Books acquired: none.

Books read: “Weird Heroes 2,” Byron Preiss, ed.; “The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes,” Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr; “Jungle Tales of Tarzan,” Edgar Rice Burroughs; “The Drums of Fu Manchu,” Sax Rohmer; “Mockingjay,” Suzanne Collins; “The Prisoner of Zenda,” Anthony Hope.

Repeating a theme from October 2012, I read a volume of “Weird Heroes,” then built a month around other heroic literature. As you can see above, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Fu Manchu, Katniss Everdeen and Rudolf Rassendyll are represented.

“Weird Heroes” was a series of 1970s paperbacks with stories by SF and comics writers, and illustrations by comics artists, about heroes in a pulp magazine vein. As with the first, this second book is better in concept than in reality, but it was a noble effort.

“Exploits of Sherlock Holmes” is an oddity, the first (and for many years, the only) authorized Holmes pastiche, dating to the 1950s and penned in part by one of A. Conan Doyle’s sons. Holmes purists seem to turn up their nose at this, and the book has rarely been in print, but to this non-expert, they seem to capture the flavor of the originals.

“Jungle Tales of Tarzan” is the sixth book in the 24-book series; this one is short stories set in the milieu of the first novel, in the period when Tarzan had yet to meet Jane or any other white people and thought of himself as a hairless ape. The stories of his life with the apes have their charms, although much of the potential for “teen Tarzan” stories is unexplored, and the casual racism is a drag.

“Drums of Fu Manchu” is the ninth in the 14-book series — I’m doing better with the one that with Tarzan — and an enjoyable entry, in which the evil mastermind employs a drug that makes his victims, shortly before their death, think they hear drumming. (For the record, the next book is not “The Guitars of Fu Manchu.” Although that would be awesome.)

“Mockingjay” is, of course, the third and final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I wanted to read it prior to the movie’s release. It’s largely satisfying, but with some problems. Katniss spends a lot of time hurt, drugged and/or depressed. It’s more realistic, I suppose, that the 16-year-old isn’t leading the revolution single-handedly, but this may be mopier than strictly necessary.

Finally, “The Prisoner of Zenda” is the 1894 classic about a lookalike for the new king of Ruritania who is enlisted to impersonate him when he’s kidnapped by the king’s brother. Tremendously exciting, thoroughly delightful and my favorite of the month by far.

Overall this was a fun month of old-fashioned (mostly) pulp fiction. I have one other “Weird Heroes” book and thus this month may be repeated at some point.

These books were acquired anywhere between 30-plus years ago and last month. “Weird” and “Exploits” date to my teen years and (sigh) were never read until now; “Fu” and “Tarzan” were bought in 2001 at the LA Comics Show; “Zenda” was bought five or so years ago at Moe’s in Berkeley; and “Mockingjay” was purchased in October.

What have you been reading, and have you read any of the ones above? Are you hoping to get to, or wrap up, any books by year’s end?

Next month: Getting to, and wrapping up, a few books by year’s end.