I did warn you that I might get through these Dean K ones a bit quicker!
I just completed the second one in the Odd Thomas series. I also had a peek at the first paragraph of the third one in the series (Brother Odd) but had to stop myself as otherwise I was not going to have any time to write this review today.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Forever Odd - Dean Koontz
Basic story: one of Odd's best friends, Danny is taken from his home and Odd goes to find him.
This one was in some ways different from the first one. The main thing that I noticed was the pace of it. This one felt like it started out at a much slower pace. It's not that nothing happens in the first couple of hundred pages but they read much slower than the second half of the book. Maybe this has to do with the fact that it takes him till about halfway through the novel to find who he needs to find and get to the location the person has been taken. once he gets to where the bad guys are things kick off. But I think it is more than that. There is less biting, black humour in the first part, less anger, less confrontation with evil and perhaps more resignation and inaction. The person who has taken his friend a completely psycho lady called Datura) initially communicates with Odd via the phone (the conversations between them are some if the weirdest I have ever read) and thus creates distance in the relationship between pursuer and pursued. Usually these two roles are closely linked from the start with Odd as he feels out/senses his "prey" but this time it's different. Once Odd get closer to his target the story picks up the pace and we hurtle into the adventure full on. People get killed, poltergeists appear, shots are fired, there's climbing through soot filled ducts and plenty of other weird stuff happens (as per usual). Yet Odd manages to keep his balance in all of it, he makes a conscious decision that inaction is not going to get things done and realises that he has no choice but to commit himself fully to getting himself and his friend out of the sticky situation they find themselves in. It seems that the characteristic black humour comes back to Odd with his decision to take action. I definitely like sarcastic Odd better than thoughtful, inactive Odd.
The nice thing is that the bad guys all get their come uppeance but in a way they only die to move along the story, to drive on Odd to get himself and his friend out alive. Once Datura is killed the main venom goes out of the story and the chase at the end is maybe a bit drawn out but hey.. I love Odd and the main thing is he comes out of it all okay.
Last time I mentioned that Koontz hides little gems in his story - I guess you can call them life lessons or life opinions. One of them is on page 156. The main part of the story takes place in a casino ravaged by earthquake and fire so the place is now a ruin. Of the gamblers that used to go there he says: Those who had never gotten wealthy but had become compulsive gamblers were inconvenienced by the need to travel farther to lose what little they had. Okay, so he is not making a fully fledged attack on the gambling industry but he still gently passes judgement on people that gamble. He does at times make a few of these social comments. In my judgement they betray the writer's opinion of the world and will give you an insight in what makes him tick as a person and author.
Another good one on page 355 about making choices: ... we can hope that we will be given a sign to guide us. A reliance on signs, however, can lead to the evasion of all moral obligations, and thus earn a terrible judgement.
Another gratifying thing about this part of the Odd story is that he finds answers to some if the questions he has been wrestling with, and to some extent they are the questions that all of mankind wrestles with. Also he discovers what makes one of his dearest ghost friends hangs around him all the time.
The "dazzler" at the end is that he decides to join a monastery... this is no huge spoiler as the next book in the series is called Brother Odd so I thought I would give you that one.. it's on the house.
Title: Forever Odd
Author: Dean Koontz
pages 419
Harper Collins
0-00-719699-7
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 70
I'm off to read the third one!!
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Monday, 19 April 2010
Odd One
I needed a change from all separate stories, short story archs and ghosts in all shapes and sizes so I decided to dive into the wonderful world of Dean Koontz for my next read. The Odd Thomas Series consists of four books and I have to say that the first one was not a bad start to the series.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas is odd, the tings that happen to him are odd..... he has some odd friends and meets odd people.. end of review.
Well, maybe not. The people he meets are odd. They are also dead! He helps them resolve their "issues", helps them so they are ready to move on to wherever they go next. Odd does this with good humour, a level head on his shoulders and a small group of friends around him who help him where they can, and support him when he needs it most. Odd is sort of a loner who has not gotten a lot of love from his parents. His dad is obsessed with having girlfriends younger than Odd and Odd's mum is guilt tripping him whenever she can (and I mean Guilt Tripping with a capital G and T). For a boy with that kind of heritage he has turned out okay. Odd has a gift that helps him help the dead. However, his gift cannot always prevent him from losing the things he loves most.
Odd as a character is a lovable person. He is young yet wise, and has a great sense of humour. He is very polite, calls everyone "Sir" and is a short order cook in a grille (and good at it too). He is looking to possibly expand into a career in tyres or shoes once he gets married. The friends he has are as loyal to him as he is to them. He has a girlfriend called Stormy and Odd believes that they are meant to be together. Odd goes through life trying to fit his work with the dead into his work life (frying eggs and making great pancakes at the Pico Mundo). In the main he succeeds in that.
The story is relatively simple and it is set up as if it is a memoir that Odd is writing, looking back on his life. Basically, Odd has found out that something bad is going to happen and he is the one to prevent it. He knows when it's going to happen. At one time he even believes he has figured out who is going to be doing the bad stuff. But things change and shift and not everything works out as he thought it would. See.. told you.. nothing complicated there. Yet the story has you hooked from the start. It is fast paced and the characters in it are so well written and work well together that it all flows and you can do nothing but go with it through all the highs and lows. Koontz does his trick of having the arch of the story run into a new chapter and by that make you go... "oh well, I have to finish this chapter now to find out what's going to happen" only to find that at the end of the next chapter he does the same thing again thus making you read another one and another one until you get to the end of the book and just want more more more!... They are clever things aren't they those writer blokes/blokettes!? Another thing I have noticed about Koontz is that he hides "life's great and/or universal truths" in what his characters say. They will have a converstaion and all of a sudden one character will come out with something that hits home and makes you think. Then after you have read it andmoved on 10 pages you don't even remember what was so profound about what you read but some of it lingers in your mind anyway.
To me, the end of the story is one I partly saw coming and partly but didn't. Because Odd is such a likable character you really feel for what happens to him. It should come as no surprise that bad stuff does happen to him as he is the main character in the book. The way the bad stuff happening is resolved is good as you are taken along on the journey of who and why, and you're finding out things as Odd is puzzling them together. Some of the clues though are quite obviously laid out in the story and yet Odd does seem to miss them. Perhaps because he is focused on something else, but hey.. he's Odd.
One down... three to go and number two is well on the way already.
Title: Odd Thomas
Author: Dean Koontz
420 pages
Harper Collins
0-00-713074-0
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 71
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas is odd, the tings that happen to him are odd..... he has some odd friends and meets odd people.. end of review.
Well, maybe not. The people he meets are odd. They are also dead! He helps them resolve their "issues", helps them so they are ready to move on to wherever they go next. Odd does this with good humour, a level head on his shoulders and a small group of friends around him who help him where they can, and support him when he needs it most. Odd is sort of a loner who has not gotten a lot of love from his parents. His dad is obsessed with having girlfriends younger than Odd and Odd's mum is guilt tripping him whenever she can (and I mean Guilt Tripping with a capital G and T). For a boy with that kind of heritage he has turned out okay. Odd has a gift that helps him help the dead. However, his gift cannot always prevent him from losing the things he loves most.
Odd as a character is a lovable person. He is young yet wise, and has a great sense of humour. He is very polite, calls everyone "Sir" and is a short order cook in a grille (and good at it too). He is looking to possibly expand into a career in tyres or shoes once he gets married. The friends he has are as loyal to him as he is to them. He has a girlfriend called Stormy and Odd believes that they are meant to be together. Odd goes through life trying to fit his work with the dead into his work life (frying eggs and making great pancakes at the Pico Mundo). In the main he succeeds in that.
The story is relatively simple and it is set up as if it is a memoir that Odd is writing, looking back on his life. Basically, Odd has found out that something bad is going to happen and he is the one to prevent it. He knows when it's going to happen. At one time he even believes he has figured out who is going to be doing the bad stuff. But things change and shift and not everything works out as he thought it would. See.. told you.. nothing complicated there. Yet the story has you hooked from the start. It is fast paced and the characters in it are so well written and work well together that it all flows and you can do nothing but go with it through all the highs and lows. Koontz does his trick of having the arch of the story run into a new chapter and by that make you go... "oh well, I have to finish this chapter now to find out what's going to happen" only to find that at the end of the next chapter he does the same thing again thus making you read another one and another one until you get to the end of the book and just want more more more!... They are clever things aren't they those writer blokes/blokettes!? Another thing I have noticed about Koontz is that he hides "life's great and/or universal truths" in what his characters say. They will have a converstaion and all of a sudden one character will come out with something that hits home and makes you think. Then after you have read it andmoved on 10 pages you don't even remember what was so profound about what you read but some of it lingers in your mind anyway.
To me, the end of the story is one I partly saw coming and partly but didn't. Because Odd is such a likable character you really feel for what happens to him. It should come as no surprise that bad stuff does happen to him as he is the main character in the book. The way the bad stuff happening is resolved is good as you are taken along on the journey of who and why, and you're finding out things as Odd is puzzling them together. Some of the clues though are quite obviously laid out in the story and yet Odd does seem to miss them. Perhaps because he is focused on something else, but hey.. he's Odd.
One down... three to go and number two is well on the way already.
Title: Odd Thomas
Author: Dean Koontz
420 pages
Harper Collins
0-00-713074-0
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 71
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Crossed the finish line
I finally managed to get through my book! I am not sure why I feel that this one has taken so long, perhaps because it has?? There was a lot to read in this book and other things sometimes took over. There was the arrival of my Nintendo DSI (my alien Wicko is now stuck on some planet and I have no idea how he gets back to his spaceship?!). Let's not forget my slight obsession with Cryptic Crosswords (if anyone has a clue what the answer to "taking over if trail wanders" is then please let me know.... I know it's 7 letters and has a T at the end but that's it). Combine these two with my recent tendency to fall asleep on the sofa whilst sitting down for a major reading session at the weekend, and it's a miracle it did not take me longer to finish this one. Moving onto something a bit more pacey now so might manage to stay awake for more than 20 pages at one sitting. Dean K is on the agenda next and he usually manages to keep me focused and entertained so I have high hopes to get through a few more books over the coming weeks. Oh yeah... if it was not for the fact that I am going on holiday next weekend.... hmm, we'll see then. But first.....
###### SPOILER ALERT ######
Haunted America - Michael Norman & Beth Scott
This is a great one to read if you want to get an overview of what kind of stories are lurking in Americas distant and recent past. I am pretty sure it is not exhaustive but the nice thing about it is that you get a helping from every state so you get a complete picture of what stories there are. A lot of them concern haunted historic houses where former residents refuse to leave. Many of the ghost that stay behind seem harmless but some are downright nasty! In a lot of cases some effort has been made by the authors or tellers of the story to try and trace the origin of the haunting. I kind of like that as it gives a bit more "bite" to the story told.
The stories are not presented as a fictional story but more as factual records of the events as told to the authors of the book and I think that this what I struggled with sometimes. I always find that you can only read so many of them in one sitting. My mind tends to like a storyline and a plot to follow and with a representation of facts you just get from A to B and that's it. This is not to say that the stories in the book were not entertaining because they were! The other tenants at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tells us about the lingering presences of some illustrious historical figures. There are stories here about haunted theatres, cursed furniture, warriors of the battle at Little Bighorn, ghosts warning of imminent danger or just trying to get you out of whatever they see as their home.
One of the most memorable ones to me is Something evil on Larabee Street. The story tells about a young family who moved into a house they thought would be theirs forever but had to be left behind in the middle of the night because they just could no longer deal with what was haunting them and/or the house they lived in. The intensiveness of what they experienced is scary. The story also deals with how it affected them, their pets and those family members that came to stay with them for a short time. I will not spoil it for you but I think that even I would not be able to live in the house they called home! Another interesting one is A.E. Poe and guests. Apparently there is a ghost that haunts the grave of EA Poe (surprising? - not really!). Every year on his birthday man with a walking stick, dressed in black leaves three red roses and a bottle of cognac as Poe's grave. Also, remind me to stay away from New Jersey!! Apparently there is something there called the Jersey Devil and all you need to know about it is it's ugly and you need to steer clear of it!
There are other much more lighthearted stories about mischievous and kind spirits that have chosen to linger on so on the whole the books gives you a good variety of stories. There's way too many stories to list them all individually here so I won't, but trust me all the states are covered and Canada even gets a mention in a separate section. I love the book for it's attempt to give you a bit of everything and for getting stories in from every state and I am pretty sure there is more stories of hauntings in the USA that are waiting to be discovered.... the big reading list at the back of the book tells me so!
Title: Haunted America
Authors: Beth Scott & Michael Norman
Tor
411 pages
ISBN nr 0-312-85751-9
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 72
###### SPOILER ALERT ######
Haunted America - Michael Norman & Beth Scott
This is a great one to read if you want to get an overview of what kind of stories are lurking in Americas distant and recent past. I am pretty sure it is not exhaustive but the nice thing about it is that you get a helping from every state so you get a complete picture of what stories there are. A lot of them concern haunted historic houses where former residents refuse to leave. Many of the ghost that stay behind seem harmless but some are downright nasty! In a lot of cases some effort has been made by the authors or tellers of the story to try and trace the origin of the haunting. I kind of like that as it gives a bit more "bite" to the story told.
The stories are not presented as a fictional story but more as factual records of the events as told to the authors of the book and I think that this what I struggled with sometimes. I always find that you can only read so many of them in one sitting. My mind tends to like a storyline and a plot to follow and with a representation of facts you just get from A to B and that's it. This is not to say that the stories in the book were not entertaining because they were! The other tenants at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tells us about the lingering presences of some illustrious historical figures. There are stories here about haunted theatres, cursed furniture, warriors of the battle at Little Bighorn, ghosts warning of imminent danger or just trying to get you out of whatever they see as their home.
One of the most memorable ones to me is Something evil on Larabee Street. The story tells about a young family who moved into a house they thought would be theirs forever but had to be left behind in the middle of the night because they just could no longer deal with what was haunting them and/or the house they lived in. The intensiveness of what they experienced is scary. The story also deals with how it affected them, their pets and those family members that came to stay with them for a short time. I will not spoil it for you but I think that even I would not be able to live in the house they called home! Another interesting one is A.E. Poe and guests. Apparently there is a ghost that haunts the grave of EA Poe (surprising? - not really!). Every year on his birthday man with a walking stick, dressed in black leaves three red roses and a bottle of cognac as Poe's grave. Also, remind me to stay away from New Jersey!! Apparently there is something there called the Jersey Devil and all you need to know about it is it's ugly and you need to steer clear of it!
There are other much more lighthearted stories about mischievous and kind spirits that have chosen to linger on so on the whole the books gives you a good variety of stories. There's way too many stories to list them all individually here so I won't, but trust me all the states are covered and Canada even gets a mention in a separate section. I love the book for it's attempt to give you a bit of everything and for getting stories in from every state and I am pretty sure there is more stories of hauntings in the USA that are waiting to be discovered.... the big reading list at the back of the book tells me so!
Title: Haunted America
Authors: Beth Scott & Michael Norman
Tor
411 pages
ISBN nr 0-312-85751-9
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 72
Monday, 12 April 2010
Almost there!!
I tried to make a last minute dash to the finish line that is the last page of the book I am reading but alas.... no luck so far. Almost there though!!! It's turning out to be a good one.. once again a bit slow in getting to start on this one but now almost at the end of it. Might have a little read after I have done this post so watch out for an update any time soon!!
Am already beginning to think of what to read next.. think it needs to be a quick one as this one has taken me so long to finish and at this rate I am never going to catch up on my books to read.
I did buy one more book yesterday at the car boot sale in the MK Bowl... only 50 pence though. So I guess the stats need to be updated.
Books bought: 1
Books to be read: 73 (However, soon to go to 72 again as almost finished one as well - it's the optimist in me that put that in)
Am already beginning to think of what to read next.. think it needs to be a quick one as this one has taken me so long to finish and at this rate I am never going to catch up on my books to read.
I did buy one more book yesterday at the car boot sale in the MK Bowl... only 50 pence though. So I guess the stats need to be updated.
Books bought: 1
Books to be read: 73 (However, soon to go to 72 again as almost finished one as well - it's the optimist in me that put that in)
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Slow going
It might be some time before I get to finish the next book. Not only is it a reasonably sizable one but I am also getting "distracted" by several other things.
First of all, I have recently discovered cryptic crosswords!! I sort of knew them anyway but I have just bought a whole little book full of them. They are frustrating and addictive at the same time. Sometimes I can only get a few clues and have to look up the rest but sometimes I am really on a roll and cannot put it down.
A second distraction has arrived in the way of my newly acquired Nintendo DSI!! It's surprising how much fun such a little thing can be. I had been thinking of getting a games console of some kind of description for a while but as I only have a small portable telly the gaming experience was never going to be great unless I bought a new, bigger, flatscreen telly, and I was not going to do that just yet. This console is handheld, matte black, easily portable (handy as you always need something to do on those trips abroad), easy to use and totally hip!
So..... I am trying to find a balance with these new interests and my books and it might take some time before I figure out how to fit it all in and still keep reducing the amount of books to be read.
On the plus side: at least I did not buy any new books!!... well apart from the cryptic clue ones but they do not count as books..... do they?
First of all, I have recently discovered cryptic crosswords!! I sort of knew them anyway but I have just bought a whole little book full of them. They are frustrating and addictive at the same time. Sometimes I can only get a few clues and have to look up the rest but sometimes I am really on a roll and cannot put it down.
A second distraction has arrived in the way of my newly acquired Nintendo DSI!! It's surprising how much fun such a little thing can be. I had been thinking of getting a games console of some kind of description for a while but as I only have a small portable telly the gaming experience was never going to be great unless I bought a new, bigger, flatscreen telly, and I was not going to do that just yet. This console is handheld, matte black, easily portable (handy as you always need something to do on those trips abroad), easy to use and totally hip!
So..... I am trying to find a balance with these new interests and my books and it might take some time before I figure out how to fit it all in and still keep reducing the amount of books to be read.
On the plus side: at least I did not buy any new books!!... well apart from the cryptic clue ones but they do not count as books..... do they?
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Who knew??
Sometimes the old ones are the best. At least it proved true this time for the book I just finished. I went back to one of the classic writers of crime fiction Agathe Christie. For some strange reason I had never read any of her books. Through all m years of collecting books and reading various crime writers I never got round to reading one of hers. Having read one I cannot believe it took me so long to get round to reading her work and I am definitely going to add her to my list of authors I want to collect every single book of they have ever written. She is one clever cookie.
### SPOILER ALERT ####
Ten Little Niggers - Agatha Christie
Ten strangers brought to a lovely island, no-one knows the other at first glance, all of them seem completely normal, all of them accused of being involved in some one's murder, no contact with the outside world, a strange verse predicting the deaths of ten little niggers...... what could possibly go wrong?
It all starts off innocently enough. We are introduced to each of the main players of the story in the first few chapters. They all make their way to the island to spend some time there. Some of them are there with a clear purpose but others are not quite sure why they have been summoned there. We are introduced to Mr Justice Wargrave - a retired judge. He is going to the island to meet up with an old friend Constance Culmington. Then we meet Vera Claythorne - a young woman who seems to be awfully keen to keep her mind of someone called Hugo. Next up Philip Lombard - a man of action, ready to "sail close to the wind" for a relatively small sum of money. He's "the good man to have to hand in a tight place". Emily Brent is next on the list - a stern woman, very proper. Then we get to the Military man, General Macarthur - going to the island to meet up with some old friends. Dr Armstrong is next - nothing conspicuous about him, just a successful doctor getting away from it all for few days. Anthony Marston is next - a man with flair, money and a very fast car. The last one we meet making his way to the island is Mr Blore - a man who is going to pretend to be someone who he's not. Suspicious but therefore you dismiss him straight away as a possible killer. There are two more people in this story but they are already on the island. It's Mr and Mrs Rogers the manservant and his wife who are going to be taking care of the guests.
This whole mix of who these people are, why they are there and what will happen to them on the island makes the story all the more mysterious. You get some information on each of the guests as the story progresses and yet you have no idea where it is going to go and what is going to happen. I am going to try not to give away much about the plot but it being an Agatha Christie book it should come as no surprise to anyone that not all of them make it to the end of the book. However the story is set up with such cleverness, such great characterisation that getting her to lead you through the few days they all spend on the island and how the story develops is a sheer joy! Needless to say that that I was very pleasantly surprised by who-dunnit in the end.
Christie leaves little clues dotted around in the story that potentially incriminate each and every one of the guests, they all have something to hide and you can easily believe that one of them would go to extreme lengths to do so. I honestly believe that each person reading this book will come away with a different suspect. As I said before, the story is filled with individual tales that define the characters on the island. There's little clues and bits of information. Some obviously there to make you pick a certain suspect (which you resist for a while - good for you!). Yet you cannot help that somewhere along the line your mind focuses on one little thing. This little thing makes you go "aha, now I know", it sticks in your brain and leads you to suspect one individual. Whatever happens next can be explained with your guy/girl still being to one who is the killer, you can fit all the upcoming events into your own theory of who did it.... and that is the beauty of this book.
Suffice it to say I was wrong in my suspicions (Mr Rogers had an evil twin who managed to hide on the island at times passing himself of as the real Mr Rogers, and went round thinning the herd a little). But,... did I mind? Nope, not one bit. Agatha Christie can be right about who-dunnit until the cows come home as long as she creates stories like this. Loved it, absolutely loved it!
Title: Ten little Niggers
Author: Agatha Christie
Penguin Books
201 pages
No ISBN nr, published in 1958/1959
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 72
Not sure what's on the cards next... maybe DeanK the Odd Thomas series or maybe another ghosty one.... a proper one this time round though.
### SPOILER ALERT ####
Ten Little Niggers - Agatha Christie
Ten strangers brought to a lovely island, no-one knows the other at first glance, all of them seem completely normal, all of them accused of being involved in some one's murder, no contact with the outside world, a strange verse predicting the deaths of ten little niggers...... what could possibly go wrong?
It all starts off innocently enough. We are introduced to each of the main players of the story in the first few chapters. They all make their way to the island to spend some time there. Some of them are there with a clear purpose but others are not quite sure why they have been summoned there. We are introduced to Mr Justice Wargrave - a retired judge. He is going to the island to meet up with an old friend Constance Culmington. Then we meet Vera Claythorne - a young woman who seems to be awfully keen to keep her mind of someone called Hugo. Next up Philip Lombard - a man of action, ready to "sail close to the wind" for a relatively small sum of money. He's "the good man to have to hand in a tight place". Emily Brent is next on the list - a stern woman, very proper. Then we get to the Military man, General Macarthur - going to the island to meet up with some old friends. Dr Armstrong is next - nothing conspicuous about him, just a successful doctor getting away from it all for few days. Anthony Marston is next - a man with flair, money and a very fast car. The last one we meet making his way to the island is Mr Blore - a man who is going to pretend to be someone who he's not. Suspicious but therefore you dismiss him straight away as a possible killer. There are two more people in this story but they are already on the island. It's Mr and Mrs Rogers the manservant and his wife who are going to be taking care of the guests.
This whole mix of who these people are, why they are there and what will happen to them on the island makes the story all the more mysterious. You get some information on each of the guests as the story progresses and yet you have no idea where it is going to go and what is going to happen. I am going to try not to give away much about the plot but it being an Agatha Christie book it should come as no surprise to anyone that not all of them make it to the end of the book. However the story is set up with such cleverness, such great characterisation that getting her to lead you through the few days they all spend on the island and how the story develops is a sheer joy! Needless to say that that I was very pleasantly surprised by who-dunnit in the end.
Christie leaves little clues dotted around in the story that potentially incriminate each and every one of the guests, they all have something to hide and you can easily believe that one of them would go to extreme lengths to do so. I honestly believe that each person reading this book will come away with a different suspect. As I said before, the story is filled with individual tales that define the characters on the island. There's little clues and bits of information. Some obviously there to make you pick a certain suspect (which you resist for a while - good for you!). Yet you cannot help that somewhere along the line your mind focuses on one little thing. This little thing makes you go "aha, now I know", it sticks in your brain and leads you to suspect one individual. Whatever happens next can be explained with your guy/girl still being to one who is the killer, you can fit all the upcoming events into your own theory of who did it.... and that is the beauty of this book.
Suffice it to say I was wrong in my suspicions (Mr Rogers had an evil twin who managed to hide on the island at times passing himself of as the real Mr Rogers, and went round thinning the herd a little). But,... did I mind? Nope, not one bit. Agatha Christie can be right about who-dunnit until the cows come home as long as she creates stories like this. Loved it, absolutely loved it!
Title: Ten little Niggers
Author: Agatha Christie
Penguin Books
201 pages
No ISBN nr, published in 1958/1959
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 72
Not sure what's on the cards next... maybe DeanK the Odd Thomas series or maybe another ghosty one.... a proper one this time round though.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Getting over the disappointment
Instead of being able to go to London to see some Oscar Nominated Short movies I spent this weekend getting better acquainted with my sofa, my bed and depleting my stock of painkillers. I did manage to finish a book in the process and it was a perfect fit for the apparent "theme" of my weekend: disappointment.
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Ghostly Tales & Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh - Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan, Frank McGrail
I bought this one on my first ever trip to Edinburgh a few yeas ago. The title suggests that the tales are ghostly and/or sinister but unfortunately not many of them are of the ghostly kind. There are lots of little stories/entries/facts in this book - over 100 entries in all. Some of them are only a few lines long and some of them a bit longer. However, you will be hard pressed to find more than 20 ghost stories in this book. Then when you do find them they are in the part of the book entitled "Sinister Stories of old Edinburgh". The first part of the book is called "Ghostly tales of historic Edinburgh" and this is where I was expecting the ghostly tales to appear but is does not really contain any ghostly themed tales. It almost makes me think that they missed a spelling mistake in the final checks done on the proofs and that "Ghostly tales...." should actually have been "Ghastly tales..." as some of the tales are a bit ghastly. Alternatively, as most of the ghost stories were in the section called "Sinister stories of old Edinburgh" the definition of sinister has changed overnight (from creepy to ghostly) and nobody has bothered to tell me but somehow I doubt it. I was disappointed that the title of the book was so misleading. I kept reading on and on hoping that the next one I read was going to be a ghost story... and then it was not.
Having said all that I did enjoy reading the book. It was interesting to learn more about old Edinburgh (it was a violent place) and how the law was enforced (brutally), what people got up to (stealing, bigamy, Resurrections, you know.. the usual stuff) and how they were punished (ruthlessly). It was quite interesting to find out that in 1770 you could be declared a witch for wearing a wig or false teeth!!! I found it slightly disconcerting to know that in the past so many people were hung, drawn and quartered or tortured in the most "creative" ways imaginable to admit to practicing witchcraft and then be convicted on the thinnest of evidence. You learn a bit more about some of the most famous resurrectionists of the time Burke and Hare. There's tales of plotting against the king, people being banished from the city, the Hidden life of Deacon Brodie, hangings gone wrong (one woman was freed after her hanging went "wrong". Apparently you cannot hang someone twice for the same crime!). There's mention of escapes from prison, a corpse being sentenced to death and the infamous Edinburgh Mob. This lot seems to turn up at the drop of a hat. They were most vocal when they thought that an injustice was being done to one of the "good citizens" of Edinburgh. They tended to side with the victims of injustice and would try to assist in their escape whenever possible.
For those who want to get an idea of what the mainly ghostly ones are:
The Ghost of Johnny one-arm (the only one in first part - Ghostly Tales...)
The King, the Stag and the cross
Sir Richard Lawson (more devilish roll call than ghost story but I'll give 'm that one)
Wizard of the West Bow
The Power of the Sermon
Lady Stair
Mary King's Close
The Ghost Room
The Green Lady of Morningside
A Warning from the Bed
The Lady in Black
The Ghost of Bell's Wynd
The Spirit of Bible Land
The Face at the Window
The Ghost of the Headless Woman
A Good Angel
Sworn to Silence
Family Dreams
Mademoiselle Vernelt
The Ghost of Liberton House
The Steward of the Duke
So dreadful a Memory
Last Sightings
Is anyone there?
No 17
One of the things I did like about the ghost stories in here was that the authors seems to have made an effort to trace the origins of them. Actually, the same goes for the other tales in this book - all of them are based on fact not fiction and that makes it all come alive more, makes it all more real. It's a good way to learn a bit more about the colourful history of Edinburgh and some of it's most famous citizens. At times you feel astounded that some of the gruesome things you read about in this book are actually things that one human being did to another.
Title: Ghostly Tales & Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh
Author: Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan, Frank McGrail
Mainstream Publishing
189 pages
ISBN 1-85158-456-0
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 73
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Ghostly Tales & Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh - Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan, Frank McGrail
I bought this one on my first ever trip to Edinburgh a few yeas ago. The title suggests that the tales are ghostly and/or sinister but unfortunately not many of them are of the ghostly kind. There are lots of little stories/entries/facts in this book - over 100 entries in all. Some of them are only a few lines long and some of them a bit longer. However, you will be hard pressed to find more than 20 ghost stories in this book. Then when you do find them they are in the part of the book entitled "Sinister Stories of old Edinburgh". The first part of the book is called "Ghostly tales of historic Edinburgh" and this is where I was expecting the ghostly tales to appear but is does not really contain any ghostly themed tales. It almost makes me think that they missed a spelling mistake in the final checks done on the proofs and that "Ghostly tales...." should actually have been "Ghastly tales..." as some of the tales are a bit ghastly. Alternatively, as most of the ghost stories were in the section called "Sinister stories of old Edinburgh" the definition of sinister has changed overnight (from creepy to ghostly) and nobody has bothered to tell me but somehow I doubt it. I was disappointed that the title of the book was so misleading. I kept reading on and on hoping that the next one I read was going to be a ghost story... and then it was not.
Having said all that I did enjoy reading the book. It was interesting to learn more about old Edinburgh (it was a violent place) and how the law was enforced (brutally), what people got up to (stealing, bigamy, Resurrections, you know.. the usual stuff) and how they were punished (ruthlessly). It was quite interesting to find out that in 1770 you could be declared a witch for wearing a wig or false teeth!!! I found it slightly disconcerting to know that in the past so many people were hung, drawn and quartered or tortured in the most "creative" ways imaginable to admit to practicing witchcraft and then be convicted on the thinnest of evidence. You learn a bit more about some of the most famous resurrectionists of the time Burke and Hare. There's tales of plotting against the king, people being banished from the city, the Hidden life of Deacon Brodie, hangings gone wrong (one woman was freed after her hanging went "wrong". Apparently you cannot hang someone twice for the same crime!). There's mention of escapes from prison, a corpse being sentenced to death and the infamous Edinburgh Mob. This lot seems to turn up at the drop of a hat. They were most vocal when they thought that an injustice was being done to one of the "good citizens" of Edinburgh. They tended to side with the victims of injustice and would try to assist in their escape whenever possible.
For those who want to get an idea of what the mainly ghostly ones are:
The Ghost of Johnny one-arm (the only one in first part - Ghostly Tales...)
The King, the Stag and the cross
Sir Richard Lawson (more devilish roll call than ghost story but I'll give 'm that one)
Wizard of the West Bow
The Power of the Sermon
Lady Stair
Mary King's Close
The Ghost Room
The Green Lady of Morningside
A Warning from the Bed
The Lady in Black
The Ghost of Bell's Wynd
The Spirit of Bible Land
The Face at the Window
The Ghost of the Headless Woman
A Good Angel
Sworn to Silence
Family Dreams
Mademoiselle Vernelt
The Ghost of Liberton House
The Steward of the Duke
So dreadful a Memory
Last Sightings
Is anyone there?
No 17
One of the things I did like about the ghost stories in here was that the authors seems to have made an effort to trace the origins of them. Actually, the same goes for the other tales in this book - all of them are based on fact not fiction and that makes it all come alive more, makes it all more real. It's a good way to learn a bit more about the colourful history of Edinburgh and some of it's most famous citizens. At times you feel astounded that some of the gruesome things you read about in this book are actually things that one human being did to another.
Title: Ghostly Tales & Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh
Author: Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan, Frank McGrail
Mainstream Publishing
189 pages
ISBN 1-85158-456-0
Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 73
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