In which the reader shares his thoughts on the books that possess his imagination throughout the year.
House on the Borderland is a book that I have had for some time and thankfully the challenge of reading books for R.I.P. encouraged me to pick this up and enjoy it.
Continue reading The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson (R.I.P. Challenge book 3)
Bram Stoker, Neil Gaiman, and Edgar Allan Poe…three authors whose works I can scarcely go through a few months without reading. In the case of Poe, this time of year always results in the digestion of several of his tales and poems in addition to my Poe shrine that goes up closer to Halloween.
Continue reading The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe (R.I.P. Challenge book 2)
This is my second reading of Neil Gaiman’s haunting young adult book, Coraline, but I have to admit that I enjoyed it much more than the first time. Perhaps it was because my expectations weren’t at a fever pitch like they are whenever a new Neil Gaiman novel comes out or perhaps it was the fact that I was reading the story under a dull gray September sky. I enjoyed it the first time; I reveled in it this time.
Continue reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman (R.I.P. Challenge Book 1)
Take a healthy dose of mythology and eastern religion, mix in the humor of Big Trouble in Little China and the buddy-cop banter of Lethal Weapon and adorn with a fantastic Jon Foster cover and what do you get? Well, you get the beginnings of an entertaining new mystery series by author Liz Williams.
There are several chapters in the Bible consisting solely of genealogies, lists of who beget who, used mostly to establish bloodlines. The last being in Matthew in which the lineage of Jesus is established through the bloodline of King David. I have always found these fascinating because of what they don’t say. You look at the names on the lists and wonder just who these people were and what they did. What big or small things did they do in their lives that may have wrought monumental changes on the world for future generations. There is an unwritten history there that fascinates. The same can be said for J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga The Lord of the Rings. Whether reading the books or watching the films you come across names of individuals and of peoples that give historical depth to the work but also make you wonder who they were and what part they had to play in the development of the Middle-earth of the Third Age. Thankfully Tolkien didn’t just mention these people and pass on, he spent his lifetime developing the creation of his world. The culmination of these efforts can be found in The Silmarillion.