Caleb Harlan writes up the books and board games worth keeping, plus the odd essay about what else lives up there.https://calebsattic.com/en-UShttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-end-of-eternity/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-end-of-eternity/A time-travel novel from 1955 that's more interested in what a life without real risk costs a species than in any paradox, and it's better for it.Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe End of EternityCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-book-of-the-new-sun/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-book-of-the-new-sun/I read this wrong the first time through, twenty years ago apparently isn't an unusual gap between a first and second attempt at this one.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Book of the New SunCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-lot-i-almost-passed-over/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-lot-i-almost-passed-over/A box of what looked like water-stained nothing turned out to be the best thing I brought home all year, and I almost didn't open it.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/teaching-debs-table-a-game-that-died-in-round-two/https://calebsattic.com/articles/teaching-debs-table-a-game-that-died-in-round-two/I was so sure this one would land with her group. It landed with a thud instead, and I still don't fully know why.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/neuromancer/https://calebsattic.com/articles/neuromancer/The book that named a whole subgenre, and one I had to start over from page one to actually follow.Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTNeuromancerCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-secret-of-our-success/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-secret-of-our-success/An argument that culture, not raw individual intelligence, is what actually built us, backed up by story after story of smart, well-equipped people dying for lack of local know-how.Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Secret of Our SuccessCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/moon-colony-bloodbath/https://calebsattic.com/articles/moon-colony-bloodbath/Ugly on the shelf, a genuine riot at the table, from a designer who apparently can't miss even when the box art suggests otherwise.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTMoon Colony BloodbathCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/nudge/https://calebsattic.com/articles/nudge/A book about how much a default option shapes a decision, which I already half knew from watching what people actually take home versus what they say they wanted.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTNudgeCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/https://calebsattic.com/articles/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/A campaign box that took three years to arrive and then had the nerve to be genuinely good, storage problems and all.Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTOathsworn: Into the DeepwoodCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/dominion/https://calebsattic.com/articles/dominion/The one that started the whole deck-building genre, still worth owning, still a genuine chore to shuffle.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTDominionCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/red-mars/https://calebsattic.com/articles/red-mars/Four stars for the science, somewhere lower for the fiction, and I mean that as more of a compliment than it sounds.Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTRed MarsCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/my-father-still-prices-the-book-lots/https://calebsattic.com/articles/my-father-still-prices-the-book-lots/He's supposed to be retired. He shows up anyway, every time there's a box of books worth arguing over.Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/what-actually-happens-to-the-things-nobody-buys/https://calebsattic.com/articles/what-actually-happens-to-the-things-nobody-buys/People ask me this a lot once they find out what I do. The honest answer isn't as tidy as they want it to be.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/harmonies/https://calebsattic.com/articles/harmonies/The kind of small, gorgeous box I'd expect to see gathering dust in a closet in twenty years, except the components might not survive that long.Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTHarmoniesCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/a-wrinkle-in-time/https://calebsattic.com/articles/a-wrinkle-in-time/A book I somehow missed as a kid and read for the first time as an adult, which I think changed what I got out of it more than I expected.Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTA Wrinkle in TimeCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-sparrow/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-sparrow/A first contact novel where the horror isn't the aliens, it's the very human chain of good decisions that leads a Jesuit mission straight into catastrophe.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe SparrowCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/blood-rage/https://calebsattic.com/articles/blood-rage/A Kickstarter darling from 2015 that's still got real bones under the minis, once you get past how loud everyone is about the minis.Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTBlood RageCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/worcester-in-march-and-the-sales-that-get-rained-out/https://calebsattic.com/articles/worcester-in-march-and-the-sales-that-get-rained-out/Half my job is weather forecasting I never signed up to do, and March in this town never makes it easy.Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/too-many-bones/https://calebsattic.com/articles/too-many-bones/Two hundred-plus dice that somehow all matter, in a box built like it expects to outlive you.Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTToo Many BonesCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-loupe/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-loupe/A small habit I picked up for grading glassware that's quietly taken over how I look at everything else, games included.Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/terraforming-mars/https://calebsattic.com/articles/terraforming-mars/An engine builder good enough that I bought a plastic overlay for the player boards, which is not something I do for games I don't plan on keeping.Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTTerraforming MarsCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/grading-a-board-the-same-way-i-grade-a-dresser/https://calebsattic.com/articles/grading-a-board-the-same-way-i-grade-a-dresser/The furniture-grading habits I picked up early in this job apply to a board game box more directly than I expected when I first started reviewing games.Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/light/https://calebsattic.com/articles/light/Three interlocking stories that only really line up in the last handful of pages, and I'm still deciding if that was worth the wait.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTLightCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/vantage/https://calebsattic.com/articles/vantage/A game that had a bigger internet moment before release than most games get after, which made the actual box a little hard to see clearly at first.Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTVantageCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/gloomhaven-jaws-of-the-lion/https://calebsattic.com/articles/gloomhaven-jaws-of-the-lion/The version of Gloomhaven that finally got my wife to play Gloomhaven, and the scenario books are most of why.Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTGloomhaven: Jaws of the LionCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/clank-a-deck-building-adventure/https://calebsattic.com/articles/clank-a-deck-building-adventure/A deck builder that finally gave me a reason to care about deck builders, mostly by putting a dragon underneath the spreadsheet.Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTClank!Caleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-regular-who-only-buys-glassware/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-regular-who-only-buys-glassware/She's been showing up to my sales for years, buys the same handful of things every time, and somehow talked me into a two hundred dollar dice game along the way.Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-rating-i-went-back-and-changed/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-rating-i-went-back-and-changed/I told a friend not to bother with a game I'd already half talked myself out of liking. Then I played it again months later and had to eat that.Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/the-rediscovery-of-man/https://calebsattic.com/articles/the-rediscovery-of-man/A whole future history of humanity told in short stories by a man who apparently also worked in psychological warfare for the government, which explains a lot.Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTThe Rediscovery of ManCaleb Harlanhttps://calebsattic.com/articles/why-i-still-buy-physical-books/https://calebsattic.com/articles/why-i-still-buy-physical-books/Not a productivity argument, not a nostalgia argument either, just an honest accounting of what I actually get out of the object itself.Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayCaleb Harlan