Problem Solved!

Right, I feel I’m back on track now. I’ve got Shadows of Death by H P Lovecraft to read in my rare lunch breaks, and my pick up/put down occasional book will be The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. If I like it, it will become by evening book when I have finished Madam Bovary.

H P Lovecraft is quite an interesting individual. His style is very gothic like the 19th Century sensation writers but he is actually early 20th Century. SBS or ABC did a documentary on him about a month ago. I thought it was an unusual subject for a mid week documentary however was very pleased to have stumbled across it. The author of Reanimator – which became a cult horror movie - is an absolute legend and inspiration to modern authors and movie makers such as Stephen King and John Carpenter. You just have to read ‘N’ from Just After Sunset by Stephen King to realise that it is a tribute to Lovecraft’s creations of Cthulhu and The Great Old Ones.

Lovecraft was a very solitary man, he did marry briefly and tried the social life but ultimately he went back to his small home town alone. A prolific writer, he really did not get the recognition or the reward that he truly deserved for his very original stories. They can be funny in their own way, the beast will literally be at the door but the narrator keeps on writing about how close it is, how scared he is, and the terror he is in, instead of running! While probably dated now, I’m sure I will enjoy them, I’ll just transport myself to the era that they were written to fully appreciate them.

The copy that I have is ISBN 9780345483331 with an Introduction by Harlan Ellison. Now Ellison himself is a very interesting individual. He is most famous for writing Demon with a Glass Hand for The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, I forget which and I can’t be bothered to Google it, just relying on the old grey matter tonight. Demon with a Glass Hand and another of his stories were the inspiration for the hugely successful Terminator movies. It has taken many years but Ellison is now credited with this fact at the beginning of the Terminator TV Series (The Sara Connor Chronicles?). You can watch Demon with a Glass Hand on u-tube. I used to love the Outer Limits, they just don’t make shows like that any more. It’s all vampires these days.

What about the new Di Caprio Movie Inception? I am so excited! The premise reminds me a little of the old Dennis Quaid movie Dreamscape. I’m definitely going to see this at the movies on the weekend.

Book Club was really good tonight, a good turn out.  It was a bit cold in the restaurant, but I had a lovely lasagne even though it took me all night to eat it as I was gas-bagging so much!!

Off to bed now hopefully to get a decent nights sleep. My bogan neighbours kept me awake last night to the point I could take it no longer and I had to get up, open my bathroom window, and yell out to them to keep the noise down as we were trying to sleep. If they want to party all night, that’s fine, but when it’s a work night – take it indoors, not out on the back deck disturbing the whole neighbourhood.

Right, that’s out of my system….. but I’m making up the couch in my study tonight just in case!