2021 Reading List Monthly Update: February

 Books read in February of 2021:

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"Ruthless Little Things" (Elizabeth V Aldrich) 2-6-21

"Sentimental Education" (Gustave Flaubert) 2-10-21

"Comes a Pale Rider" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 2-12-21

"Neo-Decadence: 12 Manifestos" (Various; edited by Justin Isis) 2-13-21

"Soviet Cities: Labour Life Leisure" (Arseniy Kotov) 2-13-21

"Let Me Tell You What I Mean" (Joan Didion) 2-17-21

"Paresis" (Isabelle Nicou) 2-20-21

"Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Two" (Alan Moore) 2-21-21

"The Castle of Otranto" (Horace Walpole) 2-23-21

"Genesis 0" (Isabelle Nicou) 2-25-21

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2021 Reading List Total:
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1. "Hate" (Michael Salerno) 1-6-21

2. "Just Kids: Illustrated Edition" (Patti Smith) 1-9-21

3. "The Thing About Attraction" (Tom Champagne) 1-10-21

4. "Desperate" (Alexandrine Ogundimu) 1-11-21

5. "Jerk" (Nathan Blake/Dennis Cooper) 1-16-21

6. "The Moon Down To Earth" (James Nulick) 1-20-21

7. "Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One" (Alan Moore) 1-27-21

8. "Morose Vignettes" (Remy de Gourmont) 1-30-31

9. "The Universe Is A Haunted House: COIL through their art & archives" (Coil) 1-31-21

10. "Ruthless Little Things" (Elizabeth V Aldrich) 2-6-21

11. "Sentimental Education" (Gustave Flaubert) 2-10-21

12. "Comes a Pale Rider" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 2-12-21

13. "Neo-Decadence: 12 Manifestos" (Various; edited by Justin Isis) 2-13-21

14. "Soviet Cities: Labour Life Leisure" (Arseniy Kotov) 2-13-21

15. "Let Me Tell You What I Mean" (Joan Didion) 2-17-21

16. "Paresis" (Isabelle Nicou) 2-20-21

17. "Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Two" (Alan Moore) 2-21-21

18. "The Castle of Otranto" (Horace Walpole) 2-23-21

19. "Genesis 0" (Isabelle Nicou) 2-25-21

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*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"The Mirror of Her Dreams: Mordant's Need Vol. 1" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 

"A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology" (Toby Wilkinson) 

RIP Griffin (2008-2021)

It saddens me to have to say that early this morning (as in close to 3:30 AM) one of our longtime pets, Griffin, was put to sleep at the vets. These last few months his health had been on the decline: he got diabetes last summer, started to go blind in the fall, then had a bad bout of pancreatitis last month that almost put him out of commission for good (though he did temporarily recover). Since then his health had been up and down over the last few weeks, with some good days and some bad days, but in recent days his physical and mental decline just became too great. In fact last evening he started with seizures... after a 4th very bad seizure shortly before 2 AM, my parents and my brothers Tom and Andrew (who were always closest to him) decided to take him to an all-night animal emergency hospital to be put to sleep. I volunteered to stay behind and watch the house, partly because space in the car was limited and if Griffin would have had another seizure on the ride up I knew he’d need his space... my last words to him on the way out were “Goodbye Griffin, I love you.”

We got Griffin in early January of 2009 (though he was born in 2008). At the time of his death he was around 12 years of age. He enjoyed going outside on his daily walks, licking people’s feet, stealing tissues out of people’s pockets (indeed, his appetite was voracious and it was amazing how much non-edible items he consumed over the years, tissues being one of his preferred delicacies, and we had to always be careful to never leave food at the table’s edge because he WOULD eat it), playing with his toys, going to Maine on our annual summer trips (back when we could still do that, before the pandemic), roughhousing with our cats, and so on and so forth. He was a mischievous sort, somewhat easily excitable, but it was always easy to overlook his madcap antics because he was very loveable. Some of his many, many nicknames over the years included Griff, Griffo, Griffendor, Griffendog, Young Griff, the Little Monkey, the Joker, the Sad Clown, Fo, Fo Fo, Black Beauty, Big Black & Beautiful, Heater Dog (for those times he would lie against the heater), Miguel, McGregor, Shadowpuss, Mossman, Sneakthief, Docile Dominion, Gandalf the Gray, Piccadilly Pub, Dinty Moore, Campbell’s Chunky, Pepperidge Farm, Saturday Son, and Magoo (this was one of the last nicknames he earned, on account of his blindness). He leaves behind two “siblings” (Amber and Spencer the cats). RIP Griffin... you will be missed!

In times like these I like to think of one of my favorite scenes from Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s THE RETURN OF THE KING:

Pippin: I didn't think it would end this way.

Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

Pippin: What? Gandalf? See what?

Gandalf: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Pippin: Well, that isn't so bad.

Gandalf: No. No, it isn't.