[Sledgehammer]

It's surprising that I couldn't find a thread dedicated to literature and I believe it's time to change that.

Let's discuss various books, talk about who is currently reading what, what is your favorite book or who is your favorite author, what genres you like, etc, and of course ask for advice on what to read. Any genre or form is fine, be it novels, poetry, history, politics, fiction or pretty much anything.

Do not hesitate to post links for public domain books.

Some useful links:
https://www.gutenberg.org
https://dp.la
https://openlibrary.org
http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain
https://isbndb.com

[Radar]

I've been wanting to get into reading actual books too. This year I finished "Discrimination & Disparities" by Thomas Sowell. Right now I'm reading "Black Rednecks & White Liberals", but a stupid training program with my work is taking up most of my free time.

[Sledgehammer]

I've been very interested in foreign literature lately. For the past years I've read historical/documental books mostly, but this year I wanted to give more attention to novels. Speaking of history, I'd like to hear recommendations about the rise of communists in America, if anyone knows good stuff about that topic of course.

Anyway, the last book I've finished reading was "Pharaoh", a novel written by Boleslaw Prus who seems to be one of the most known Polish writers. Ironically, unlike previous books of this author, Pharaoh was not published there, so I had to read English version that I managed to get by a pure coincidence.

The novel combines various genres, such as politics, history, utopia, adventure and some others, and it does a good job at immersing readers into ancient Egypt because author did his research pretty well. Came for some adventurous ancient Egypt story and enjoyed the book more than I expected due to how much there is in it, my favorite part was detailed depiction of life of ancient Egyptian society. Definitely going to re-read.

By the way, I wonder if books based on games are as shitty as people say. Not that it would surprise me that those books might be bad, but there must be exceptions, right? At least I heard good things about Star Wars Republic Commando series that I haven't been able to touch yet.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Ooo, ooo. This sounds like a promising topic.

I can't comment on the Republic Commando novels, but the books for Jedi Knight were decent. I feel like Star Wars stuff doesn't come off as a proper video game novel, since there are people who are interested in making decent Star Wars novels, at least back then. I do recall briefly reading the Resident Evil novels and they were terrible, hence the briefly.

Recently, I finished Typee by Herman Melville, a fascinating semi-fictional look at the peoples of the Marquesas Islands in the mid-19th century. Its got a central narrative, but the real joy in it is all the time Melville dedicated to describing how the islanders live and their objects, in detail. I mean, yeah, its got a story about how the author tries to escape from the cannibals holding him hostage, but given its semi-fictional nature, you kinda know how the story ends.
Currently, I'm reading Warthog, a book about the experiences of A-10 "Warthog" pilots in the Gulf War. The problems they encountered when the plane entered real combat, like flying at night, flying in the dusty desert. One of the more harrowing things so far was the planes refueling mid-air. I partially understand why someone thought that up, but I also think that has to be one of the craziest things anyone has ever thought up.
I think I'll want to read more stuff on the experiences of military personnel. Any recommendations there? Warthog mentions Stuka Pilot due to the history of cannons on planes, and I am aware of Osprey Publishing. (which I think is more related to actual descriptions of military equipment or theatres than personal experience) I'm mostly interested in stuff dating back to about the late 18th century, but earlier is fine too.

[Sledgehammer]

Let's hope more people take any interests in it. Still waiting to get some recommendations on rise of communists in America.

In case of SW, it greatly helps that SW itself is huge on its own, it goes beyond video games so I guess there is that, the universe itself is huge with pretty deep lore. People also say that since Disney buyout quality of novels became really bad.

As for military, do you want historical stuff only? Your best bet could be memoirs, the best stuff if you want real experience from actual soldiers and military officers. Most of the stuff I've read was related to WWII when it comes to military in general and I could try to search for some stuff if I still have it, unfortunately a lot of things I've read were on the web. But anyway, late 18th century is an interesting topic.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Yeah, sorry, I've got nothing on communists except the KGB and the Soviet's military weaponry.

Yeah, there are bad Star Wars novels too, but I think they're mostly few and far between, at least before the Disney buyout. I haven't read any of them, since I lost interest after they culled the game company, but from what I've heard they get really bad. Something about a wedding where the groom farts a lot for some reason and the Empire turns into some cartoonishly evil and incompetent group with unlimited funds and personnel. I vaguely recall something about them bombing their own planets so they can relocate the population to another planet and somehow nobody knows anything about this. At that point, I knew that even if they decided to bring Kyle Katarn back nothing good would come of it. Maybe that stuff makes sense in context, but eh...

Memoirs, maybe a collection of people's experiences. Not like fictional stuff, although modern views on it are fine. What I really recall wishing I could find a book on was American cavalry during the Revolutionary War. The two lead figures, who I now forget the names of, sounded like they had very interesting experiences during the war.

[jkas789]

I honestly just wanted to brag about my latest acquisition.

IT IS FINALLY MINE BOYS LETS GOOOOOOO-

Sledgehammer, on 23 August 2019 - 09:01 AM, said:

I've been very interested in foreign literature lately. For the past years I've read historical/documental books mostly, but this year I wanted to give more attention to novels. Speaking of history, I'd like to hear recommendations about the rise of communists in America, if anyone knows good stuff about that topic of course.

Also, if you interested in foreign novels may I recommend the Belascoarán series of mexican detective by spanish/mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II. They are pretty great. You can buy the whole collection on amazon.

I also recommend the trilogy of detective novels by Arturo Perez Reverte, Falco, Era and Sabotaje.

In regards to historical novels the series of novels of El Capitan Alatriste from the same author are pretty great as well.

[jkas789]

So I managed to find the complete 336 books of The Shadow that were published from 1931-1980 in digital format, turned them into a epub and merged them all in a single epub for convenience.

It's not perfect as the source was a bunch of txt files with very spotty spacing, but it's something. Also I'm not formatting 336 novels, I ain't got the time for that shit.

Uploaded it to Internet Archive because getting a hold of the novels is a bitch and a half, and not all of them can be gotten today. I also uploaded a 7zip file with the the 336 novels separated in the original format I got them (.txt) .

[ImpieTheThird]

Got a pristine library copy of this book from 1993, complete with a swell dust cover. Seems like it's never been read.

I've been a Bond fan since I first saw Dr No as a kid, but I never much cared for the original Fleming novels. He basically wrote travelogues with the occasional car chase or gunfight. Mostly he seemed to just want to write about the exotic places he wants to go, or the kinds of cigarettes or meals he enjoys, or the fancy clubs and beaches he's been to, etc. It's very dense and pointless detailing that makes his stories drag. And Bond tends to be a bit wimpy most of the time, too. I preferred the John Gardner books since he actually wrote spy/military thrillers and gave Bond the same treatment. Turns out Fleming would draft the actual story with the first draft, and then pad them with travelogue shit in later drafts; he died before he could give the second draft treatment to this one, so the story is told straighter than his other books, which I unfortunately think is a blessing.

Anyway, Golden Gun is one of two Fleming books I actually really like (the other being Octopussy and the Living Daylights). Even the openings to most of his other books are drab and focus too much on the locale or something. This one starts right off with the Secret Service trying to figure out if the guy trying to contact them claiming to be James Bond is indeed James Bond, who has been missing, presumed dead, for a year. You get plunged right into the inner workings of the Secret Service's screening service for anyone trying to get in touch with them, and see how they handle rogue/missing agents suddenly returning, how they establish their identity and credentials, etc. And no sooner is Bond finally allowed in to see M, Bond then tries to assassinate M, because it turns out Bond has been brainwashed by the Russians over the past year. After Bond is un-brainwashed, instead of sending him to prison for 20+ years, M sends him on a mission to kill Scaramanga, The Man with the Golden Gun, a guy who is apparently hot shit with a pistol and essentially unkillable, aka "suicide mission". Better to die in the field than rot in prison, maybe prove he's still useful if he survives. All of that in just the first two chapters.

Scaramanga himself is a pretty nasty and irredeemable dude, too. You can't wait to see him get his comeuppance.

This is one case where the book is definitely better than the movie. Most of the time I've actually found the opposite to be true, despite what book nerds frequently claim (definitely not the case for Jack Reacher, though). Movies can usually take a bloated story and condense it into something more palatable and economical (LotR), or take a book that comes off like a bad comedy and turn it into a badass action movie (Where Eagles Dare), etc.

jkas789, on 18 April 2021 - 08:52 AM, said:

I honestly just wanted to brag about my latest acquisition.

IT IS FINALLY MINE BOYS LETS GOOOOOOO-

image0.jpg

I used to watch the show and thought I read something about the characters being based on the creators' D&D party. Weren't they serialized in a magazine or something?

[jkas789]

ImpieTheThird, on 10 February 2022 - 11:43 PM, said:

That is one freaking cool acquisition Impie!

Quote

I used to watch the show and thought I read something about the characters being based on the creators' D&D party. Weren't they serialized in a magazine or something?

They were indeed AFAIK. Then because they were pretty popular they got al collected, edited and then published as a novel, starting one of the biggest and well regarded franchises of fantasy adventure from Japan.

[Šneček]

One of my favorite authors is Jules Verne. I have read many books by him:

• Vingt mille lieues sous les mers
  
• Cinq semaines en ballon
  
• Un drame en Livonie
  
• L'étoile du sud
  
• Hector Servadac
  
• Face au drapeau
  
• Mathias Sandorf
  
• Les cinq cents millions de la Bégum
  
• Le château des Carpathes

I´ve got a lot of other books on my Pocketbook reader, I have already read:

• Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras
  
• Nord contre Sud
  
• Le village aérien

And the last book I just finished is L'école des robinsons

[Šneček]

Why are there so few readers? Is everyone just sitting at the computer all the time or are they just lazy to read?

Maybe they just don't want to post, what they read, into this thread.

[jkas789]

Šneček, on 21 July 2022 - 07:36 AM, said:

Why are there so few readers? Is everyone just sitting at the computer all the time or are they just lazy to read?

Maybe they just don't want to post, what they read, into this thread.

Eh, I think it's more like we are all busy irl and this type of threads get pushed down by other more active threads. Also lets be real the forum is not that active this days.

Personally there is not much to talk about. The gross of what I read are medical research papers and I don't think anyone would be interested in talking about that kek. However we could start something like a book club maybe? People could try and read a book a month or something and then come and give their impressions about them. I myself read last month like 10 books ( I read really fast, a by product of med school. Gotta go fast bois or you get left behind in the ultra competitive environment of medical education and later on the healthcare system.), of which 9 of them were romance novels (Yeah, I know. I don't look like it but I am a big romantic softy mexican macho at heart) that are just trashy cliche romance plots and perhaps the outlier is number 10: Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale. Pretty good autobiography of one of the most famous criminals in history. I give it my recommendation.

Jules Verne is indeed one of the best "sci fi" authors out there IMO. It's a shame his stories are being phased out of school programs this days.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Šneček, on 21 July 2022 - 07:36 AM, said:

Why are there so few readers? Is everyone just sitting at the computer all the time or are they just lazy to read?

Maybe they just don't want to post, what they read, into this thread.

TBH, I've forgotten that this forum had this thread and tended to talk about what I've read elsewhere. I'm also a bit of a slow reader.

I've been reading The Story of Civilization by Will Durant, and its not really the kind of book series that lends itself to quick reading anyway. Very good series so far, I'm in the middle of volume 3, Caesar and Christ. The first volume was countries from Egypt all the way to Japan, while volume 2 was on Ancient Greece. The big takeaways I've had from the series is that Egypt probably originated every thought we attribute to the Greeks. Probably, because the sheer number of lost works from that era is impossible to count. Slavery seems like more trouble than its worth even in the best of times. And in the volume on Rome I'm reading, it seems like Rome got to where it was not through skill or anything, but luck and incompetence on the part of other nations. The sheer amount of corruption even during Rome's supposed prime sounds like absolute hell to live in. Even Greece, which had its fair share and still probably beats modern times, can't beat that. Not even at Caesar yet, just the republic.

[jkas789]

Quote

Even Greece, which had its fair share and still probably beats modern times

Kek no. The ancient greeks were corrupt as fuck. Themistocles famously said that there is no point in being a leader if you can't make your friends rich. And the construction of the monuments of the Acropolis during the Golden Age of Athens was rife with corruption. From Pericles using money from the treasury of the Athenian Alliance, to instituting secret funds that nobody knows what they were used for to suspicions that Phidias had altered or distorted the gold used in the fucking statue of ATHENA.

The greek were corrupt as fuck, and really probably as corrupt as modern times. Any book that says otherwise is biased.

Also in regards to The Story of Civilization it has a spotty record of being inaccurate and changing accuracy for story telling. Durant was first a philosopher and a story teller and it shows with how he focus on philosophy and his sometimes thinly veiled marxist statements. Personally I think the whole series while entertaining (he is a good writer after all) is trash.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I don't want to dissuade you from reading it. Please do. I just wanted to point out that the series is very much colored by Durant's weird pseudo marxist opinions and not really at all objective, sometimes eschewing with a lot of the politics and economics that stirred the boat of history. Not all was science vs religion, sometimes science and/or religions were just an excuse for political or economic upheavals. Or just that a motherfucker wanted power for themselves.

EDIT 2:

Quote

Egypt probably originated every thought we attribute to the Greeks

Lol, you may want to look up that bub. While some of their cultural origins have egyptian (to be specific, ethiopians which at the time had a broad definition) influence, at least from what has been suggested in literature (and still only an hypothesis AFAIK), attributing every greek philosophy to the egyptians is out right rewritting history. Which is very much in line with Durant.

[Morpheus Kitami]

jkas789, on 04 August 2022 - 08:56 PM, said:

Kek no. The ancient greeks were corrupt as fuck. Themistocles famously said that there is no point in being a leader if you can't make your friends rich. And the construction of the monuments of the Acropolis during the Golden Age of Athens was rife with corruption. From Pericles using money from the treasury of the Athenian Alliance, to instituting secret funds that nobody knows what they were used for to suspicions that Phidias had altered or distorted the gold used in the fucking statue of ATHENA.

The greek were corrupt as fuck, and really probably as corrupt as modern times. Any book that says otherwise is biased.

Also in regards to The Story of Civilization it has a spotty record of being inaccurate and changing accuracy for story telling. Durant was first a philosopher and a story teller and it shows with how he focus on philosophy and his sometimes thinly veiled marxist statements. Personally I think the whole series while entertaining (he is a good writer after all) is trash.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I don't want to dissuade you from reading it. Please do. I just wanted to point out that the series is very much colored by Durant's weird pseudo marxist opinions and not really at all objective, sometimes eschewing with a lot of the politics and economics that stirred the boat of history. Not all was science vs religion, sometimes science and/or religions were just an excuse for political or economic upheavals. Or just that a motherfucker wanted power for themselves.

Fair enough, I don't think most of this except Pericles using money from the treasury and possibly his secret funds were covered. Though I do find I'm been attributing Durant's lack of information on some subjects to be him missing it, as such things were translated/found later. (since that was definitely true of his Asia volume) That does seem like a pretty big thing to miss. It still seems to pale in comparison to the Romans to me anyway.
Though it is interesting what you've said about his pseudo marxist opinions, which is something I've noticed. Its curious since most people complaining about his views tend to be whining that the guy is racist or something along those lines. Which seems completely absurd from what I've read. Can't say I've noticed much science vs religion stuff, outside of Durant obviously being an atheist, but I might just be ignoring it. I did skip past his chapters on Jewish history since I already knew most of the pre-Roman stuff.

Quote

Lol, you may want to look up that bub. While some of their cultural origins have egyptian (to be specific, ethiopians which at the time had a broad definition) influence, at least from what has been suggested in literature (and still only an hypothesis AFAIK), attributing every greek philosophy to the egyptians is out right rewritting history. Which is very much in line with Durant.

I'm probably exaggerating what he said, but it does seem like a lot can be attributed to them, more than we usually think, anyway.
Edit: Do you have a suggestion on something better? I'm still going to read the rest of the series, but I am curious on what I'm missing.

[jkas789]

Morpheus Kitami, on 06 August 2022 - 07:36 AM, said:

I'm probably exaggerating what he said, but it does seem like a lot can be attributed to them, more than we usually think, anyway.

Sorry for the late reply Morpheus. I agree to an extent. The egyptians for example were one of the first civilizations to practice surgery, which as a doctor it's pretty neat.

Quote

Edit: Do you have a suggestion on something better? I'm still going to read the rest of the series, but I am curious on what I'm missing.

Honestly? Try looking at more objective sources of history, like encyclopedias or research articles. They are more of a dry read but at least there is a veneer of trying to not be bias on it. Given the current situation of the social studies however I would approach more modern literature reviews with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Durant being a racist is just absolute boogus crap born from perpetually offended people. Nothing in his writings point to that. And even if he was it would have been a product of his time.

[Forge]

Šneček, on 21 July 2022 - 07:36 AM, said:

Why are there so few readers? Is everyone just sitting at the computer all the time or are they just lazy to read?

Maybe they just don't want to post, what they read, into this thread.

nope.
you're right.
people don't read (books) anymore.
it explains the rampant amount of retardedness in society today.
they only peruse headlines and believe what they're told without much thought or research into it.
most weirdos accuse authors of being some -ist or ism, and plebs gooble that crap up.
getting authors discredited is the best way to get their works ignored.
the accusations are social constructs they are so fond of allegedly dismantling.
when the adults are kowtowed, then it's easier to train the children that feelz are more important than factz or research.
then when nobody is reading anymore, the books and history can be re-written without notice.
Stash your pre-internet encyclopedias and dictionaries in a safe place hidden from sight and knowledge.
sooner than later owning them will get you thrown in prison, or worse.

all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others

[Morpheus Kitami]

jkas789, on 21 August 2022 - 08:16 AM, said:

Sorry for the late reply Morpheus. I agree to an extent. The egyptians for example were one of the first civilizations to practice surgery, which as a doctor it's pretty neat.



Honestly? Try looking at more objective sources of history, like encyclopedias or research articles. They are more of a dry read but at least there is a veneer of trying to not be bias on it. Given the current situation of the social studies however I would approach more modern literature reviews with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Durant being a racist is just absolute boogus crap born from perpetually offended people. Nothing in his writings point to that. And even if he was it would have been a product of his time.

I don't mind encyclopedias, since that's more or less how I picked up most of my knowledge on guns and mythology, but again, I feel like the question is, which one would you suggest? Not all are created equal, some are clearly worse than others.

[jkas789]

Morpheus Kitami, on 23 August 2022 - 05:49 PM, said:

I don't mind encyclopedias, since that's more or less how I picked up most of my knowledge on guns and mythology, but again, I feel like the question is, which one would you suggest? Not all are created equal, some are clearly worse than others.

This days I'm not really sure tbh. Britannica used to be really really good. In fact their Mexican History Enciclopedia used to be one of the best references period. This days I usually cross reference literature reviews and other research articles, and look up on other work by the author to sus out biases, but that is my medical research mania coming in. I don't care if that viking burial was for a transexual attack helicopter as long as the author is not inferring it is an attack helicopter because he made it the fuck up.

The problem really lies that the humanities are so full of people out to prove that their ideology is correct that they retroactively re write shit to make it fit in their square hole. It's like psychology, psychiatry or cancer research being non reproducible. But at least in medicine you can call them out without being called a racist or bigot or whatever phobe.

[Morpheus Kitami]

It doesn't necessarily have to be that recent. Its not like anything major has been discovered in the ancient world in the past 10-20 years...has there? Like are Greenwood or Routledge generally good? They're the ones I see the most around.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Read the third book of The Story of Civilization by Will Durant, this one on the Roman Republic/Empire.

Quite informative, I never realized how much of a crappy place the Roman Republic was before it turned into an Empire. Bribery, destitution, and corrupt abound. At one point some 400 people were suspected to own most of the land in the Roman Republic, while most of the lesser citizens were on the corn dole, living in crappy houses. Its change into an Empire was actually a good idea at the time, since their senate is the most corrupt senate anyone has ever seen. Much of the empire period was spent on making decisions that were good at the time, but gradually turned out to make things worse.

I also find it interesting that despite being an atheist, Durant doesn't blame Christianity for causing the fall of Rome. All Christianity did was fill a hole left by the Romans gradual disbelief in their own gods and their general distaste towards the course the state was taking.

[Šneček]

I finished the newly discovered and acquired first book of my favorite Knight Rider series by Glenn A. Larson and Roger Hill.
It was about a detective who gets shot by a fellow female spy during a botched hit on a gang and is rescued by a top surgeon for a corporation owned by his dying father, who then bequeaths him his company and a prototype car that has the ability to think, talk and other extraordinary feats, which the detective, with a new face and identity, uses to go looking for the gang and the female spy in order to get revenge and prevent the technology theft of his newly acquired company.

[jkas789]

I have been reading " A Long Line of Dead Men" which is a detective novel by Lawrence Block. So far it's interesting. Aside from that I have been busy playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and working my ass off

[Šneček]

jkas789, on 29 May 2023 - 11:21 PM, said:

I have been reading " A Long Line of Dead Men" which is a detective novel by Lawrence Block. So far it's interesting. Aside from that I have been busy playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and working my ass off

"So far it´s interesting" you wrote that well. So far it's interesting, but it can still go wrong and stop being interesting and fun.
Sometimes it can be wrong to rush to judge a book before it reaches the end...

Nothing against Lawrence Block. It's just that I didn't finish some of the books myself, because halfway through the novel I was no longer tempted to open them again... These situations can happen, too.

[jkas789]

Šneček, on 30 May 2023 - 02:06 AM, said:

"So far it´s interesting" you wrote that well. So far it's interesting, but it can still go wrong and stop being interesting and fun.
Sometimes it can be wrong to rush to judge a book before it reaches the end...

Nothing against Lawrence Block. It's just that I didn't finish some of the books myself, because halfway through the novel I was no longer tempted to open them again... These situations can happen, too.

Yeah some of his book can be hit or miss. I finished it and it was fiiiiiiine.

ATM I'm reading Iacobus, a book by Matilde Asensi. In a rare occasion, I'm actually reading this in my mother language: spanish. This days I rarely read books in spanish unless there is no other way to acquire them or if the original author was spanish speaking.

[Šneček]

I decided to read something from Howard Phillips Lovecraft, whom i read about in connection with some games, so i borrowed "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" from town library. It was a collection of short stories whose disjointed plot suited me perfectly, because it has the advantage that I don't have to remember it if I manage to finish a chapter without long breaks. I've carried the author's name in mind for a long time, I think I've read repeatedly about him in the context of him being an inspiration to some game developers.

Spoiler

An attempt to summarize the individual chapters as concisely as possible:

1. The Picture In The House
The genealogist is caught in a thunderstorm on his way to town on his bicycle and tries to take shelter in a shabby and seemingly abandoned cottage. While browsing through an indoor library of rare books, he encounters the house's talkative old occupant, who displays an extraordinary and disturbing enthusiasm while showing him a book on the practices of a tribe of cannibals. The genealogist then notices that a sort of red liquid begins to flow from the soil onto the book and recognizes the source of the old man's enthusiasm for the subject.

2. The Music of Erich Zann
A university student in search of the cheapest place to live finds an abode on a strange street with strange inhabitants, whose neighbour happens to be a mute, reclusive viola musician with inexplicably captivating tones. After a student persuades the musician to let him listen in his apartment at night, which is the musician's playing time, a whirlwind is triggered by the notes of the viola outside the window, which blows out the candle and carries away the musician's note in which he tries to explain to the new tenant the reasons for his strange aloof behavior. The student, in his attempt to catch them, sees that the space outside the window is enveloped in darkness instead of the illuminated city, runs away, and after a time discovers that the street in which he lived cannot be found.

3. The Rats In The Walls
The scion of a noble family moves into an inherited mansion, which he has had newly renovated, and observes the constantly cracking walls and the strange behaviour of his cat. He discovers that rats are moving inside the walls, and in his search for the cause, he and his sailor friend form a reconnaissance team, with whom they discover skeletons in the basement of the mansion in positions suggestive of cannibal ancestry. The new heir to the mansion goes crazy over his newfound discovery of his family history and eats one of his research team members.

4. Pickman´s Model
A member of an art club invites a colleague to his studio to show him his paintings of devils of strange and disturbing details and proportions. While visiting the studio, the colleague hears strange noises and then the firing of the painter's gun. He then discovers a photograph on one of his split canvases that the colleague was painting from, and discovers that a hellish entity was making a live model for the colleague.

5. The Colour Out of Space
A worker with the aim of measuring a new reservoir encounters a burnt field of a large area on the site near the measurement and learns from the old man's account of the history of the site that the surface was formed after a meteorite impact, and on the land of the former inhabitant of the destroyed area, on whose land the meteorite fell, mutations of the surrounding herbs began to occur, animals escaped from the land, the wife of the owner of the destroyed house mysteriously went mad, and the subsequent decomposition of all those infected alive. Eventually, the disaster disappears as strangely as it appeared.

6. The Whisperer in Darkness
After the flood, a literature professor begins to learn about strange creatures that have been seen in the waves of the flooded areas and begins to receive strange letters from a supposed university student following his skeptical articles on the subject in the newspaper, who begins to convince him of the truth of the strange sightings, the existence of a strange cult of worshippers of extraterrestrial life forms, and sends him recordings and photographs to prove the truth of all claims of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth, in order to lure the professor to his place of residence. He then arranges for the loss of a couple of packages and tries to arouse fears for the safety of his person in the recipient of the letters (i.e. the professor). After he succeeds, and the professor writing the articles finally comes to visit him with the photographs and recordings he received, which the student wanted to recover, the professor discovers that one of the voices on the cult's audio recording matches the voice of the student's friend, whom the student sends as a driver to pick up the professor.
When the professor arrives at the site, the supposed student tries to convince him to undergo future brain surgery in his home lab, after which they would be able to visit the alien homeworld together. The professor doesn't like the student's suggestions, nor his whispering, which involves no grimacing, so he instead steals their car and flees home that night, whereupon he sends the cops to check out the strange house. In it, they find the student's limbs and face, proving that the old student was himself an alien taking on human form. (wow, this was perhaps the most confusing story for me, the confusion of which is confirmed by this extremely confused summary of mine, or at least an attempt at a summary that I'm having trouble figuring out myself!)

7. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The main character celebrated coming of age by traveling around New England, and wanted to visit a town that was her mother's birthplace. Since he needed the cheapest possible connection, the ticket agent at the train station suggests he take a bus to the town the interviewer wants to move to, with the caveat that he'll have to go through a strange old town that isn't on the maps and that everyone avoids. The cashier's cryptic vague references pique the ticket seeker's curiosity and he decides to take the connection through the town in question. The main character's curiosity is furthered by the disinterest and disdain of all the locals to talk about the town with the stopover, their attempts to discourage him from traveling through the town, and finally the mention of jewelry with strange dimensions, mysterious material, and unclear history, originating from the ancient town. Upon arriving in the town, he notices strange noises in some boarded up semi-dilapidated houses and the distorted appearance of a few residents he encounters in the otherwise empty town. After checking into a hotel, he meets a homeless man from whom, at the cost of donating bottles of alcohol, he begins to learn about the history of the town and the mystery of the hybridization of the local inhabitants with an ancient advanced undersea people living in the depths of the local sea.
The traveller's excessive curiosity and his contacts with a homeless man who reveals the secrets of the town and the history of its inhabitants are not to the liking of the locals and especially the local mysterious church, which eventually organizes an expedition against the traveller. The traveller then has to barricade himself from the crowd entering the hotel and escape through windows and rooftops. Then he manages to sneak out of the town on a disused railway, seeing up close the monstrosity of the inhabitants he has never seen before in the empty town. When he finally manages to arrive home, he is introduced to the history of his own family, which he in fact shares with the inhabitants of the monstrous city, by means of family jewels identical to those from the city he fled, and the beginning of the symptoms (and deformities?) of the outbreak of a related hereditary disease on his own person.

[Šneček]

I continued with El Horror de Dunwich by the same author.

Spoiler

A daughter living with her father, both deformed in appearance, performing satanic rituals on a mountain with stone pillars in which they sacrificed their farm animals for which they paid with strangely outdated coins, gives birth to an even uglier offspring (or rather a hybrid with a goat), fast growing and mature from his (or its) earliest age, but somehow irritating the dogs to aggression.
He receives education only from his family through satanic books, especially the Necronomicon, containing phrases to incant. Before his grandfather's death, he receives final advice to open an unnamed gate and instructions to feed the creature locked in a wooden shed in the backyard from him. His mother dies shortly after his grandfather (probably as a result of being murdered by her son). Son Wilbur notices discrepancies in the inherited copy of Necronomicon and sets out to visit the university library to compare copies of the "forbidden" book, and subsequently borrow the book. The librarian (or owner) of the bookstore is disturbed by the distorted appearance of the prospective buyer and refuses to give him the book, as a result of which Wilbur decides to steal it at night. He is thwarted by a guard dog and dies as a result of a bite, but before that he recited a few passages from the forbidden book. When the librarian and doctor arrive on the scene, they are shocked by the dead "man's" exposed hooves, unearthly tentacles crawling out of his stomach, and very rapid decomposition with foul-smelling fluid.
Shortly after Wilbur´s death, his family residence falls apart, including the locked shed in the backyard. Strange clues begin to appear in the village and murders and destroyed houses multiply. The hellish creature locked in the shed is deprived of victims (or food) in the form of sacrificed farm animals as a result of Wilbur's death, who was in charge of this, and begin to devour the villagers, leaving the same foul-smelling fluid seen at the Wilbur residence and mountain. The librarian teams up with another professor and a doctor, and they must find and decipher Wilbur's encrypted diary containing instructions on how to get rid of a summoned mutant that partially resembles Wilbur's wizard father.

[MrFlibble]

A while ago I highly enjoyed The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. I think it's a brilliant novel, masterfully written and showing the author's great love for New England and its history.

[Šneček]

Šneček, on 03 September 2023 - 06:40 AM, said:

I continued with El Horror de Dunwich by the same author.

Spoiler

They must find and decipher Wilbur's encrypted diary containing instructions on how to get rid of a summoned mutant that partially resembles Wilbur's wizard father.

Oh, partially resembles Wilbur´s grandfather, not father. I was in a bit of a hurry when I was writing that day, so I made an inaccuracy.