Gordon > Recent Status Updates

I think I'm going to put more effort into reading frequently challenged or banned books. Just in case...

Never have been a huge Ramsey Campbell fan, at least, of his novels, but enjoyed his short story, "The Brood."

Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910 - great
Gustav Meyrink, “The Man in the Bottle,” - ok, maybe I didn't enjoy the transition
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” - predictable
Luigi Ugolini, “The Vegetable Man,” - good
A. Merritt, “The People of the Pit,” - fun
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “The Hell Screen,” - good and very dark

Cool I was able to find a copy. It's mentioned in Kim Newman and Stephen Jones' Horror: 100 Best Books.

This will probably take up a chunk of my reading this year lol, but I'm looking forward to it.

This didn't age well: Father Christmas saying "Battles are ugly when women fight." I've never read this book before, so this is new to me. I shouldn't be too surprised by this given the time period this was written in and his Christian apologetic works. Nevertheless, as others have pointed out long before me: battle is ugly. Nothing more needed to be said.

Sinbad the sailor gives up his fortunes 7 times because he gets bored with life. Can't say I'll ever relate.

If this continues to have interesting short stories for almost another 800 pages, I'll be impressed.

Summary (so far): Demons are oftentimes the personification of natural occurrences (lightening, fire, the sun, etc.) as gods or spirits in ancient religions, and, as newer religions develop and take over, these personifications are usually repurposed to cast a negative light on the older religions. Thus the god of the old is the evil of the new. It's a bit of a difficult read since it's an academic from the 1800s.

* to ***** with * not liking the story and ***** loving the story

The crawling chaos **
The curse of yig *****
The mound *****
Medusa's coil ****
The horror in the museum *****

It's almost unbelievable what Davis had with him on his plane trip back to the states. If someone tried to bring back some of the items he had these days, that person would probably go straight to jail.

I won't be reading less books this year, but for the sake of my own sanity and privacy--especially among the people I actually know on here, I'll be sharing less of what I'm reading. My profile does have a small layer of anonymity, but it's not enough for me to feel comfortable in sharing everything I happen to read. In any case, read on and enjoy 2020!