Queen stated it very eloquently and melodically... "another one bites the dust". The same goes for one of my books!! Finished another one.. seem to be doing pretty good on the reading front these past few weeks. Perhaps making for not reading so much over Xmas and New Year?
Anyway.. this is the one I finished.
##SPOILER ALERT##
Tales of the Supernatural - Various Authors
According to the the book itself "Stories of the strange and the mysterious to grip and chill you..". Well, yeah it delivers that alright. This books is a collection of some of the greatest of them all and I will list the individual stories below.
The Plattner Story - HG Wells
a teacher disappears from a classroom into a sort of Netherworld of strange blobs that seem to gather round the dying. Eerie vision of a possible after life.
The Yellow Cat - Michael Joseph
a man unlucky in gambling befriends a cat, finds it to be a lucky charm, gets on top again and then kills the cat hereby ending his run of exceptional luck. Oh, yea and a dead guy slips him some money that starts him off on his lucky streak (face it dude, it was never going to end well was it?). In the end the cat has the last laugh!
Escort - Daphne Du Maurier
William Blunt is an experienced sailor who gets an escort from a ship that magically disappears at the light of day. Slightly predictable and just as it gets good it becomes day and all is well. Also not sure what the captain being ill has to do with any of it... apart from being a story telling device of leaving our William in charge of the ship.
The Specter Bridegroom - Washington Irving
sweet story about mistaken identity and how the fear of ghosts can help you get the girl you love.
Keeping his Promise - Algernon Blackwood
Should get a prize just for having and eerie name!
Nice story about how a forgotten pact with a childhood friend can come back to haunt you. His description of the visiting friend is excellent and apt for one demised.
The Corner Shop - Lady Cynthia Asquith
making amends the hard way - from beyond the grave. Moral story about honesty and doing right by people.
The Brighton Monster - Gerald Kersh
weirdness at the seaside. In 1745 a tattooed man is caught by some local fishermen who think he is a monster. He is kept as a prisoner and studied by the local mr Smartypants. In a nice twist the stranger turns out to be time warped from Hiroshima 1945.
The Body Snatcher - Robert Louis Stevenson
Resurrectionists get their come-uppance in a great way! A chance meeting leads to the unveiling of a local dignitary's sordid past, doing things in a graveyard that are done best in the dark. the corpse deservedly gets the last laugh in this one.
Casting the Runes - MR James
Last but certainly not least, one from the master himself!! The guy who got me hooked on ghost stories is on fine form here. The tale of a petty and vindictive man who sets out to destroy anyone who says a word against him. Gets hoodwinked by his own trick in the end. Brilliantly set up and lovely characters, well defined even in so short a story.
All in all a great little selection with some great stories!!
Highly recommended to introduce you to the work of some of the greats.
Title: Tales of the Supernatural
Author: Various
Panther Books
124 pages
No ISBN (published in 1962)
Sunday 31 January 2010
Top 100
I have a confession to make.... I bought three more books!!
I blame the BBC top 100 list for it. I found the list online and went through it. Turns out I have read only 16 out of the 100 essential read before you die books on the list. Sadly enough 4 of those are the Harry Potter ones (can't believe the Lord of the Rings does not count as 3). But to my credit I have read the top 5!!!! 2 of the books I bought yesterday are on the list so whenever I get round to reading them that will be another 2 off the list. Also....thank god for university reading lists for otherwise I am pretty sure I never would have ploughed my way through the turgid mass of Middlemarch. I have this vivid memory of it being totally boring and tedious. Looking forward to getting started on the rest of the list as well but not sure when that is going to happen with so many other books to read.
Books bought 3
Books to read 70
Reading at the present a Dean Koontz one.
I blame the BBC top 100 list for it. I found the list online and went through it. Turns out I have read only 16 out of the 100 essential read before you die books on the list. Sadly enough 4 of those are the Harry Potter ones (can't believe the Lord of the Rings does not count as 3). But to my credit I have read the top 5!!!! 2 of the books I bought yesterday are on the list so whenever I get round to reading them that will be another 2 off the list. Also....thank god for university reading lists for otherwise I am pretty sure I never would have ploughed my way through the turgid mass of Middlemarch. I have this vivid memory of it being totally boring and tedious. Looking forward to getting started on the rest of the list as well but not sure when that is going to happen with so many other books to read.
Books bought 3
Books to read 70
Reading at the present a Dean Koontz one.
Sunday 24 January 2010
Finished one..
Well, the New Year got off to a bad start reading wise but I am now back on track! Managed to finish my book today so here it goes.
##SPOILER ALERT##
The Last Witchfinder - James Morrow
I liked it! I always wanted to know more about how this bizarre notion of being able to tell who is a witch and who is not managed to persist for so long and get the backing of both church and King alike. The book gives a good insight into how people were "cried out" as witches and how hey were bound to be found guilty as the "science" behind witch finding was seriously flawed. Even though people did not seem to know how to defeat the "science" some knew that there was no harm in knowing more about healing than you neighbour or investigating why a ball made of stone and one made of feathers would touch the earth at the same time.
The book takes on a journey of discovery and lets us view the fall out from Witch finding via the main character Jennet Stearne. She is a inquisitive young girl who is being taught by her aunt to be inquisitive and base her opinions on observation rather than having them prescribed by society. when her aunt Isobel is accused of being a witch and burned at the stake she vows to gather the evidence that will convince the world that there is no such thing as witchcraft. He efforts are noble and thwarted by adversity. She is forced to go to America, then almost gets killed when her village is raided by Indians with whom she lives fro a number of years. She has a child but unfortunately the girls dies. She's "rescued" from the tribe and enters into a loveless marriage with Tobias Crompton and gets a change to work on her Argumentum Grande against witchcraft. She even has a second child (Rachel), eventually meets the love of her life (Ben Franklin). They "swive" intensely and she then has another son (William) whilst marooned on an island on the way back from England (don't ask... it's too complicated). They get themselves rescued by pirates en settle down back in America. You'd think that was enough for anyone to cope with but her fate seems sealed when she concocts a plan to ensure she gets a chance to put her "proof" against witchcraft into practice. She gets herself arrested on witchcraft and... surprise surprise, her brother and his crazy wife ensure that she is found guilty of witchcraft. She does manage to escape the gallows with the help her "Bonny Ben" and his cronies and after another short stay with the Indians returns to live out her days in relative quiet. Oh well, unless you count her long lost brother turning up one day and burning himself in front of her and all the scientific experiments she does as upheaval.
I'll admit it's a lot to fit into a book but it sort of works.
The part the I really like is the structure Morrow has created for his story. He gets a book to tell us the story of Jennet and not just any old book. This book in question is the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton. You can tell it loves, maybe even adores Jennet and it tells us her story. Every now and again it intervenes in the story and teaches us that one books flows from another and ideas blend and develop through time. People's ideas, voices and thoughts are what makes books comes alive and this natural process has been going on for ages. Also it wants us to fight ignorence with knowledge and I like that idea...... a lot!!!! It's a nice touch to imbue a book with feelings for a person and use it as story telling device... clever!
So was it all good??? Well no, I have no idea why Jennet was made to have children. Two of them are introduced and both seem equally superfluous. They serve no particular purpose in propelling the storyline or giving us an insight into Jennet's emotional life or development. Also, had the book ended with her going back to the Indian tribe and staying there until she dies that would have been fine with me. Why did she need to go back to "civilisation"? It's nature that she seeks to understand and harness to her purpose, why then does she not stay in an environment that is closer to nature than the life she returns to. Her life with the indians gives her "tranquility" yet she opt to leave it. Also the way her borther is dealt with does not sit right with me. He was the one that got her convicted and the scourge of those accused of witchcaft, to some extent he was the scourge of Jennet's life as it is his beliefs she fights tirelessly against. All he is accorded at the end is the discovery his wife is faking demonic attacks, is a vindinctive woman and the realisation that perhaps everything he stands for is a lie. Oh, and then he bashes his goodwife's brains out, goes over the edge and then turns up on Jennet's lawn one day and burns himself to death in front of her eyes... well... okay. Guess that's that then?!
Title: The Last Witchfinder
Author: James Morrow
Phoenix
541 pages
ISBN nr 978-0-7538-2153-4
State of play
Books to be read: 67
Books bought: 2
##SPOILER ALERT##
The Last Witchfinder - James Morrow
I liked it! I always wanted to know more about how this bizarre notion of being able to tell who is a witch and who is not managed to persist for so long and get the backing of both church and King alike. The book gives a good insight into how people were "cried out" as witches and how hey were bound to be found guilty as the "science" behind witch finding was seriously flawed. Even though people did not seem to know how to defeat the "science" some knew that there was no harm in knowing more about healing than you neighbour or investigating why a ball made of stone and one made of feathers would touch the earth at the same time.
The book takes on a journey of discovery and lets us view the fall out from Witch finding via the main character Jennet Stearne. She is a inquisitive young girl who is being taught by her aunt to be inquisitive and base her opinions on observation rather than having them prescribed by society. when her aunt Isobel is accused of being a witch and burned at the stake she vows to gather the evidence that will convince the world that there is no such thing as witchcraft. He efforts are noble and thwarted by adversity. She is forced to go to America, then almost gets killed when her village is raided by Indians with whom she lives fro a number of years. She has a child but unfortunately the girls dies. She's "rescued" from the tribe and enters into a loveless marriage with Tobias Crompton and gets a change to work on her Argumentum Grande against witchcraft. She even has a second child (Rachel), eventually meets the love of her life (Ben Franklin). They "swive" intensely and she then has another son (William) whilst marooned on an island on the way back from England (don't ask... it's too complicated). They get themselves rescued by pirates en settle down back in America. You'd think that was enough for anyone to cope with but her fate seems sealed when she concocts a plan to ensure she gets a chance to put her "proof" against witchcraft into practice. She gets herself arrested on witchcraft and... surprise surprise, her brother and his crazy wife ensure that she is found guilty of witchcraft. She does manage to escape the gallows with the help her "Bonny Ben" and his cronies and after another short stay with the Indians returns to live out her days in relative quiet. Oh well, unless you count her long lost brother turning up one day and burning himself in front of her and all the scientific experiments she does as upheaval.
I'll admit it's a lot to fit into a book but it sort of works.
The part the I really like is the structure Morrow has created for his story. He gets a book to tell us the story of Jennet and not just any old book. This book in question is the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton. You can tell it loves, maybe even adores Jennet and it tells us her story. Every now and again it intervenes in the story and teaches us that one books flows from another and ideas blend and develop through time. People's ideas, voices and thoughts are what makes books comes alive and this natural process has been going on for ages. Also it wants us to fight ignorence with knowledge and I like that idea...... a lot!!!! It's a nice touch to imbue a book with feelings for a person and use it as story telling device... clever!
So was it all good??? Well no, I have no idea why Jennet was made to have children. Two of them are introduced and both seem equally superfluous. They serve no particular purpose in propelling the storyline or giving us an insight into Jennet's emotional life or development. Also, had the book ended with her going back to the Indian tribe and staying there until she dies that would have been fine with me. Why did she need to go back to "civilisation"? It's nature that she seeks to understand and harness to her purpose, why then does she not stay in an environment that is closer to nature than the life she returns to. Her life with the indians gives her "tranquility" yet she opt to leave it. Also the way her borther is dealt with does not sit right with me. He was the one that got her convicted and the scourge of those accused of witchcaft, to some extent he was the scourge of Jennet's life as it is his beliefs she fights tirelessly against. All he is accorded at the end is the discovery his wife is faking demonic attacks, is a vindinctive woman and the realisation that perhaps everything he stands for is a lie. Oh, and then he bashes his goodwife's brains out, goes over the edge and then turns up on Jennet's lawn one day and burns himself to death in front of her eyes... well... okay. Guess that's that then?!
Title: The Last Witchfinder
Author: James Morrow
Phoenix
541 pages
ISBN nr 978-0-7538-2153-4
State of play
Books to be read: 67
Books bought: 2
Saturday 9 January 2010
The New Year
I'm back from my holidays and have managed to obtain another 3 books in the weeks I was away. None of them ghosty but some good ones none the less. This brings the total book count to 69.
Unfortunately I did not get much time to read on my holidays but I have made a bit of a start on The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow. The start was good as it was from the point of view of a book telling the story of how it came into existence... novel idea!
Unfortunately I did not get much time to read on my holidays but I have made a bit of a start on The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow. The start was good as it was from the point of view of a book telling the story of how it came into existence... novel idea!
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