Fox, Esquire.

My life, assembl[ag]ed.

[tomstuart]

Early Hallowe’en snacks while working to nail down this Horror Studies special issue.

[tomstuart]

One final ghost story rec for Christmas: “The Diary of Mr. Poynter” by the ghost master, himself, M. R. James. An academic man is haunted by, of all things, wallpaper resembling human hair and an abject spectre. http://www.thin-ghost.org/items/show/137

[liminaliacast]

“….A house with a death in it can never again be bought or sold by the living; it can only be borrowed from the ghosts that have stayed behind…” 

Today’s horror rec: “I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House” (2016). The lives of three women across the history of a house collapse into each other in a temporally complex haunting. Be prepared for a slow, Henry James style burn. 

[tomstuart]

One of my absolute favorites from this month.

[tomstuart]

Tut tut. Looks like rain. (at The University of Western Ontario)

[liminaliacast]

Today’s rec: “Afterward” by Edith Wharton, which tells of a wealthy couple’s interaction with a legendary ghost who can only be recognized as such after the fact. In particular, I’d recommend this edition, which is gorgeously illustrated by Seth, a Canadian artist and illustrator.

[arpeggia]

Isamu Sawa - Without Water, 2017

““Without water plants wither and die. But even in death their beauty lingers in a moment of fleeting, serene imperfection; a delicate death, preserved forever for those who remain.” Isamu Sawa

Adopting a sophisticated macro photographic technique more commonly used in science than art, Without Water is a series of highly detailed botanical images reminiscent of the plates and sketches of the Georgian botanists. Sawa renders his subjects rich in texture and form, revealing an almost otherworldly beauty.” [via Black Eye Gallery]

[liminaliacast]

Today’s horror recommendation: “Sunbleached” by Nathan Ballingrud. I am often skeptical of recent vampire fiction but this story about a boy conniving with and contesting a desperate, injured vampire is genuinely frightening.

http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/sunbleached/

[tomstuart]

Green tower

[liminaliacast]

Hardly anyone will need this text recommended but today’s #shocktober reading was Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. If you have not read this story, you owe it to yourself to drop everything and pick it up. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/theliteratureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf

[tomstuart]

More of my Shocktober adventures.

[tomstuart]

Autumn breezes (at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec)

[liminaliacast]

It’s October 1st! If you need a #shocktober recommendation tonight, take a look at “The Night Wire” from 1926. In only three pages, H.F. Arnold fits in fog ghosts, zombie journalists, and an excellent mixture of the weird and the gothic.

#gothic #weird #weirdfiction #horror #horrorliterature #october #spooky #readinginbed #todaysreading

[tomstuart]

Spooky fog, y'all. Perfect bedtime reading.

[tomstuart]

Tremblant at night. (at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec)

[tomstuart]

The eclipse as seen through a ritz cracker.

[tomstuart]

Got a new (to us) reading chair. Watson seems to approve.

[strandbooks]

Genre Benders

1,545 Likes, 40 Comments - Strand Book Store, NYC (@strandbookstore) on Instagram: “What time is it? ⏰ Time for a new booklist 📚. Here are some genre benders to remind you that genre…”

Here to Remind You That Genre Is a Malleable and Arbitrary Category. Comment with some of your favorite genre benders!

[tomstuart]

"Carpets are better understood of late than of ancient days, but we still very frequently err in their patterns and colors. A carpet is the soul of an apartment... A judge at common law may be an ordinary man; a good judge of a carpet must be a genius."

Edgar Allan Poe - The Philosophy of Furniture

[tomstuart]

Feeling the old town.