairs, determined by author. The ninth book was originally planned to be two, so it fits that system rather nicely. It will also prepare me nicely for a return to the relaunch series as a whole.

Because I don’t want to get too bogged down in Star Trek, I’m going to be suing these as breaks between loner and original works. There’s also not a whole lot to say about some of them, so I’ll likely be reviewing them in batches of two-to-four at a time, as I did last year with some of the earlier Deep Space Nine novels.

These books should easily carry me through the next few months, so if you like Star Trek as much as I do, you’ve got some real treats coming.