Nightmares indeed
This is the sort of children's book that almost shouldn't be classified as such. It's for those kids who can handle it, who don't mind a good scare (or if they've misbehaved in such a horrid way that it's mental anguish time. I don't know, I don't have kids and my childhood was weird. But I digress.).
What's great about these poems is that they are truly scary, and the illustrations are the perfect instrument to accompany them. It opens with "The Haunted House", which describes in detail the terrors within:
In the corners, eyes are gleaming,
everywhere are nightmares streaming,
diabolic horrors are screaming
in the sombrous air.
So shun this place where specters soar—
it’s you and you they’re waiting for
to haunt your souls forevermore
in their castle of despair.
These poems can be fun, too - it IS a children's book, after all - and it was great for me to see a vampire as an actual monster and not some immortal doable douchebag:
With powers now replenished,
his thirst no longer burns.
His quest this night is finished,
so to his tomb he turns,
and there awhile in silence
he’ll rest beneath the mud
until, with thoughts of violence,
he wakes and utters…BLOOD!
"The Ghoul" is a particularly disturbing poem, not just because it describes how a ghoul devours a child, but also it can be seen as a warning for young people to avoid certain adults:
The gruesome ghoul, the grisly ghoul,
without the slightest noise
waits patiently beside the school
to feast on girls and boys.
He lunges fiercely through the air
as they come out to play,
then grabs a couple by the hair
and drags them far away...
Truly chilling.
The book ends with "The Dance of the Thirteen Skeletons". Maybe it's just me, but I thought this poem was fun and had some of the best illustrations in the book:
Definitely recommended for fans of horror and the macabre.
Graphic design belongs to all of us.
In case you didn't know, Chip Kidd is The Man when it comes to book cover design. He created the iconic cover for Jurassic Park (later used to help sell the movie), as well as numerous others you'll undoubtedly recognize and admire.
His awesome work can be found here: http://www.chipkidd.com/gallery.html
Go is Kidd's guide to graphic design, keeping a lighthearted tone and a positive attitude throughout. His assertions that anyone can be a designer is contagious, and forces the reader to try to think of ways to unleash his/her creativity.
Some of his "assignments" are fun, such as picking the font that best represents you (mine was "perfect for scary stories or depicting the word 'filthy'"...heh.). Others are more challenging, like designing your own logo. Still, Kidd is enthusiastic about the subject, and this book will definitely gets some gears churning.
I am the Priest of the Absurd."
- B.H. Fairchild, "At the Cafe de Flore", Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest
Absence eviscerates me,
And I dwell in a cavernous, constant
'Horror vacui'."
- Donald Hall, "Advent", The Back Chamber
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Poetry that stays with you
Hall's poetry is sparse and avoids delving into unnecessary prose and descriptions. Instead, his words focus on the blunt instrument of emotion. He has a gift for making the reader feel a kinship, even if s/he hasn't gone through the exact experience Hall is describing.
There were many favorites for me in this, particularly "Three Women", "Ruins", and countless others. Here is poetry worth quoting, and reading, if not for the stark honesty, then for the cheek:
Hostess Twinkies,
Wonder Bread.
How many springs
Until I'm dead?
Hall's distaste for sycophants comes across in some of his self-aware works:
...They outfitted my body
in an orange jumpsuit, strapped me to a metal gurney,
and executed me by injecting 500 cc of frigid adulation."
(From "The Pursuit of Poetry").
Highly recommended.
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REBLOG: How to Deal with Reading Slumps
Check out Literary Exploration's excellent approach to reading slumps here:
http://literaryexploration.booklikes.com/post/710132/how-to-deal-with-reading-slumps
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Changed my blog background yet again...
...and I'm already thinking of changing it. But in the meantime, enjoy!
- The Minotaur
Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
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Poor child. There is always a first time, and it is never the last time."
Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
2
- The Monaciello describing her great Quest
3
Shadow-Ell describing Halloween, Queen of Fairyland
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REBLOG: Arts & Crafts and Hobbies Free eBooks and Instructions Online
I found this list on a site I subscribe to and thought that people who like arts and crafts books might find some good freebies on it.
All Free Crafts there are only a few free craft books available for free download in PDF. The site does have a good number of craft ideas for free online viewing. No registration required for free downloads or viewing. This link is to the free ebooks page.
Amazon This link is to the Crafts, Hobbies & Home listings of the top 100 free ebooks at Amazon. More free ebook offerings in this category may be found using the features listed in our article Best Free Online Books For Kindle.
Barnes & Noble has a huge collection of free EPUB novels. They claim over 1,800,000 free listings. Not all are full books, but there are a lot of free full ebooks. Registration is required (credit card information) for the free download and this may be subject to residency. This link is to the Crafts & Hobbies section of the USA site.
Daily Free Books (UK) monitors Amazon (UK) for its daily free offerings. They offer genre selection as well as sorting by time (including since your last visit). They also offer free listings from Smashwords, which can be viewed with the Amazon offerings, alone or not at all (Amazon only). This link is to the Crafts & Hobbies free ebook listings at both Amazon and Smashwords.
DigiLibraries has over 20,000 free ebooks in a wide variety of genres. All are available for free to read online and all are available in EPUB for the Nook and MOBI for KIndle. This link is to their Crafts& Hobbies free ebook listings.
DIY Network the do it yourself site has a large collection of written instruction, with photos, crafts projects. All are available for free viewing online without registration.
eHow a large collection of crafts projects. Apparently some cost money, but all the ones I saw were free with registration required. I have received no emails from them after registration. A mix of written instructions with photos and video presentations.
eReader IQ due to the changes in Amazon policy, they now offer an "abbreviated" listing of the limited time free book offers from Amazon. This link is to their genre listings for free ebooks in the Crafts, Hobbies & Home category.
Fave Craft you have to provide an email address to see the site. After that a free registration will allow you to get all their craft books for free download in PDF. There is a very good collection of crafts books here. Caution: I receive several emails daily from them and I see no way to opt out.
Foboko has over 2400 free ebooks divided into various categories for free reading online or free download in TXT, PDF, EPUB, MOBIPocket and direct send to Kindle. Free registration is required (I have received no spam) and there is a limit of 5 downloads per month (no limit on reading online). There are some unique entries here. This link is to their Recreation & Hobbies free selections.
For Dummies apparently provides information from the For Dummies series of books. The site provides articles and videos, this link is to the articles under crafts and hobbies. There is a large collection of articles. All are available for free reading online and appear to be a page long. You can select some other related hobby categories and use the Type pulldown menu to select articles or videos. All are available without registration.
Free Read Feed (USA) regularly posts, throughout the day, the limited time free ebook offerings at Amazon (USA). This is an extensive listing of the free ebook offerings, showing the genre (with option to exclude that genre or show only that genre in results) and the length of the ebook. They have some filtering options, length of ebook and date of free offering as well as a large genre listing option to exclude genres (click on Pick from a list). This link is to their genre listings for free ebooks in the Crafts, Hobbies & Home category.
Heidoc offers search by genre of the limited time free offerings at Amazon. Daily updates by email are available and you have the option to select updates only for certain genre(s). This link is to the Crafts, Hobbies & Home listings.
How To Do Things a collection of non-illustrated one page guides to various crafts projects. There are some more projects in the Hobbies category. All are available for free viewing online without registration.
Hundred Zeros USA monitors the "Best Sellers" list at Amazon (referenced above) and has all the listings on one page. They offer RSS and eMail updates. This link is to their Crafts & Hobbies free selections.
Hundred Zeros Canada monitors the "Best Sellers" list at Amazon (referenced above) and has all the listings on one page. They offer RSS and eMail updates. This link is to the Crafts, Hobbies & Home free selections.
InkMesh monitors Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Baen and Smashwords for free Nook offerings. They have a nice search facility. This link to their of free ebooks under the Crafts, Hobbies & Home category free ebook listings.
Instructables a large collection of written instruction, with photos, for crafts projects. All available for free viewing online without registration.
Interweave has a mice collection of crafts books available for free download in PDF. Free registration is required with confirmation email. They have several sub-sites that they connect you to, but the one registration works for all. Once you have registered, be sure to check the subscriptions page. You will be signed up for a number of newsletters, but there is an option to unsubscribe. Once I unsubscribed, I received no further emails.
Kobo has over 1 million free ebooks and all are available for free download in ePub. There are six categories listed for free ebooks. The best way to find the free ebooks seems to be a search and then sort by low to high price. There is also a listing of the latest free ebooks. Free registration is required. There may be a limitation as to what countries this is available for. This link is to their listings under a search of Crafts. More free ebooks may be found with additional searches related to what you are looking for.
oBooko has 16 free ebooks in its Hobbies & Crafts - Pastimes category. All are available for free download in PDF. Free registration is required. I have never received any spam from them.
Open Library claims to have over 1 million free ebooks available. Many of the ebooks available are offered in the many different version which were published. So the same novel may available in quite a few different versions. So they may not have 1 million different novels available, but they sure do have a lot. Every book I looked at was available for free download in a wide variety of formats. This link is to their listings under the subject of Crafts.
Read Free Book.net this is a link to their Hobbies collection. The first 8 books listed, I checked and were not free, but the other 14 were and looked good. I made comments about the not free and hopefully they will be removed. All are available for free download in PDF (zipped). Thanks to Pachilo for this site.
Smashwords has 46 free books and articles in their Crafts & Hobbies collection. All are available for free online viewing and free download in a wide variety of formats without registration.
WikiHow provides how to articles of a wide range in their Hobbies and Crafts category. All appear to be one page guides with photo illustrations and are available for free viewing online without registration.
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(groans) This is about to become A Thing....
So, heads up.
http://carinaolsen.tumblr.com/post/67149404205
More here:
https://twitter.com/CarinaOlsen
(let's keep discussions civil. I'll add my two cents if anyone is interested)
A few bursts of brilliance, but mostly dull.
There are writers who are clearly talented and intelligent, with something to say, but their writing is so clinical that it's difficult to stay engaged. For me, Mary Oliver is one of those writers. I found her poetry to be far more arresting than her essays, which tended to be long-winded and full of navel-gazing.
Once in a while I found bits of genius on Oliver's layers of sentences, like this:
It is supposed that a writer writes what he knows about and knows well. It is not necessarily so. A writer's subject may just as well, if not more likely, be what the writer longs for and dreams about, in an unquenchable dream, in lush detail and harsh honesty.
This is probably a personal preference, but I also enjoyed Oliver more when she was being a bit random rather than when she was utterly focused on a subject. Cases in point:
There are as many worlds as there are imaginers.
In order to be the person I want to be, I must strive, hourly, against the drag of others.
I can think for a little while; then, it's the world again.
This isn't to say Oliver is outright unbearable when she's focused. When she is passionate, her gift for poetry emerges:
Now comes a peaceful day, all day long. Then comes evil, crossing the street, going out of its way with determined steps and a face like a nail - invasive, wanting to molest, to hurt, to stain, to dismay, to dishearten.
I only wish that gift would come out more in her writing.
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REBLOG: The Story Coaster from artist Grant Snider
Reblogged from Rick Townley's World of Books & Publishing.
.................
Grant Snider is the enterprising creator of Incidental Comics and also does posters. This one seemed especially appropriate for BookLikes.
Click on the picture to see more of Grant's works:
