snowynight

Misery by Stephen King: Paul Sheldon is a romantic novelist kept imprisoned by his deranged fan, and literally needed to write what she wanted to survive. His escalating fear and suffering felt very real to me. The book is haunting and suffocating.

The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler: Popular mystery writer Charles Latimer, stumbles into a world of sinister political and criminal maneuvers when he wants to reconsctruct the career of notorious Dimitrios. A classic tale of an ordinary man finding that he is out of his depth.

Drood by Dan Simmons: a psychological thriller, historical mystery and Gothic horror. Wilkie Collins, the pioneer of detective novels, is depicted to descrnd into destructive obsession when investigating the mysterious Drood

My to be read list is already long, but I still regularly add to it. Some of these writers are famous while some are lesser known.

1. Bram Stoker (I still haven't read Dracula)
2. Verity Holloway: From review, her debut novel Pseudotooth sounds like a weird and intriguing portal dark fantasy with a heroine suffering from regular blackouts, and the Mighty Healer (which is about Victorian patent medicine) sounds interesting.
   
3. Georgette Heyer: I don't really remember why I haven't read her novels, even though I was an avid romance and detective novel reader.
4. M. John Harrison: I saw his Viriconium series listed as an inspiration for a weird dying earth fantasy dungeonpunk setting so I am interested.
5. K. J. Charles: She's such a famous historical and fantasy m/m writer that I feel remiss I haven't read her books yet.

Currently Reading:

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Lawrence Sterne: First published in 1759, it's an apparently autobiographical novel with a lot of digression and word play and can be said as a precursor of stream of consciousness technique. The dynamic of the narrator's uncle Toby and  his subordinate Trim reminds me of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. I am reading it slowly because it requires patience to deal with the many digression.

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman: Still insightful. Makes me realize how much I am a junkie of being busy.

Recently Finished:

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman: The message of the book felt more relevant to me when re-reading it in a time that things got worse every day: Accept that uncertainty is a part of life. Accept that the future won't happen as what you want. Our constant effort to eliminate the negative actually causes us to feel anxious, insecure, and unhappy and doesn't make thing safer (Example: TSA after 9/11 attack). I really likes his conversational style and pragmatic message.

Currently Reading:

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman: I'm a productivity junkie: GTD, pomotodo timer... you name it. However, I find that the problem is seldom an inability to allocate time to more important things. This book serves as a good reminder that life is finite so we can never do everything we want. We can only choose what to procrastinate on.

Recently Finished:

The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett: It's very good for worship and loyalty kink and mentor mentee relationship because of the intense feeling. The description of war casualty hit harder because of the current news.

Single Malt by Layla Reyne. An original m/m romance about a grief stricken widower FBI agent and his new working partner. The mystery investigation is fast paced. friend with benefit when one of them wanting more grief, self guilt, pining when certain that relationships are bad idea are very iddy. The novel ended with an explosive reveal, which probably will add more conflicts in the sequel

Currently Reading

Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson: I like how elusive and evocative her poems are, especially 'I’m Nobody! Who are you?', 'The heart asks Pleasure – first', and "Because I could not stop for Death"

Book to Be Read

Recently Finished:

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis: A dystopian novel written in 1930s, it is about the rise of a populist dictator. Besides how it became relevant with the rise of Trump, the disparity between the protagonist's self perception and what he actually does makes him very real. It's a heavy read in view of current politics, so it takes a lot of time for me to finish.

The Spy in the Elevator by Donald E. Westlake: After a nuclear fallout, the remnants of humanity live in 200-stories-high towers, each independent of the other. The surface was now inhabitable wasteland. The everyman protagonist is waiting for the elevator so he can propose to his girlfriend on the 140th floor, Linda, to enter into Non-P marriage – "Non-Permanent, No Progeny". Unfortunately the elevator is out of order because a spy is here. When the protagonist takes the stairs he meets the spy, who tells him that life has already returned to the surface.

It's a short story written in 1961, so it contains a lot of cold war imagery, but the world building details and dark humour makes it a compelling read.


Currently Reading

The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett: Currently in the middle of the book. The Rat's hero worship of Marco's father continues to be intense after he sets out with Marco for the mission. It's tragic that there are no fics that explore that. I wish FHB didn't put her Christian Science religious belief in a Buddhist monk's mouth, and I shudder when Marco said his father was going to push this to his homeland. Poor Samavia didn't deserve this.

Recently Finished:

Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer: a very charming romance that feels relevant despite written over a century ago.

Poems of William Blake by William Blake: contains Songs of Innocence and of Experience and the Book of Thel. His language is very vivid, with pointed social criticism. It saddens me when I read that quite a lot of his manuscripts were burnt away and lost forever by his acquaintance because they found his writing controversial.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun (1890) : a stream of consciousness novella about a literally starving nameless writer. At a point his health worsens so much that he can't hold any water. Is the narrator going mad because of starvation, or vice versa? There are evidences pointing to both. Very intense and emotionally complex study. 

The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg by Thomas K. Ford: Found this book from a list of obscure historical facts. Interesting information, such as fee regulation law for physicians, and makes me be grateful about medical development 

Currently Reading:

The Secret Life: Being the Book of a Heretic by Elizabeth Bisland. Elizabeth Bisland was a journalist and writer once travelled around the world in 76 days in 1889. She wrote thoughtfully on many topic, such as travel, art and woman's rights. It's sad though to see how the social norm restricts one's thinking even when one tries to rise above it. 

What will I read next:

I have downloaded a number of fiction and non-fiction books from the Gutenberg projects and plan to read them over the course.