2024 Reading Summary: April (+ Writing Update)

Completed reads for April:

• The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
• Carnival of Saints, by George Herman
• The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo
• Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo
• The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo
• Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
• The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell
• The Origin of the Lombard Nation
• Prometheus (poem), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Ganymed (poem), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• The Code of Hammurabi
• Kings of the Night, by Robert E. Howard
• The Orphic Poem of the Derveni Papyrus (fragments)
• They Came to Baghdad, by Agatha Christie
• The Adventure of the German Student, by Washington Irving
• Letter to Sura [On Ghosts], by Pliny the Younger
• The Spectre Bridegroom: A Traveller’s Tale, by Washington Irving
• Kidd the Pirate, by Washington Irving
• The Devil and Tom Walker, by Washington Irving
• The Devil and Daniel Webster, by Stephen Vincent Benet
• Cain (play), by Lord Byron
• The Wild Huntsman (poem), by Gottfried August Bürger
• The Apparition of Mrs Veal, by Daniel Defoe
• The Ring (poem), by Thomas Moore
• The Venus of Ille, by Prosper Mérimée
• Lokis, by Prosper Mérimée
• Markheim, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Thrawn Janet, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Olalla, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Body-Snatcher, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Will o’ the Mill, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Sire de Malétroit’s Door, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Pavilion on the Links, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Merry Men, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Alciphron (poem), by Thomas Moore
• The Haunted and the Haunters; or The House and the Brain, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, by Thomas de Quincey
• Hallowe’en Party, by Agatha Christie
• At Bertram’s Hotel, by Agatha Christie

Hammurabi is Harper’s translation. The Orphic Poem of the Derveni Papyrus is Sider’s.

A solid time for reading, albeit we are dealing with copious shorter texts, often followed up from H.P. Lovecraft’s Supernatural Horror in Literature essay. Lovecraft’s essay is an excellent starting-off point for investigating the Horror genre prior to the 1930s.

Also a decent amount of writing this month:

• At the Bottom of the Garden earned itself a name-change, becoming The One Who Saw Too Much. It ended up complete at 3,600 words, and has now been sent-off.
• Meanwhile, I also completed a 2,700-word piece, The Sweetest Flower of Nuulath, which is based on the Sweet Roland fairy-tale from the Brothers Grimm.
• Just before the end of the month, I managed a 3,000-word piece, Dangerous Antiques, about a British steel magnate and the dreaded Mortensen Cabinet.
• And I dusted off my old necrophiliac Christmas porn story, A Christmas in Bohemia, polished it up, and sent it off to another hapless market. It really is amazing how coming back to old stories with fresh eyes makes a difference from an editorial perspective.

• April 30, 2024
• 2024 Reading Summary, Horror Genre, Reading, Writing
• 1 Comment