You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 20, 2013.
I absolutely love HP Lovecraft; I gave a bit of background to my adoration when I reviewed one of his short stories during an ill-fated challenge to read 100 short stories in a year, and that still stands. He got to me young and I haven’t even tried tear myself away from the eldritch world of Cthulhu and the Elder Ones.
At the Mountains of Madness is probably my favourite Lovecraft novella and I was excited when the Book God pointed out that a graphic novel of said tale had been published and of course I had to get it. Rather good it is too, capturing the horror of the ill-fated Miskatonic University expedition of 1930 without being too gruesome.
At the same time I came across a short e-book called Ice Cores, a set of essays on ATMOM which look at the influences on Lovecraft which may have had an impact on his writing of the novella , as well as the context in which he was
writing, and a bit on the story’s publication history. The author links fascination with the polar regions right back to Frankenstein, some of Poe’s stories (Arthur Gordon Pym for one) and in turn some works that Lovecraft himself influenced. An interesting diversion, though much of what he covers is necessarily speculation. Gets you thinking though.
All of this makes up a tiny bit for my disappointment that, for the moment at least, it doesn’t seem the movie version of ATMOM planned by Guillermo del Toro and set to star Tom Cruise will be made. Let’s hope that changes soon; I would love to see what he might do with this atmospheric tale.
So today my little blog is six years old, and I am very pleased with what it’s managed to achieve under the benign neglect of its erstwhile parent (which is an indication that its probably a good thing that I don’t have children in real life). It started off as a bit of an experiment in a year that (looking back now) was difficult for me in some ways but was also a turning point, and I’m thrilled that, despite some genuine reading slumps, its still going from strength to strength.
2013 has started off strongly in terms of reading and I hope that continues. My main resolution is to respond better to comments and to comment more on other blogs and that’s going well so far too.
I will turn 51 in a couple of weeks time and I’m pretty pleased about that as well; I rather like being middle-aged and am continuing to become ever more disreputable.
So here’s to another year of good books and good conversation!
Oh, and the cake is from my 50th birthday party last January (just in case you’re interested – I always like to know about cake!)
