Seems like a smaller list than the last few, but there are some pretty LARGE books down there.
(4 May 2015)
Finished rereading Hans Richter’s DADA – ART AND ANTI-ART. I love Dada (if that isn’t obvious) and I consider this to be one of the strongest and most enjoyable considerations of that particular experiment. I will undoubtedly read this book again (and again…)
(9 May 2015)
Read Howard Cruse’s graphic novel, STUCK RUBBER BABY, which was a very well written and somewhat crushing book about racism and homophobia in the American South in the 1960s. Excellent, although very unsettling, book.
(22 May 2015)
Reread J. K. Rowling’s HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE for the third time, I believe. Still fun. I felt the need to revisit somewhere familiar…
(28 May 2015)
Finished reading “The Transplanted Ghost” by Wallace Irwin, another story from Dr. Dorothy Scarborough’s HUMOROUS GHOST STORIES collection. An okay story. Nothing special, though.
(31 May 2015)
Finished reading OEDIPUS AT COLONUS by Sophocles, (probably rereading, although if I did read it before it was 20 or 25 years ago, and I’d forgotten the whole thing.) Not a lot happens in this play, on stage anyway. Thrilling occurances left and right (kidnappings, rescues, wars, divine raptures, etc…) but none of it happens on stage.
(1 Jun. 2015)
Finished rereading HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS.
(9 Jun. 2015)
Finished rereading HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. Humming through the books this time. Fun, and it’s surprising how many details I’ve forgotten since last time!
(20? Jun. 2015)
Forgot to record the actual date, but somewhere around the 20th, give or take a day or two, I finished HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.
(7 Jul. 2015)
Finished reading “The Uninhabited House” by Mrs. J. H. Riddell, which is either a VERY long short story or a very short novel. I read it in the OCCULT DETECTIVE MEGAPACK, edited (I believe) by John Betancourt. (He’s listed as “publisher” in the credits, but no other editor is listed, so there you go.) The story was okay, more of a romance with a ghost in it than a horror story, though.
(12 Jul. 2015)
Finished rereading HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. I enjoyed it, again.
(26 Jul. 2015)
Finished reading “The Whisperer in Darkness” by H. P. Lovecraft, from THE CTHULHU MYTHOS MEGAPACK, which I’ve mentioned in several other reading lists. This wasn’t a bad story, but not my favorite Lovecraft by any estimation.
(5 Aug. 2015)
Finally finished reading the last book in Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER series. Killed off the tower itself just a few minutes ago. It took me YEARS to read all seven books (eight books, actually, if you count book 4.5—and I do), but it didn’t take me as many years as it took King to write them all. There are some silly bits in the series (improbabilities piled on improbabilities), and the ending is a tad anticlimactic, and I’m not a big fan of King’s made up sayings and “regional” dialects that he likes to stuff down the readers’ throats throughout, BUT with those things said, I did enjoy the series. Part western, part horror, part science fiction, part fairy tale, part autobiography, and all King. I usually find his writing easy to read, and he certainly is adept at creating mood… My recommendation: if you have the time and don’t mind an ultimately dark and tragic tale, Roland the Gunslinger is a worthwhile traveling companion—especially if you want to read about some shit getting shot to pieces. Overall: I liked it.
(5 Aug. 2015)
Finished reading the H. P. Lovecraft novella, HERBERT WEST – REANIMATOR from the H. P. Lovecraft THE COMPLETE COLLECTION megapack. Fun stuff, and far less disgusting than the REANIMATOR film.
(17 Aug. 2015)
Finished rereading HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. Still a good story, even with the sad funeral ending… (I’m not much of a fan of sentimentality.)
(2 Sep. 2015)
Finished rereading J. K. Rowling’s HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. I’m pretty sure it was my third time reading this series, and I do still enjoy the books. There are a few moments of strained logic and some weird “rules” for the use of magic, but if you just GO WITH IT, the stories are fun. And there are a LOT of monsters. I’m positive that I’ll read them again in a few years.
And that’s it for this episode! Come back (in a couple of months) for another list of more things that I’ve read!!!
—Richard F. Yates
The Primitive Entertainment Workshop 