Slow month for reading due to holidays then other life in general.
I did get back into short story writing though, and as such most of my reading revolved around that.
Neil Gaiman's
Fragile Things: 'Forbidden Brides...', 'Inventing Aladdin' and 'Other People' are stand outs here for me, and I loved the poem 'The Day the Saucers Came' - would recommend this book for any short fiction fans. I probably prefer 'Trigger Warning' overall, but those 3 stories are superb!
As my holiday took me to Prague, I found and finally read a copy of
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. A truly grotesque novella with some interesting messages when you think about it. The end was not the most satisfying, granted, but still made sense and forced the message to hit harder. Though, I'm not sure it's an ending many would risk today. Certainly intend on reading more of Kafka in the near future, despite being very late to this party!
Also read most of Edgar Allan Poe's
Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Really hit and miss this. Some stories, like 'The Black Cat' and 'The Pit and the Pendulum' are awesomely atmospheric. But others are just outright tedious. Poe's long-winded sentence structure works when he's trying to unnerve the reader. When he's just explaining or describing some irrelevance it become tedious. Note to future readers, count the number of times Poe uses the phrase 'at length'
Still, an absolute master of gothic horror and a major influence of my own style as I embark on a series of gothic shorts of my own.
But seriously Poe - stories about landscape gardening? give me a break...
