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Raimondo's 38 Books in 2021
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Hi Raimondo, all the best for your 2021 reading goal! :)Btw, how many books did you read this year?
Thanks, Trisha! I already finished 36 books, just one short of my goal for the year.
Thank you! Here's to a great reading year ahead. 🍻
Congrats on reaching your goal, Raimondo! Good luck in 2021 :)
Hey Raimondo, good luck with your reading in 2021!
Grazie, Batul. Let's make 2021 a memorable book year!
All the very best!!! let's buddy read soon! :)
I hope to join you in a buddy read too, Surabhi!
My apologies if I missed your post, but thank you so much, Lisa. Here's to a productive 2021! 🎉
CURRENT PROGRESS14 / 38 Books
5,210 / 10,000 Pages
2021 BOOKS
BOOK 1 of 38
The Importance of Being Earnest & Other Plays by Oscar Wilde
Date Completed: January 6th 2021
Pages: 472
My Rating: ★★★★
I find these plays highly entertaining. I've never encountered wit this dagger-sharp, repartee this dazzling, and a sense of irony this splendid in another author before. It's not an exaggeration to say that in almost every page, there is an epigram, passage, or even an entire conversation that one can't help but write down, like this gem for instance:
LORD ILLINGWORTH: Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.
GERALD: But don’t you think one can be happy when one is married?
LORD ILLINGWORTH: Perfectly happy. But the happiness of a married man, my dear Gerald, depends on the people he has not married.
GERALD: But if one is in love?
LORD ILLINGWORTH: One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.
GERALD: Love is a very wonderful thing, isn’t it?
LORD ILLINGWORTH: When one is in love one begins by deceiving oneself. And one ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
No wonder so many book and theater enthusiasts swear by him. When, upon arriving on the shores of America, he said that he had nothing to declare but his genius, he wasn't exaggerating. I had a capital time with these plays, and while some are manifestly better than others, not a single one was a waste of time.
Though Salome is stylistically the most divergent among the plays here, it is nevertheless my favorite. The metaphors it employs are exquisite. Herod's narration of his hidden stash of jewels is sumptuously baroque. It reminds me of that surreal, magniloquent chapter in The Picture of Dorian Gray where the comely lead indulged in a surfeit of sensuousness à la Huysmans's Des Esseintes in his À Rebours.
Yes it's ornate and decadent beyond words, but that is very much a part of its charm. It revels in drama and excess, like the lovestruck captain who kills himself to literally get in the way of Salome and Jokanaan. And yes, even with the purple poesy and mixed metaphors, it all works rather superbly. As Wilde wrote in another play of his:
Moderation is a fatal thing, Lady Hunstanton. Nothing succeeds like excess.
It is not historically accurate however. In real life, Salome didn't die on that fateful night; she went on to marry another tetrarch relative and live in splendor. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.
A Woman of No Importance ranks a close second, showing us the airy viciousness and veiled injustices in Victorian high society. One can't help but admire the phenomenal wordplay of these bored aristocrats, though at the same time one can see how hollow and shallow it all is. In contrast, while Mrs. Arbuthnot's remonstrance against her son was devoid of any pretensions to elegance, it remains the most powerful piece there.
Even if Wilde lambasts purity as dreary and uninhibited virtue to be a ghastly thing, I think he believes that goodness of heart and honor is still paramount, or that they should at least triumph in the end. Witness what happened to the blackmailer in The Ideal Husband and the corruptors in Lady Windermere. I guess he's not the incorrigible cynic that he poses as, though maybe he's simply pandering to his audience's tastes?
Wilde can pile absurdities and contradictions and yet one doesn't really mind as long as one's entertained. In a way this does validate his theory of the preeminence of matter over form although it'd be a mistake to take this too far. His characters may be delightfully witty but they're ultimately vapid, and howevermuch he stands as the darling of his cause, one feels that he is subtly criticizing its superfluity.
I can make do without getting acquainted with any of the fops in these plays, except perhaps for Lord Goring in The Ideal Husband who, while posing as an irredeemable dandy, is surprisingly a man of stalwart integrity and maturity. There are many similarities between Wilde's plays and yet he is anything but one-note. I do take note of a maxim that I encountered in both A Woman of No Importance and The Importance of Being Earnest:
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his.
One caveat though. The pieces here are best imbibed in measured draughts. I made the mistake of reading two plays in a row and the latter one became rather tedious.
I'm hesitant to admit that I'm an aestheticist myself, though I'm far from being a coxcomb. A questionable thing gorgeously written appeals to me more than a crude missive of impeccable morality. But of course, nothing can beat a work that is both pleasurable and sagacious - for these extend beyond the mundane to the sublime.
8.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 1 of 38 (2.63%)
Total Pages: 472 of 10,000 (4.72%)
BOOK 2 of 38
Golden Tarot of Klimt by Atanas Atanassov
Date Completed: January 10th 2021
Pages: 78
My Rating: ★★★★★
It's so easy for metallic decks to descend to tragic kitsch. Thankfully though, we have Atanassov's inspired taste to give us this unbelievably gorgeous deck. If you're just beginning your foray into foiled decks then I very highly recommend this.
I've used the Golden Klimt for years now, but every time I read with it, it still never fails to take my breath away. You can spend leisurely hours just marvelling over its images - it's really that stunning. Sensuous, dreamy, and evoking a most delicious langour, it has some of the best renditions of various arcana that I've ever encountered. The Moon and Ten of Chalices cards have to be seen to be believed.
The card stock is matte and pleasing to the touch, with just the right heft. The gilt detail does not chip, and the black multi-language borders elegantly frame the art. To fully enjoy it though, I suggest skipping the mini version for the original.
My only complaint is that the booklet is the same generic pap that Lo Scarabeo offers. The images hew close to the Anglo tradition though, so if you've been reading for awhile using it shouldn't pose a problem. I love consulting it for financial, strategic, and career readings.
9/10; 5 stars.
Total Books: 2 of 38 (5.26%)
Total Pages: 550 of 10,000 (5.50%)
BOOK 3 of 38
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Date Completed: January 17th 2021
Pages: 468
My Rating: ★★★★★
When a family has devised such a stranglehold on the levers of power of the world's greatest empire that nobody else can touch them - neither the most august of senators nor the basest of murderers - then how does one bring about their downfall? Well, one has no choice but to employ that magnificent virtue - patience - and let human nature take its course. That is: just bide your time and let them take each other out. Ultimate power will always bewitch with its siren song, and one can only marvel at all the treacheries and crimes that have been committed either in its pursuit or in defense of/from it. The strong will eat the weak until all their number has been considerably thinned, in which case the State will root out their remaining scions and reclaim their prerogatives for its own. Of course, in the process the most patrician lines will be decimated and the more prosperous will be shorn and gutted at whim like so many fattened sheep, but no one can always fight against these inevitabilities, really.
But oh what a tangled web these spiders weave. Wives poison their husbands, husbands kill their wives, grandsons order their grandmothers' suicides, evil stepparents commit their abuses with murderous élan, sons frighten their fathers to death while mothers do away with their daughters and uncles marry/execute their nieces, etc. It's just fair to conclude that this gallery of horrors sets the gold standard in familial dysfunction. To top it all, one can't help but shake one's head at the supreme irony of how the most poison-drenched of this fated dynasty, who has dispatched more of her relatives than one would care to keep count, herself died not by violence or treachery but naturally, out of old age.
Just when you thought that the sins and depravities of these monsters have reached their summit and cannot possibly get any worse, the book wheels in even fresher, more creative crimes straight from the pits of Hades. As Rome grows in puissance and grandeur, so does its debaucheries become more refined, more sinister. However, all of this doesn't quite prepare one for the absolutely surreal madness that's the reign of Caligula in the last sixth of the book. I shan't spoil any of it though - it's a dish best savored ice cold.
To be fair, at least initially the family did pay its dues. Males took up military service and distinguished themselves in campaigns, even meeting their demise away from the luxuries of Rome. It spawned highly competent emperors who strengthened the state, expanding its boundaries and adding to its glory. They may have come to a bit of wealth, but at least with their more conscientious members a substantial part of this was used for the construction of important public works like temples and hospitals, to provide succor during famine, to augment the budget for worthy celebrations, to settle pressing military dues, etc.
I liked the debate between Livy and Pollio about the writing of history, as to whether it should feature elegant and inspiring prose/oratory while sacrificing inconvenient truths or whether it should be highly accurate but dry as dust, exposing readers to the crimes and vices of their lauded heroes while risking the decline of patriotic fervor in the process. Claudius is inclined towards the latter, although he does think that even no-filter histories can also make for popular reading. I lean towards Livy's approach though. I love how majestic and awe-inspiring books on ancient history can get, and maybe for want of people and virtues to emulate, I don't wish to be disabused of any illusions I may harbor for these heroes. But I guess if all histories were precise and honestly-recounted (hah!), there would be nothing to be disappointed about, no?
9/10; 5 stars.
Total Books: 3 of 38 (7.89%)
Total Pages: 1,018 of 10,000 (10.18%)
BOOK 4 of 38
Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina by Robert Graves
Date Completed: January 22nd 2021
Pages: 533
My Rating: ★★★★
This book chronicles Claudius's inexorable ascent to godhood, and no I'm not being ironic. Neither am I waxing hyperbolic: even when alive he was literally worshipped as a god by some tribes in Britain, which he decisively brought under the Empire's fold through battles distinguished by strategic and tactical genius, political acuity, and of course Roman might. His formal deification did occur after his death through the agency of his murderer, and even if his successor briefly put an end to it, the patriarch of the Flavians eventually restored him to the Roman pantheon. Joining such luminaries as the god Augustus, his consort Livia, and the semi-divine Julius; and considering the fact that his apotheosis was re-affirmed even after the last of the Julio-Claudii was driven from his throne; one can't help but conclude at what a successful reign he must have presided in. From the shy, deprecating, and sickly nonce whom everybody used to mock, he has come such a long way.
With this "autobiography" (the one that the real Claudius wrote was lost through time), we learn how he fared as an emperor. On the author's part, opting for the first person voice was a truly inspired choice. Rarely have I encountered such an interesting raconteur as Graves's Claudius, with his personable blend of wit, humility, affability, and irony. One can't help but root for him, the deserving underdog who truly made good.
I don't think it's absolutely necessary that you read the prequel for you to enjoy this. All the same, you'd be well-served to finish I, Claudius first before embarking on this one. Though this book is highly enjoyable, that one is even more so. It just can't be helped - while this covers the thirteen years of Claudius's reign, the first compresses more than half a century of action in fewer pages, distilling the most gripping events in a highly potent brew. As such it features more murders, crimes, tortures, and overall craziness. Under Claudius, the Empire was relatively stable and prosperous, and though a lot of interesting incidents were captured in the book, one can't help but notice that it is rather more staid than its predecessor.
I was pleasantly surprised to encounter familiar personages and events from the Bible. Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Salome, the apostles James and Peter, Joshua ben Joseph or Jesus himself - they all either appeared as characters or were at least mentioned. There are even footnotes pointing out the specific sections in the Bible where the relevant text can be referenced. I guess that all this should be expected because the Empire's eastern provinces play a major role in this book.
There's a chapter that claims how Christianity came about and how Romans and Jews viewed them. There's also a rather controversial speculation on the possible provenance of Jesus Christ which I find abhorrent. Claudius himself doesn't have a favorable opinion of Christians, but considering his upbringing and the age in which he lived, I reckon that this must be accurate, and is therefore not meant to be offensive.
In the end, I can't help but feel sorry for our hero. Though given to the foibles of old age, he was basically a good-hearted fellow, and even amidst the greatest pain and anguish, he never wavered from prioritizing Rome's interests. He ascended to the throne of the greatest Empire on earth, but howevermuch he tried to expunge the reputation for callowness that defined his youth, he never quite lived it down. Inspite of his numerous achievements and largess, his subjects can't help but regard him with either hate or contempt because of his extremely lamentable choice in wives. A king cuckolded by hundreds of his own subjects, dependent on corruptible freedman, betrayed at every turn by the people he loved and trusted the most - what can be sadder than this?
And yes, I can't get over how his obstinate Republicanism cost him everything, including the lives of the only women to truly care for him, of his most devoted freedman, of his promising son, and of course his very own. And all for naught: until its fall four centuries hence, the Roman Empire never again became a Republic. I do take exception at the blurb saying that this is the beginning of the decline of Rome. Half a century hence, the reign of the Five Good Emperors began, in which the dream of a genuine Pax Romana came close to being realized.
I just wish the author turned this into a trilogy, like how Colleen McCullough caved in to public demand and penned the magnificent final book of her Masters of Rome series. Nero's disaster of a reign lasted fourteen years, and judging from the bits I gleaned from Tacitus and Dio Cassius, there's more than ample material for a third book. If it's any consolation, Penguin Books published Graves's own translation of The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius. So I guess in a way one can proceed with this story, winding through the fall of the Julio-Claudii, the bloody wrangling of the Year of the Four Emperors, and concluding with the Flavian Dynasty.
8.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 4 of 38 (10.53%)
Total Pages: 1,551 of 10,000 (15.51%)
BOOK 5 of 38
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Date Completed: March 10th 2021
Pages: 527
My Rating: ★★★
This is the first chick lit I've read in years, and I'm in for the whole trilogy.
The author provided some notes/highlights here on the Goodreads page of this book, and it was nice to get some context for some of the more interesting events and characters. There were also some useful footnotes in the text of the book itself, where one gets acquainted with staple Singaporean institutions along with the spicier sort of Malay/Chinese phrases.
Kwan is a wünderkind at description. His depictions of architecture, locations, jewels, blooms, and especially food are very vivid and detailed. One can fully imagine how scrumptious the cuisine can get, from the simplest local delicacies to lavish six-course gourmet dinners. And when he gets to the choicest sections of the novel, like Su Yi's tan hua viewing party and the Khoo-Lee wedding and reception, Kwan pulls out all the stops, giving them an almost hallucinatory degree of luxury and ostentation. While couture and fashion is not really my jam, I can appreciate the sheer amount of money spent on these frippery. I mean, a couple of hundred grand for a Parisian dress? Why?
The story's quite good. It's not really the main draw here, if only because knowing that this is going to be a trilogy, one sorta intuits how our leads are going to end up. Because of this, the conflicts seemed trifling. The attempts to steal Nick are half-witted at best. There's a lot of cattiness, backstabbing, and grandstanding, but actual violence against any character is minimal. The only true horror this perfumed set might ever go through is to lose their status or to be divorced from their millions/billions, and aside from Nick, this nightmare doesn't really threaten anyone else.
More than the plot or the relationships, it's the brazen excess, the dream-like splendor, the flamboyance, and the merciless glitz that had me riveted. Maybe I was a magpie in a previous life. I'll be expecting more of this in book two.
6.5/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 5 of 38 (13.16%)
Total Pages: 2,078 of 10,000 (20.78%)
BOOK 6 of 38
China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
Date Completed: March 13th 2021
Pages: 479
My Rating: ★★★
The book presents more of a balance between plot and swank than the first one. This means that it's actually a whole lot better because here, instead of brewing in Singapore our characters end up in Hong Kong and yes, China. We're talking about the second-largest economy in the world here, a major global player that boasts an elite that is similarly superpowered. Just a few days ago, Forbes reported that four of the top six cities in the world with the most billionaires are Chinese. If previously we were playing with pallets of cash, now we're getting serious with mountains of moolah, as in the case of a former porn-cum-TV star whose rise to first wife status is crowned by her purchase of ancient scrolls worth a cool couple hundred million.
The reinvention of Kitty Pong is actually one of the more interesting stories here. I can't help but root for this saucy girl, who in her naivete sent an exclusive soigné gathering into paroxysms of distress when she flaunted her desirable self in a sheer, see-through monstrosity. In Hong Kong, while money can neither buy you class nor an entrée into the most privileged circles, it can purchase the services of a high society denizen, a PR wizard who can give you access to these. She will help you refine your rough edges by revealing the byzantine rules of upper crust engagement, while repackaging your questionable past in a socially acceptable light. I'm just aghast at how these chichi ladies view Christian affiliations as a means of social mobility.
Again, this is a vast improvement over the first book. Whereas previously I encountered some rather gracelessly-phrased passages, here there are whole sections that I found delightfully witty. The prose is tighter and more polished, the voice more assured. The plot is also more interesting since it's not so predictable, though it's no less soap operatic. There's even a little attempted murder to spice things up. And of course, this book would never be complete without the enchanting, dizzying display of opulence and sybaritic pleasures that mark this series. There's enough designer goods here to sink a flotilla, and it won't surprise me if the unbridled frenzy of conspicuous consumption accidentally summons Veblen's wraith from the netherworld. So much for the CCP - this is the sort of communism that would make Marx spin in his grave.
I'm just glad that Rachel and Nick finally got their wedding, and with their parents's blessings too. After the pomp and pageantry of previous notable events, it's understandably a bit of an anti-climax. When they finally got to their Shanghai honeymoon, it also seemed like they sort of stepped back and let the other characters take the spotlight. They pretty much coasted through this book, at least before the final part. Because the shenanigans of the other cast are amusing anyways, there really is no cause for complaint.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 6 of 38 (15.79%)
Total Pages: 2,557 of 10,000 (25.57%)
BOOK 7 of 38
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
Date Completed: March 18th 2021
Pages: 541
My Rating: ★★★★
If the first book centered on the wedding of the century and the second on a grand auction, this time the social event of the season is a funeral for one of Singapore's grand dames. With a solid plot and scenes that are replete with genuine emotion, this is the best book in the trilogy by a country mile.
It is about impermanence, about tradition giving in to modernity. There's the old guard, exemplified by Nick's grandmother, passing the torch on to the younger generation. There's also the ephemerality of worldly riches, as the Tsiens veer closer to insolvency and the true extent of the Youngs's holdings are revealed. Stars rise and fall as the disgraced Colette successfully rehabilitates her tarnished image with a triumphant marriage, while Astrid's divorce proceedings gives her previously impregnable reputation a severe shellacking. And finally, we're served some bittersweet nostalgia as Nick prepares to bid farewell to the sprawling home that defined so much of his childhood.
There's also some significant character development, at least for some of our mainstays. Kitty finally comes into her own as the wife of the second-richest man in China and the mother to his heir. By the end of her take-no-prisoners war with her evil stepdaughter, she also gets to join the intimate circle of our leads. Astrid and Charlie transcend their ruinous scandals to forge a spiritually fulfilling lifestyle in a Pacific paradise. Alistair matures from a ne'er-do-well to become a decent business partner. And Eleanor - well she's still her same old tiger-mom self, there's nothing we can really do about that.
We finally get to meet the Aakaras, the Youngs's royal Thai cousins. With all the mystique surrounding them, it was refreshing to see how level-headed they were. I didn't know that mom chao can dish out a wicked massage!
I liked some of Kwan's clever asides. I blinked in amused recognition when Michael hired the prestigious Gladwell and Malcolm law firm for his $5B divorce. And I almost spit out my drink when the socialite Perrineum Wang was (re-)introduced. I mean, that's quite an earthy name she has there.
From the blurb, I thought there's going to be a great deal of wrangling and strong-arming regarding the family fortune, but aside from one foiled attempt at keeping Su Yi's favorite grandchildren from meeting her, it was all rather civilized. Many eyebrows arched as the will was being read, but no one contested it. It's only the executory process of certain provisions that caused a spot of rancor.
If anything, I thought that trouble would come from the Shangs, and with good reason. There's something really shady regarding Su Yi's will, and it all has to do with dates.
(view spoiler)
Anyway, I may be mistaken. Perhaps Kwan intended a retcon of some sort? Or does this set the stage for a fourth book? I do hope he does, because a battle royale between the Shangs and the Youngs would be monumental.
7.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 7 of 38 (18.42%)
Total Pages: 3,098 of 10,000 (30.98%)
BOOK 8 of 38
Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas
Date Completed: March 21st 2021
Pages: 809
My Rating: ★★★★
Classic potboilers seldom get better than this, and with Dumas in the helm it is no surprise that this puts vast swathes of modern thrillers to shame. Even with the slightly florid language, I had such rollicking fun with this that I finished the entire thing in just one and a half days.
Haruspicy, voodoo dolls, poisoned gloves, medieval torture, astrology - there's a number of exotic themes that make this story extra piquant. There's even a poisoned book à la The Name of the Rose, although of course this was published more than a century earlier. I'm just put off by how much the novel subscribes to the belief of determinism, of an inexorable, ineluctable fate. Is this a feature of French Romanticism? Aside from Dumas, I remember the significance Hugo placed in Ananke in the preface to his tragic Notre-Dame de Paris.
Beast hunts are a staple in many historical novels, but I rarely encountered one that depicted hawking in detail. I actually think it's more enjoyable than trailing wild boar, although since the latter requires more physical exertion, involvement, and danger it might be more exciting.
Even if Catharine is portrayed as a villain here, there is an undeniable pathos in the idea of a powerful queen paranoid of her posterity, foreseeing through natal charts how her three sons would all ascend to the throne of France only to perish without male issue, burying the illustrious dynasty of the Valois with them. Incidentally this is also how the Capets ended before them, with three brothers being crowned as kings one after the other, only to perish with no male heir. In any case, she tried her darnedest, murderous best to circumvent this fate by attempting to ruin the wily Béarnais. But the destined progenitor of the Bourbons seems to be born under a lucky star, deftly unspringing all of the formidable traps the Queen Mother threw his way.
Of course, like most of Dumas's historical fiction, the history here isn't spotless. If it helps the narrative, he doesn't have any compunction bending some facts, although the general outline of events still hold. For example, at the time of the massacre, the real-life Comte de la Mole was closer to fifty than twenty-five, and far from being hounded by the bloodthirsty crowd, he actually joined the orgy of violence against the Huguenots on that fateful night.
While King Henry of Navarre is the indisputable male lead, I don't really find his character all that easy to root for. Make no mistake though, his dissimulation, self-abasement, and capacity for betrayal was absolutely necessary for his survival. After the massacre of French Protestants on that fateful night, the designated King of the Huguenots converted to Catholicism. He agreed to be cuckolded by his wife in return for her unconditional politico-strategic support, playing on her desire to be the Queen of France someday. He even had to be friendly to his very own mother's assassins. I know that he was just biding his time, playing a long game that would eventually net him one of the foremost thrones in Europe. It still lends him a distasteful patina of calculating cynicism, making him neither endearing nor conventionally heroic.
Just because a character is a dashing cavalier in a Dumas swashbuckler, it doesn't mean that, like the musketeers in his D'Artagnan Cycle, they'd be well-nigh untouchable. There are two intrepid gallants here who I thought would just sail through medieval France's political maelstroms with some plucky swordplay. My jaw dropped when it became fairly clear what their ultimate fates were going to be.
One final note. It seems like most e-book versions of Marguerite de Valois are just mirrors of the free Gutenberg release, which has no listed translator.
7.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 8 of 38 (21.05%)
Total Pages: 3,907 of 10,000 (39.07%)
BOOK 9 of 38
Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories by Michael Sims
Date Completed: March 25th 2021
Pages: 488
My Rating: ★★★
This is a competently curated book of vampiric Victoriana. As with most collections of its ilk, quite a few of the pieces here have been anthologized elsewhere.
The stories here are in chronological order. It's the earliest ones that excite the most interest. The subsequent pieces were still entertaining, though not as much.
The brief author sketches that precede each tale have a bracing, lighthearted tone that more often than not dispells the gloom and occasional terror of the stories they bookend. I do not always agree with Sims's appraisal of certain aspects of some stories though, like how he thought Wodehouse would have appreciated the depiction of the quaint outdated village in the Cholmondeley tale. The Vampire Maid is also not Hume Nisbet's sole vampire tale, as he also wrote The Old Portrait in 1890.
I warn readers who are sensitive to canine tragedies to steer clear of (view spoiler)
The most memorable stories here are:
The Vampyre - regarded as the first major English prose dealing with vampires. It influenced the popular image of such, from the traditional uninspired village revenant to the aristocratic seducer that has since been in vogue.
Wake Not the Dead - a heedless Teutonic nobleman decides to sacrifice everything, including domestic and seigneurial bliss, to rekindle from its ashes the hungry passions of a dead lover.
The Deathly Lover - decadent tale about an ardent young priest whose weaknesses are preyed upon by a demonic courtesan using phantasmagoric dreams.
The Family of the Vourdalak - an old courtier fondly reminiscing his days as a lovelorn swain recounts the story of a Slavic patriarch who goes off to kill a notorious brigand, turns into a vampire, and targets his own family to sate his blood thirst.
And The Creature Came In - short and absolutely terrifying.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 9 of 38 (23.68%)
Total Pages: 4,395 of 10,000 (43.95%)
BOOK 10 of 38
The King Without a Kingdom by Maurice Druon
Date Completed: April 15th 2021
Pages: 400
My Rating: ★★★
The action begins in the year 1356, six years into the ill-starred reign of King John II of France. He's currently held hostage by the English after the disastrous Battle of Poitiers, or Maupertuis as it was called in the book. In a mere forty years, from being the richest, most populous, and most powerful kingdom in Christendom, France has fallen into such abject misery that it's now in danger of being totally dismembered by recalcitrant nobles and traitorous kings.
Into the fray enters the Cardinal Hélie of Perigueux, who attempts to staunch the deluge of afflictions that continue to plague his country by establishing a truce that, while humiliating, at least spares it from ultimate ruin. From the pontifical seat in Avignon, he is on his way to Metz as a papal legate to petition the Holy Roman Emperor on its behalf. This is a mission of enormous import, and though he sincerely has France's interests at heart, it's mainly the prerogatives of the Church that he's protecting. The Emperor recently ousted all papal influence from German domains, while King Edward III secretly harbors designs to do away with the temporal power of the Pope once he establishes English hegemony over Europe. With France remaining as one of the few fervently Catholic continental powers, she must be saved from catastrophe.
It is while on this journey that the cardinal relates the unfortunate confluence of events leading to the capture of the French king to his nephew, Archambaud. As such, the author employed a first-person point of view using our conscientious prelate as his voice. This admittedly seemed like a strange choice at first. One wishes that it were otherwise, if only to relive the feel of the first six books again. But as the action gains steam and the tragedies get more riveting, one begins to ignore the inessential and focus on the story itself.
I like the way he educates his nephew, along with us readers as his audience, in matters of state. He likes to pepper his discourse on the political nuances of various events with pragmatic aphorisms such as these:
Pity is not what a king should inspire; it is better that one believes him impervious to pain.
It is natural that a man should increase his own fortune when in high office, otherwise nobody would take on the burden or the risk. But one should be careful not to overstep the limits of dishonesty and look after one’s own affairs at the expense of public interest. And above all, one must be capable.
For certain people it would seem that defeat was their main preoccupation, they have a secret craving for it, and will not rest until they have found it. Defeat pleases the depths of their souls, the spleen of failure is their favourite beverage, as the mead of victory is to others; they long for subordination, and nothing suits them better than to contemplate themselves in a state of imposed submission.
As His Eminence tries diverse maneuvers to save the kingdom from disaster and despoliation, one can't help but wish him the best in raising from its sickbed a nation that has so fallen on desperate times. I'm just surprised at how his sovereign can still retain the loyalty of his men, given how helplessly, hopelessly muddled he is when it comes to military matters. He has an almost preternatural gift of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It's par for the course for a great writer to induce his readers to sympathize with his subject, and one can only readily rally behind beleaguered France in this book. However, the many misfired stratagems and misplaced enmities of the king makes one feel very frustrated, and I won't be surprised if the reader sighs in resignation before the novel ends. It's darned difficult to continue rooting for a loser for hundreds of pages, which was just what our admirable cardinal did. Since the entire book is pretty much a narrative of events that already transpired, the reader feels nothing but great unease the entire time, much as the malignant aspect of John the Good's stars gave the cardinal the gravest forebodings. The entire journey from its strained beginnings to the cataclysmic end was just so much exquisite torture, though not in a bad way.
I must admit that this book, released almost two decades after the publication of the preceding volume, does not seem that essential to the series. It's no wonder that it was only translated into English almost forty years after it was issued in the original French. It's still thoroughly entertaining though, and if only to finish the magnificent Les Rois Maudits, I have no regrets reading it.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 10 of 38 (26.32%)
Total Pages: 4,795 of 10,000 (47.95%)
BOOK 11 of 38
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
Date Completed: April 17th 2021
Pages: 104
My Rating: ★★★★
A supercilious savant with a rarely-equalled brilliance in chess finally meets his match in an unstable genius whose grasp of the game is levels beyond our natural capacity for abstraction. It's the classic trope of the unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, and in this titanic clash it's only too possible to see whose metier would run out first. Because the latter's prowess, though thoroughly impregnable at the best of times, came with its own demons.
Developed at the expense of his mental collapse under the psychological torture meted out by the Fuhrer's men during the subjugation of Vienna, his hyperactive brain gorges upon itself when entrapped in slow, deliberate sieges, a weakness that his shrewd opponent exploited. His intellect cannot abide plodding opposition, and if exposed to such it suffers under the extreme nervous irritation that previously brought him to the brink of insanity. This obsession, this chess sickness, is what made him swear off the game for decades. But in a barge bound for the Latin charms of Buenos Aires, he aims to prove that his virtuosity is not just the fruit of delirium and delusional fevers - through one final game against the reigning world champion.
It's so easy to fall under the spell of books like this, the allure of which becomes more concentrated, more potent by their very brevity. I guess I should really begin exploring short-form literature by celebrated masters, having formerly eschewed them for full-length works. The demands they make upon one's limited time is almost negligible, and there is hardly any degradation in terms of quality.
A prime example is this very novella, where Zweig is a revelation. His prose is pristine, characterized by a precise, intricate wordsmithery that indicates a first-rate mind. Check out this passage:
But is it not already an insult to call chess anything so narrow as a game? Is it not also a science, an art, hovering between these categories like Muhammad’s coffin between heaven and earth, a unique yoking of opposites, ancient and yet eternally new, mechanically constituted and yet an activity of the imagination alone, limited to a fixed geometric area but unlimited in its permutations, constantly evolving and yet sterile, a cogitation producing nothing, a mathematics calculating nothing, an art without an artwork, an architecture without substance and yet demonstrably more durable in its essence and actual form than all books and works, the only game that belongs to all peoples and all eras, while no one knows what god put it on earth to deaden boredom, sharpen the mind, and fortify the spirit? Where does it begin, where does it end?
I'll definitely be exploring his other works in the future.
8/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 11 of 38 (28.95%)
Total Pages: 4,899 of 10,000 (48.99%)
BOOK 12 of 38
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Date Completed: April 18th 2021
Pages: 96
My Rating: ★★★
Note: this book is not Machiavelli for kids.
That ending was heartbreaking. If I were the narrator, I don't think I would have in good conscience let the boy choose that fate. I'd have talked him against it, promised him a bounty of sights and wonders that we can begin exploring once he hitches a ride on my plane, told him we can find hislanding site on another anniversary instead, etc etc. People say I can be pretty persuasive.
But maybe the prince will just silence my objections, smile sadly at how I simply can't understand, being the "grownup" that I am. And I'd feel so awful over his disappointment. *sigh*
Anyways: I'll bundle up the kid and deal with the snake. That's just how it is.
Now I don't feel so sad anymore.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 12 of 38 (31.58%)
Total Pages: 4,995 of 10,000 (49.95%)
BOOK 13 of 38
The Sins of the Cities of the Plain by Jack Saul
Date Completed: April 20th 2021
Pages: 114
My Rating: ★★★
Ah, but how eminently Victorian this all is! It reminds me of the sprawling My Secret Life memoirs, down to the delightful vocabulary. How can I ever forget the word "gamahuche"? Even their bawdy talk sounds a tad literary.
Both books explore the salacious goings-on lurking beneath the prudish veneer of a thoroughly puritanical society. The only difference is that while the hero of the Secret is a private gentleman, here it's a Mary-Ann (pejorative for a male hustler) who takes center stage.
It seems that contrary to expectations, Jack was not raised in penury at all, hailing from a solid bourgeois family that once even employed servants. Amidst his burgeoning, precocious sexuality, their estate suffered a precipitous decline. This was not explored in any detail though - the focus has always been on Jack's seamy adventures, as I guess it should.
Clandestine orgies, tribadism, transvestism, flagellation, and all manner of aberrant fetishes figure within these pages. The lubricious games our hero indulged in were quite creative too. Imagine a bacchanalian Slap-Bum Polka, or a buggeree suckling a cow's teats while getting pronged.
Things did take a darker turn in the later chapters. Harlots engaging in theft and extortion and exclusive brothels that ply murderous pleasures were revealed by those in the know. Accounts of the most sordid debaucheries deriving from, or indeed straight out of history close out the book, which ended rather abruptly.
6/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 13 of 38 (34.21%)
Total Pages: 5,109 of 10,000 (51.09%)
BOOK 14 of 38
Tales of Desire by Tennessee Williams
Date Completed: April 22nd 2021
Pages: 104
My Rating: ★★★★
Dreams and desire and despair and derangement and death. Williams spins stories that are hypnotic forays into a twilit world were personal allure serves as a powerful bartering coin, and where lonely fates meld in a frenzied alchemic dance - of ecstasy, brutality, and occasionally, of mortality.
In its whispering, shaded streets we encounter a dark, willowy youth who declines into the very mirror of his long-dead benefactor; an amputee hustler whose penchant for destruction and salvation only heightens his deadly glamour; a wallflower whose yearning for expiation leads him into its most savage instrument; a frail lecher who is granted one last sweet indulgence; and a young law partner whose rising star is crushed by the arrival of a manipulative punk.
With prose that drips beauty and haunting dreaminess in equal measure, it's no wonder that Williams is considered one of the prime American writers of the previous century.
These morsels are but tantalizing teasers to his complete Collected Stories. I already secured my copy of that book. I'll be reading it once the familiar restlessness hits again.
8.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 14 of 38 (36.84%)
Total Pages: 5,213 of 10,000 (52.13%)
BOOK 15 of 38
Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler
Date Completed: October 4th 2021
Pages: 99
My Rating: ★★★
This novella charts the dangerous trajectory that an ideal, banally happy marriage takes after insecurities and pettiness trump the trust and magnanimity that should be the bedrock of any enduring union. Our leads leads demanded total honesty and full disclosure from each other, even of their very dreams and fantasies. As expected, it soon devolved into a game of daggers drawn against the other's vulnerabilities, both desiring to mirror the hurt their partner caused them and reflect them back twofold. It's a subtle war of attrition, and with both having an intimate knowledge of their spouse's thumbscrews, it's bound to turn ugly.
What would have made a rupture even more tragic is the fact that, in the course of the book and indeed throughout their whole marriage, they have never committed actual adultery. Fridolin did have ample opportunities for some extramarital romps, but: a) when the opportunities presented themselves, his fine sensibilities won't let him bite the apple, so to speak; and b) when he did seem hellbent on rutting elsewhere as a measure of revenge, Fate said nah-ah and mockingly rewarded him with blue balls.
It does look like all of the fantastical events in the novella did take place, even the strange masked orgy which our ineffectual lead sadly didn't get to indulge in. While this seems contrary to the spirit of the very title of this work, it just opens the latter up to a wide variety of interpretations. It might simply refer to the oft-lurid tales our couple composed about their desires and dastardly dealings. Or it might just be them opting to relegate the unwholesome treacheries of the last three days to the back of their minds, reducing them to dream stories that are best left forgotten lest their venom pollute the relationship they're trying to save.
I have a feeling that they'll pull through though, since in the final chapter they finally desisted from employing their avowed mutual "sincerity" as punitive weapons, using them instead as salves for the wounds that they caused. Just like the love and sweet regard that burgeoned once more between them, their remorse at their previous spite and cruelty seemed genuine. And again, since no actual carnal betrayal took place from either party, the prognosis should be promising.
This is a quick and interesting read, and I recommend it to admirers of Kubrick's superb adaptation, Eyes Wide Shut.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 15 of 38 (39.47%)
Total Pages: 5,312 of 10,000 (53.09%)
BOOK 16 of 38
The Lurid Sea by Tom Cardamone
Date Completed: October 8th 2021
Pages: 182
My Rating: ★★★★
Beautiful prose married to potent, sensual erotica is something truly magnificent to behold.
Our hero Nerites lived after the reign of the Five Good Emperors, with the Pax Romana slowly devolving into the chaos of the Late Empire marked by military adventurism and decadence. A Roman godling borne of carnal congress between a lascivious matron and the god of the sea, he inherited the intense sensual appetites of both. He discovered his predilection for cockgobbling during an otherwise routine sexual congress with his half-brother Obsidio, himself sired by the god of death Pluto at the moment their mother triumphed in bringing about her first husband's death. He was later cursed by his father Neptune after a sexual mishap during the Lupercalian fellatiolympics. Seeing how he debased his divine patrimony by kneeling down before mere mortals, he was doomed to travel across time, landing in different bathhouses to sate his voracious appetites, albeit temporarily.
What could have been a stultifying journey through wastelands of the same were leavened by the diversity of the locales Nerites found himself in. From Italy (both ancient and modern) to Japan to Germany to the US to Canada to Hong Kong to Spain, it was akin to a joyous travelogue, a celebration of the myriad permutations of oral sex. I like how the author sometimes dipped into the mythologies of other countries. From the wizened kappa and playful fox spirits of Japan to the satyrs of idyllic Greece, these lend a pleasing diversity to the characters featured here. Tantalizing details also abound, like how certain baths also doubled as libraries, or how Nerites's peculiar anatomy can alchemize the mass of jism he ingested into pearls.
The book has the rudiments of a plot, but it's only towards the end that any real conflict was established. While I see Nerites's curse as terrible in its shifty aimlessness, he seems to have adapted to and even enjoyed it, riding across centuries of wanton lubricity. Seldom has damnation been so ecstatically milked.
However, it seems like Obsidio has been following him, leaving a trail of massacres through his fatal seed. It's up to him to stop this black widow(er?) from spoiling his wonderful jaunts. He may be a dissipated lecher, but he still has a conscientious heart.
I'd read Cardamone's other works in the future, if only to experience how it would be like if his gorgeous wordsmithery were wedded to themes that are not so vulgar.
7.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 16 of 38 (42.11%)
Total Pages: 5,494 of 10,000 (54.94%)
BOOK 17 of 38
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper
Date Completed: October 13th 2021
Pages: 296
My Rating: ★★★
A charismatic young hustler, whose days are numbered due to mortal illness, decides to make one last bid for glory. And nothing - neither a sense of dignity, nor a conscience (or whatever's left of it), nor a distinct lack of meaningful talent - is going to stop him. With the help of a murderous accomplice, he plans to sell his body piecemeal - his limbs, his privates, his very face - for the winning bidders to dispose with as they please. And all these blood-soaked nightmares will be lovingly, vividly chronicled in the form of reviews posted by his well-heeled gorehound devotees in the escort review site where the whole deranged fever dream played itself out.
I'm not that much of a fan of ambiguous he-said/she-said narratives. Without a tight and coherent structure, or in the hands of an undisciplined plottist, these have a tendency to unravel into nonsensical, trite drivel. Thankfully, what with the poisonous nest of outright liars, unreliable narrators, sock puppeteers, scam artists, and pitiable losers who are all too apt to dangle their violent fantasies in the site, there exists an honest-to-goodness, lucid story. All will be revealed in the end. Just try to enjoy the journey in the meantime, which is something that I never had a problem with.
This book is complusively readable, like one of those dumpster fire online threads you can't help but gorge on. I'm surprised that it didn't seem dated at all, but I guess it's because the rubrics of internet forum interaction have remained the same even two decades hence. It grabs you unawares and pulls you in deep, because in the twisted morass of conflicting lies and made-up personas and unspeakably graphic passages that detail the most brutal tortures, one can't help but still wish to get to the bottom of it all. The clear and straightforward prose also helps push you headlong into this madness, and I won't be surprised if some can finish it in a sitting. The book is divided into neat sections too, so one's given a breather when things get too real.
In the end, a young man will make a martyr of himself, offering his own life to sate the gross, criminal appetites of the degenerates that haunt the site. And nope, that is not the spoiler that you might think it is.
Why not open this monstrosity to find out? There are bug chasers, snuff enthusiasts, suicidal drug addicts, extreme torture fanatics, fetishistic orchiectomists, limb manglers, and all sorts of lovely characters to arouse even the most jaded palate. Don't worry - reading it does not in any way relegate you among the ranks of the contemptible perverts, voyeuristically wallowing in that filthy site, that the book itself so subtly mocks. Not at all.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 17 of 38 (44.74%)
Total Pages: 5,790 of 10,000 (57.90%)
BOOK 18 of 38
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
Date Completed: October 17th 2021
Pages: 240
My Rating: ★★★★★
I've read a lot of horror, but none inspired quite as visceral a reaction from me as this one. I was mesmerized from start to freakin' finish, with the author weaving his formidable, gorgeous prose into an irresistible net that captured me, left me rapt and utterly spellbound because I have never encountered anything like this. This is splatterpunk that does not merely aspire to the literary as much as it actually transcends it. Who won't fall for lines such as this:
The almost-forgotten but instantly familiar thrill of the sagging weight in my arms … the rapturous glaze slicking the half-closed eyes … the little way the fingers would stiffen, tremble with some dying palsy, then curl into the palms … the sweet face lost in its endless empty dream. I always liked blonds. Their complexions are naturally milky, so that the tender veins show blue at the temples, and their blood-soaked hair is like pale silk seen through ruby glass.
I leaned over Waring and kissed him, reacquainting myself with the textures of lips and teeth, the rich metallic flavour of a mouth full of blood.
The way our delightful narrator recounts the grisliest tortures as irrefutable proof of the most ardent passions, of fleeting (but deep!) romances tenderly encouraged to their vicious conclusions made my heart skip many a beat. It edifies the desecration of a beautiful body as a form of sacrament, its consumption a mystic rite that binds the Other to oneself in delicious, irrevocable surrender. It's love and death and sex tangled in a fervid, corrupt embrace, petite mort and grande mort locked together in an eternal waltz.
This is hardcore gore trimmed of all the extraneous pap a vast majority of mass market horror carry like millstones around their necks. That's why it's so easy to devour this monster in a mere sitting or two, if you have the stomach for it, that is. I'm just sad that the author does not seem to have written anything else that's even remotely as sublime as this.
9.5/10; 5 stars.
Total Books: 18 of 38 (47.37%)
Total Pages: 6,030 of 10,000 (60.30%)
BOOK 19 of 38
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Date Completed: October 20th 2021
Pages: 154
My Rating: ★★★★
This is more of a horror/precautionary tale than a fairy story, really. I was surprised when it sprang some startlingly canny tactics on the acquisition, fortification, and perpetuation of power. But these are just mere side dishes to the main course: how to hijack a revolution and subvert its goals in order to subjugate a feckless population.
There was euphoric optimism after the livestock of Manor Farm finally threw off their yokes, for some of them quite literally. As expected, they initially exhibited a genuine public spiritedness and altruism. Unfortunately, these made them all the easier to exploit.
In order to defend themselves against external threats, they agreed to establish a meritocratic hierarchy. The rising class proved themselves capable of protecting the fledgling republic's sovereignty, and with a combination of fear and persuasion they were able to further secure their grip on power. The iron fist fell much quicker than expected though, and a totalitarian nightmare subsumed any utopia they ever had hopes of creating.
There's a palpable sense of unease as the Farm relinquished their ideals one by one while their Seven Commandments faded into a mockery of themselves. As the latter were broken again and again, the tides of gaslit memories eventually erased them until one single rule remained, serving as a cruel parody of the original seventh. But I guess it's just to be expected. A junta that wishes to perpetuate its rule must be able to effectively rewrite history to better serve its current agenda, and make everyone accept them. All it needs is the full support of a competent military, a highly effective propaganda arm, and a merry band of bleating useful idiots and it's all set.
It's pitiable how gullible these plebs are. But of course it's easy to perceive this as an objective viewer, while these events are narrated at a rapid clip. We must remember that almost everyone instinctively tries to protect their egos the best way they can. Like in any dysfunctional relationship, they may try to rationalize or misremember the abuses heaped upon them until it's too late, when the offender has thoroughly entrenched himself in power.
The thing is: one can hardly begrudge their rapacious leadership the respect that was their due. After all, Orwell himself acknowledged Stalin's bravery. Without their craftiness, organizational/executive genius, and physical courage, Animal Farm may very well have been overrun in the two offensives they endured. However, one must remember that they did all of these precisely to serve their self-interests. They did not care one whit about the hoi polloi, and if they have been part of the old ruling order, they would never have acceded to an uprising in the first place.
This is such a short, quick read that even if it turns out to be personally unsavory to the reader, he'd hardly regret the time spent on it. Don't give Orwell's intended preface a miss. Some of the passages there are scarily timely.
8/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 19 of 38 (50.00%)
Total Pages: 6,184 of 10,000 (61.84%)
BOOK 20 of 38
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Date Completed: October 26th 2021
Pages: 355
My Rating: ★★★★★
I thought Animal Farm was a disturbing read. It didn't quite prepare me for the relentless horror that is 1984 though. This is not your run-of-the-mill dystopia. There are no heroes in a hell run by demons who have raised the brutalisation of the human spirit to an art form.
The tragedy in this book is in how the privations and tortures that the Party employs upon its citizens fuel the latter's worst impulses, painting a dark panorama of human nature at its basest. It sucks you into its vicious maw, forcing you into the shoes of the unfortunates who populate it. As a man, the feeling of utter impotence - against a remorseless State, against institutionalised injustice, against fate - makes the whole thing dreadful to the extreme. It's something that, upon closing, one wants desperately to forget. The sheer helplessness of the victims shook me to the core. The poignant scenes of mothers trying, if only through ineffectual gestures, to protect their kids are gut-wrenching.
Many books posit how Love brings about salvation, but in this one it is only the final screw, the ultimate sacrifice one makes in the altar of Big Brother. Because through the infinite horrors foisted by the fabled Room 101, with very rare exceptions you will betray the people you cherish the most, sever the final tethers left in whatever humanity the Party has not yet wrenched from you.
The trampling of dignity, the rape of the mind, physical anguish beyond compare, the erasure of hope, the suppression of everything that's good and true, the incessant lies, tragedies, want - all of this is served on a daily basis by a morally inert, sterile Party whose overruling passions are fear and hatred. This is the State as a harsh and jealous mistress, a murderous shrew who demands the most abject love and the fullest surrender, who even despises sensuality since it impinges on the perfect devotion of her bridegroom's energies to her political aims. Do not consort with Logic, she is best left bound and gagged or you will be branded as a traitor, marked for an eventual grave. Remember that 2 + 2 = 5. Or 3. Or 4 even, whatever the Party demands. The trick is to believe that this is perfectly true or you would end up simply lying. And oh how she loathes liars!
And to think that this is written in the 1940's. With our current technologies, consider how easy it would be to institute a flawless surveillance programme that would monitor everyone, at any time, in any place. How effortless it would be in this digital age to simply "correct" past news with the desired revisions, to alter official photos and even recorded conversations. It is the ultimate totalitarian nightmare, TYRANNY writ large, with miseries and crimes following its wake in a ceaseless train.
There is a reason why it is an enduring classic. After surfacing from its soul-sucking waters, all those seemingly hackneyed ideals - freedom, reason, enlightenment - now seem so ineffably sweet. It's a privilege to write this review without worrying that, with my words, I may have unwittingly poised a Sword of Damocles above my head. I can say that 2 + 2 = 5. Or 3. Or 4 even, with only the jeers of the public as the worst that may befall me. I'll enjoy my liberties while they're still here to be savored.
9/10. 5 stars.
Total Books: 20 of 38 (52.63%)
Total Pages: 6,539 of 10,000 (65.39%)
BOOK 21 of 38
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Date Completed: November 5th 2021
Pages: 128
My Rating: ★★
I have nothing against purple prose - if anything, I'm rather partial to it especially if it's beautifully executed. Gorgeous Gothic is my jam. But the style of this book is so overwrought that it sometimes hinders the actual narrative, with metaphors running riot every which way. I even found myself wincing at parts of the text, they seemed so laboriously cobbled together. It's a shame because some passages were so striking as to seem positively majestic. Sometimes, a little does go a long way.
I don't know if they're meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the meta references that sprout here and there were clumsily handled. There's a character here who, in a pique of terror-induced despair, announced that he, along with the lead, will definitely be offed first just because they're minorities At one point he even snarled "You guys go do protagonist shit" as the others clambered to save their friend's life. I mean, really.
There's also this All-American jock whom everybody ironically derided as the hero in tones ranging from flirtatious lust, grudging admiration, and barely-concealed envy. No matter how the others warbled that alphas like him were built to be survivors, one can see, coming from a mile away, a distasteful spot of schadenfreude eventually gracing his "friends". (view spoiler) With pals like these, who needs enemies? Yup, none of the cast here is even remotely likable.
There are so many good horror books out there. This one isn't worth your while.
4.5/10; 2 stars.
Total Books: 21 of 38 (55.26%)
Total Pages: 6,667 of 10,000 (66.67%)
BOOK 22 of 38
Looking for Something to Suck: The Vampire Stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
Date Completed: November 11th 2021
Pages: 296
My Rating: ★★★
I like how varied Chetwynd-Hayes's vampires are. Some of them are skittish, sweet, worn-out dears that have been repeatedly traumatized by cross-wielding, garlic-toting zealots; while others are evil, moldering revenants with a keen taste for criminal blood. They can also be deliciously outré, embodied by an essence-stealing maze of a mansion, for example; or famished ghosts that need blood and darkness to assume corporeal frames; or even an immortal reverse vampire. While most of the stories here are kid-friendly affairs that feature your average staid/ravening monsters, quite a few fairly drip with a lush, sinister sensuality that would make Anne Rice proud. I do relish how, in almost all cases, they're still burdened by their traditional nemeses - holy articles, running water, the sun, etc.
While these tales will never be mistaken for literary fare, the refreshing, cozy prose makes the whole book very much delectable. It's an ideal read for chilly, rainy nights when the uncomplicated, strangely comforting horror stories you enjoyed in your childhood are simply in order. Two of them sadly did nothing for me, but compared to most horror collections it boasts a more decent batting average.
7/10; 3 stars.
Total Books: 22 of 38 (57.89%)
Total Pages: 6,964 of 10,000 (69.64%)
BOOK 23 of 38
The Recently Deflowered Girl: The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion by Hyacinthe Phypps
Date Completed: November 15th 2021
Pages: 48
My Rating: ★★★★
Well! If I were an adventurous Edwardian lass whose maidenhead is due for some a-breachin', I'm sure that I would have found this book eminently useful. Because when it comes to matters of utmost delicacy, no one can match the wit and probity of the sagacious Miss Hyacinthe Phypps.
Seriously though, this is one amusing, wicked read. I just hope Emily Post won't have a conniption fit when she espies this gem. All her touted perspicacity would hit a brick wall when confronted with the distressing predicament of hymenal virtue despoiled by a Chinese detective, say, or in a seance.
Even with the admittedly controversial subject matter, it is all very wholesome. I found nothing objectionable or inordinately graphic in both the text and in Gorey's illustrations. My pearls (and knickers) remain unclutched.
My only cavil is that it is all too brief. The reading public would be better served by the inclusion of more illustrative situations, like the optimal approach to deflowerment by antediluvian Lovecraftian monsters or by amorous Mediterranean trinket peddlers.
8/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 23 of 38 (60.53%)
Total Pages: 7,012 of 10,000 (70.12%)
BOOK 24 of 38
Night Shift by Stephen King
Date Completed: November 22nd 2021
Pages: 505
My Rating: ★★★★
Some horror writers who come up with an inspiring idea or a promising premise sadly do not know how to weave a plot around them, and all they can offer are tepid tales that can only crackle and sputter before wearily giving up the ghost, so to speak. Thankfully King realized, as he opined in his foreword, that the most important component of a scary tale is its story value, and in this book we are given these in spades. In truth though, a fair lot of classical authors have written literary horror that did not have to sacrifice characterization, style, etc to bolster the plot or ramp up the shivers. I'm looking at you, Henry James.
That's not meant to diss this book, as it does deliver on its commitment to give its readers a great measure of entertaining frights. Within its pages, we're given a glimpse of a world in the horrific aftermath of a fatal flu pandemic, of bloodthirsty bullies stalking the prey that eluded them when they were still alive, of a dipsomaniac mycomorph poised to overrun the world through binary fission, of gifted psychopath suitors and suicides and matricides and many other nightmares. The author seems to have a penchant for machinery that crave human flesh - like possessed laundry presses, sentient automobiles a là Christine, lawnmower familiars, etc. I also noticed that in a lot of the stories, he employed foul weather like blizzards, storms, gales, and even fog to restrict his characters' movements and thereby lead them to their mostly baneful fates.
I was initially puzzled at how familiar some of the offerings here were, knowing that I've never held this book until now. It was only a few stories on when I realized that I have watched these on the screen before: in old B-movies, portmanteau horror films, and even in some odd television episodes. So that's how popular King is. Forget his oft-adapted novels - even his short stories have permeated a considerable variety of entertainment media.
Btw there's a superfluous and rather snotty introduction by a certain John MacDonald that should have been tossed aside. I mean, he wasn't exactly churning out literary gems so maybe he should have toned down his contempt for other writers, both aspiring and established. Aside from that, this book is one sustained virtuoso piece from start to finish. I especially enjoyed the two Salem's Lot yarns here, although both are also available in the hardcover Illustrated Edition of that novel.
8.5/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 24 of 38 (63.16%)
Total Pages: 7,517 of 10,000 (75.17%)
BOOK 25 of 38
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
Date Completed: November 27th 2021
Pages: 320
My Rating: ★★★★★
All the superlatives I can muster seem pitifully insufficient when it comes to lauding this novel. I've become so jaded due to all the horror-slash-thrillers I've consumed that even the most reputable ones manage to inspire only transitory, pallid frissons that dissolve into nothing upon opening the next book. But The Girl Next Door is a primal, ravening beast; hungry and red-eyed; pushing you under its terrible weight and leaving you stunned by its relentlessness, its arch sadism. You want to make it stop but you can't. Its irresistible gaze saps your willpower, leaves you mesmerized, and you know that you can do nothing but follow its bidding, see this monstrous tale through to its logical conclusion.
I'm a tough man but this thriller made my eyes well up, I wanted to save those abused girls so frickin bad. There's great evil, made all the more horrific by how utterly banal it can be, that decent men shouldn't suffer to exist. There are grave injustices that strike at one's heart due to how outrageous, how unendurable they are. That's why people who wield power in any of its forms - whether social, material, or just plain physical - are exhorted not to abuse their gifts, but to utilize them for the common good, and especially to protect the innocent, the infirm, and the vulnerable. Because it's all too easy to give oneself up to the lures and illusions of strength, to lose oneself in the heady exercise of power until one slowly, unwittingly morphs into the very evil one has always loathed.
This is one for the books. It is first-rate horror served straight up with no frills, no pretensions, and I shall never forget it. This is the kind of work that will endure, a mass market gem that transcends its genre to become something quite unexpected - a secular passion piece, a morality tale. Far from just making you feel, it also makes you think. And despair, too, for all the defenseless innocents who you know are braving similar hells right now. Let's pray that they avoid Meg's fate.
9/10; 5 stars.
Total Books: 25 of 38 (65.79%)
Total Pages: 7,837 of 10,000 (78.37%)
BOOK 26 of 38
How to Be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Date Completed: November 30th 2021
Pages: 188
My Rating: ★★★★
This paean-cum-guide to forming and nourishing profound, meaningful friendships remains as timeless as ever. The new translation by Philip Freeman makes it even more accessible to the modern reader with its clear and straightforward style. While most academics burden the book they're introducing with dense, soporific preambles, the one offered by the translator here is a breath of fresh air. It's direct to the point and useful, providing informative context for the work along with a precis of the manifold advice that it provides on the subject.
While I do not think that the welter of unobtrusive footnotes that the translator peppered the text with brings much additional insight to the layperson interested solely in the book's message and not in the historical personages described therein, I'm quite thankful that it obliquely clarified how Laelius's eulogised friend here, Scipio Africanus, is not the military commander who brought the legendary Hannibal to his knees, but his adoptive grandson who is a military luminary in his own right. That would've been quite an embarrassing take to remember this book by!
This is a brief book, more of a long essay, really, so instead of expounding on its ideas I will leave the reader to discover them for himself. I can assure him though that the text is far from stodgy, reading it is not a slog at all, and that the points the author raised are still timely and apt.
I do question his assertion of the absolute necessity of having bosom buddies, as I believe that under fortuitous circumstances, family can take their place. The obligations and mutual affection instilled by constant commerce with one's closest blood relations must of necessity forge bonds stronger than the most formidable steel, and must therefore be more lasting than one's most devoted friendships. I also think that he waxes too hyperbolic on the subject sometimes, seriously deeming it the second-best gift that the immortal gods bestowed upon humanity, next only to wisdom. These are my only objections though, and with his other counsels I remain in deep agreement.
As with most entries in the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series by Princeton University Press, it also contains the original text by the author, in this case the Laelius De Amicitia in the eloquent Latin of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
8/10; 4 stars.
Total Books: 26 of 38 (68.42%)
Total Pages: 8,025 of 10,000 (80.25%)
2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
How to Be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship (other topics)The Girl Next Door (other topics)
Night Shift (other topics)
The Recently Deflowered Girl: The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion (other topics)
Looking for Something to Suck: The Vampire Stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Marcus Tullius Cicero (other topics)Jack Ketchum (other topics)
Stephen King (other topics)
Hyacinthe Phypps (other topics)
R. Chetwynd-Hayes (other topics)
More...
HERE is a link to my 2020 personal challenge.