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Post by Middoth on Nov 22, 2021 12:25:34 GMT
Once upon a time, my late father bought me Dan Simmons' "Carrion Comfort" , which I asked him to return to where I took it. I feel I have to go back to this book and give it a try. The size is of course frightening, almost "Anna Karenina".
But with the Gustav Meyrink's "Golem" I had no problems A hypnotic book, I remember it almost by heart. I read it in my grandmother's house, at the age of 17, sneezing from dust and experiencing one of the greatest reading delights in my life.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 14, 2022 20:18:50 GMT
His Underground is a fascinating oral history of the sarin gas attack that the cult Aum perpetrated in the Tokyo subway system (remember that?). Do I ever! I went to a conference in Japan in 1995 where there was an Indian guy whose family name was Sarin. He had had some trouble getting into the country.
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Post by pbsplatter on Jan 5, 2023 19:47:23 GMT
About 12 years ago I began reading Interview with the Vampire by Ann Rice. I read about half of the book, but just couldn't finish it. I found it hard-going and it didn't hold my interest enough to justify ploughing through to the end. I had a similar experience; I remember liking it well enough for a while, but there was just too much of it and if I'm going to slog through a book, it's not going to be one about vampires!
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Post by Swampirella on Jan 5, 2023 19:54:27 GMT
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Post by ripper on Jan 5, 2023 20:32:56 GMT
About 12 years ago I began reading Interview with the Vampire by Ann Rice. I read about half of the book, but just couldn't finish it. I found it hard-going and it didn't hold my interest enough to justify ploughing through to the end. I had a similar experience; I remember liking it well enough for a while, but there was just too much of it and if I'm going to slog through a book, it's not going to be one about vampires! I borrowed it as an audio book on CD from my local library, so I could just sit back and listen to it, but it still bored me. Another I couldn't finish was Ash by James Herbert. I had quite enjoyed Haunted and Ghosts of Sleith, but the plot got progressively sillier and I just didn't care about the characters or what happened to them. I just about made it through Secret of Crickley Hall, but Ash defeated me, and I have never felt the urge for a a re-match.
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Post by pbsplatter on Jan 5, 2023 21:46:11 GMT
I just had that same experience with Herbert, actually. I picked up a copy of Shrine and tried to make headway into it two or three times but I just can't.
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 25, 2023 0:59:36 GMT
Any book can be finished, if you set your mind to it. The question is if you really want to, or not.
I am now struggling with David Lindsay's Devil's Tor. A good book, but extremely slow, as it deals with the internal more than the external. I can't read for very long, before getting distracted by other things. A spiritual book, seeking paths to heightened existence. It also analyzes social relationships in interesting ways. There are sporadic supernatural elements, which are subtle, but very well crafted and convincing.
Reading W. H. Hodgson's The Night Land was a breeze comparably.
I will finish it.
I am also very eager to read M. P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud, in the full version. I used to try to dismiss Shiel on the ground of him being "an imitator of Poe". But he can't be dismissed. His prose is much too good. I don't have any of his books on my shelves, but would like to have at least one representable example.
I would also like to read Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. And Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (to find out first hand what the fuss about national socialism is all about). But I am not sure I will have enough patience for either, as my mind usually requires the fantastic to stay focused.
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Post by helrunar on Jan 25, 2023 2:54:16 GMT
I loved Shiel's short story "Xelucha." As a teenager I bought and owned for a time a volume of his tales with that story as the headliner; it was one of those handsome mid Seventies hardbound reprints. Unfortunately the book long ago went the way of all flesh, but I recall the cover drawing on the dust jacket as having a certain nightmarish quality to it.
H.
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 25, 2023 8:37:07 GMT
I loved Shiel's short story "Xelucha." As a teenager I bought and owned for a time a volume of his tales with that story as the headliner; it was one of those handsome mid Seventies hardbound reprints. Unfortunately the book long ago went the way of all flesh, but I recall the cover drawing on the dust jacket as having a certain nightmarish quality to it. H. That sounds as if you had the Arkham House edition. I read "Xelucha", and, like Lovecraft commented, it is a poisonous piece. I found it painful. But it again proves that Shiel was no hack.
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Post by andydecker on Jan 25, 2023 9:26:07 GMT
Reading W. H. Hodgson's The Night Land was a breeze comparably. This must be the worst recommendation I read in a long time. :-)
Of course you are right. With the right incentive you can finish any text.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jan 25, 2023 14:53:43 GMT
I loved Shiel's short story "Xelucha." As a teenager I bought and owned for a time a volume of his tales with that story as the headliner; it was one of those handsome mid Seventies hardbound reprints. Unfortunately the book long ago went the way of all flesh, but I recall the cover drawing on the dust jacket as having a certain nightmarish quality to it. H. I liked The House of Sounds. House of Usher influenced, but the use of sound is turned on its head. Darkness now was around meāand sound. I seemed to stand in the centre of some yelling planet, the row resembling the resounding of many thousands of cannon, punctuated by strange crashing and breaking uproars. And a sadness descended on me; I was near to tears. āHere,ā I said, āis the place of weeping; not elsewhere is the vale of sighing.ā However, I passed forward through a succession of halls, and was wondering where to go next, when a hideous figure, with a lamp in his hand, stamped towards me. I shrank from him! It seemed the skeleton of a lank man wrapped in a winding-sheet, till the light of one tiny eye, and a film of skin over a portion of the face reassured one. Of ears he showed no sign. His name, I afterwards learned, was Aith; and his appearance was explained by his pretence (true or false), that he had once suffered burning, almost to the cinder-stage, but had somehow recovered. With an expression of malice, and agitated gestures, he led the way to a chamber on the upper stage, where, having struck light to a taper, he made signs toward a spread table, and left me. For a long time I sat in solitude, conscious of the shaking of the mansion, though every sense was swallowed up and confounded in the one impression of sound. Water, water, was the worldāa nightmare on my breast, a desire to gasp for breath, a tingling on my nerves, a sense of being infinitely drowned and buried in boundless deluges; and when the feeling of giddiness, too, increased, I sprang up and pacedābut suddenly stopped, angry, I scarce knew why, with myself. I had, in fact, caught myself walking with a certain hurry, not usual with me, not natural to me. So I forced myself to stand and take note of the hall. It was large, and damp with mists, so that its tattered, but rich, furniture looked lost in it, its centre occupied by a tomb bearing the name of a Harfager of the fourteenth century, and its walls old panels of oak. Having drearily seen these things, I waited on with an intolerable consciousness of solitude; but a little after midnight the tapestry parted, and Harfager with a rapid stalk walked in.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Feb 1, 2023 10:33:13 GMT
Shiel's "How Life Climbs" is pretty extraordinary, touching on alien sex decades before Philip JosƩ Farmer was noted for dealing with it.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 1, 2023 11:03:27 GMT
Shiel's "How Life Climbs" is pretty extraordinary, touching on alien sex decades before Philip JosƩ Farmer was noted for dealing with it. Where would one find that one?
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Post by Knygathin on Feb 2, 2023 0:21:46 GMT
Shiel's "How Life Climbs" is pretty extraordinary, touching on alien sex decades before Philip JosƩ Farmer was noted for dealing with it. Where would one find that one? It seems a very rare piece. New Tales of Horror by Eminent Authors
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Post by Knygathin on Feb 2, 2023 0:25:05 GMT
Reading W. H. Hodgson's The Night Land was a breeze comparably. This must be the worst recommendation I read in a long time. :-) But, it is a good book. :-)
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