Book Nerd’s Comments (group member since Dec 20, 2018)

Book Nerd’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

I've never read Agatha Christie. I'lltry a couple.

Michelle wrote: "I last read that story about 10 years ago, and have been wanting to re-read it. Recently found this edition on clearance: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (Arcturus Classics) by Washington Irving

...which contains 14 other stories by Irving as well. I think I've only previously read 1 of the other stories."
Yeah, I have a book of stories too. I didn't realize The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was so short. So I'll read the whole book of stories. Rip Van Winkle is also in there. I don't know how many of the others are also kind of scary.

Lindenblatt wrote: "Read five more stories and can only advise young Japanese maidens to never accept the proposal of marriage by any widowed samurai. His deceased wife is certainly going to haunt you (not him!) and subject you to a horrible, painful death..."
Lol yeah, Japanese ghosts are vindictive.

It was very poetic and dreamlike.

Have you ever read The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe? I'm betting Aniara was an inspiration for that.

These were a lot of classic Japanese folk tales. The problem is I've read most of them before.

January & February - The Picture of Dorian Gray(1890) by Oscar Wilde
March & April - The Jewel of Seven Stars(1903) by Bram Stoker
May & June - The Midwich Cuckoos(1957) by John Wyndham
July & August - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(1820) by Washington Irving
September & October - The Phantom of the Opera(1910) by Gaston Leroux
November & December - The Kraken Wakes(1953) by John Wyndham

January - The Well of the Unicorn(1958) by Fletcher Pratt
February - The Lathe of Heaven(1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin
March - Phantastes(1858) by George MacDonald
April - The Dying Earth(1950) by Jack Vance
May - Time and the Gods(1906) and/or The Charwoman's Shadow(1946) by Lord Dunsany
June - The Invincible(1964) by Stanisław Lem
July - The Goblin Reservation(1968) by Clifford D. Simak
August - The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia(1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin
September - Return From the Stars(1961) by Stanisław Lem
October - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington
November - Tau Zero(1970) by Poul Anderson
December - Beauty and the Beast original by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
(view spoiler)[other versions by
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
Andrew Lang
Etc. (hide spoiler)]


2026 Dhalgren(1975) by Samuel R. Delany (This is a long book so I figured it shouldn't just be a monthly read.)

Michelle wrote: "I'm about to start The Dead of Winter: The Demons, Witches and Ghosts of Christmas"

That looks cool.

Lindenblatt wrote: "I am reading a shorter version of this book, which only contains 20 of the 35 stories:

Of Ghosts and Goblins

Read six stories so far and..."
Yeah, those are the best ones for sure.
I've read the story he calls The Dream of Summer Days before. Usually the dragon king's palace is under water, not just on some island, which makes it more strange and exotic.

This is a really weird book.
It's not really the author telling ghost stories, it's him telling about people telling him the stories if that makes any sense.

I really liked this one too.
I loved how they just went father and farther. First the moon, then Pluto, then Vega, then the freaking Lesser Magellanic Cloud!

Rosemarie wrote: "In the Penal Colony is really creepy."
Yeah, I liked that one. And The Burrow.

Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog wrote: "Just a sugestion,
Lefcadio Hern lead an interesting life. He is still respected in Japan as a westerner who made of himself as Japanese as he could. Learning more than just the language and living as much as possible as a native Japanese. This at a time when almost no non white population could expect respect from a westerner.

He is worth your time to seek out more of his books and something of his bio."
That's interesting. We read Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things last year.

I'm about a third of the way through. It's pretty good so far but I want to know more about the mother thing.

I found it pretty odd. It's probably something that loses a lot in translation.

In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living, and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: 'rokuro-kubi', whose heads separate from their bodies at night; 'jikininki', or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless 'mujina' who haunt lonely neighbourhoods. Lafcadio Hearn, a master storyteller, drew on traditional Japanese folklore, infused with memories of his own haunted childhood in Ireland, to create these chilling tales. They are today regarded in Japan as classics in their own right.

Embark on an unforgettable voyage with " A Review of Man in Time and Space," the masterpiece by Nobel laureate Harry Martinson. This profound and captivating epic poem takes readers on a cosmic journey aboard the spaceship Aniara, which, after a catastrophic navigation error, drifts hopelessly into the vastness of space with its passengers from a war-torn Earth.

Rosemarie wrote: "The case kept a lot of lawyers busy.
Which Kafka works have you read?"

The Trial, The Castle, The Metamorphosis, and a few other short stories. I have a whole book of short stories. I should get to reading them all.

Rosemarie wrote: "It's even slower than Kafka, if possible."
I meant the neverending court case

I just started Bleak House. I only know Dickens from Christmas stuff but this is a lot different. The Chancery really reminds me of Kafka.