Suggested reading for cold winter nights

As some of you might know, I'm an avid reader.

Snuggling up in a warm robe & slippers on a comfy couch, with a glass of whiskey or port by my side and my pipe full of cherry cavendish tobacco, and reading for hours is one of my favorite hobbies at night.

Thus, after the jump comes a list of books i've recently read that might interest most of you.



The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis: One of the first true gothic novels, this book has it all. Evil, lustful, rapist monk? check. Old sepulchres full of rotting corpses? check. Satanic rituals? check. Ghost and demons? check. Angry mob raping and killing nuns? check.

and it was all written in the 18th century. Damn! A real jewel.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks: Something more modern, but equaliy if not more disturbing. Actually, it is more disturbing. This novel is the story of Frank, a young scottish lad living alone with his father, on a tiny island near the cost of scotland. This young man obviously has something abnormal about him. Mauled by a dog in his youth, and having commited a few murders while still a young boy, he describes weird rituals he uses to try and communicate with his insane brother, locked away in an asylum.

A very enjoyable read, with an interesting twist at the end.

Buried Alive by Jan Bondeson: This one isn't a book of fiction; it is a well documented book about the phenomenon of premature burial throughout history and litterature. It covers many interesting subjects such as legends, apparent death, methods for detecting death, waiting mortuaries and many more. A lot of research has been done by the author, and his sources are well documented. A very interesting book to satisfy your morbid curiosity.

Stiff by Mary Roach: Again, a researched book about another not-so-glorious aspect of medecine. Death, or actually, what happens to your body after death. Written with great style, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, this books covers everything from decomposition to dissection to cremation. The author went to great lenghts to get her information; she witnessed embalmings, dissections, and had a tour of the Body Farm, and interviewed many interesting people working in the domain of cadavers.

Very informative, and fun at the same time!

That's all for the moment; I'm going back to sticking my nose in Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness. See ya!