Reading in Reykjavík

This is my third Gothic challenge read and the first classic Gothic novel I read for the challenge. Genre: Gothic novel; historical Year of publication: 1764 Setting & time: Medieval Italy, during the  Crusades Conrad, son of Manfred, Prince of Otranto, is crushed beneath a gigantic helmet on the day he is to be wed to the Princess Isabella. Manfred, determined to secure a replacement for his only son and heir, decides to divorce his wife and marry Isabella, who objects and seeks sanctuary in a nearby church with the aid of a mysterious young man. These events are only the beginning of a convoluted and suspenseful story. This, the very first Gothic novel, is a defining novel of the genre, with its air of perpetual menace, supernatural events, gloomy setting, driven villain, missing heirs, convoluted plot, thrills, shocks and revelations, noble heroes and damsels in distress. It is highly entertaining, although to me, a modern reader, probably not quite in the mann...

I hadn’t planned to review this book, but then I realised that not only was it a perfect fit for the Gothic reading challenge, but also that I had already reviewed the previous four books in the series, so why stop there? It fits the Gothic theme because much of the story seems to happen at night, in a medieval style castle (even if it does have electricity and hot and cold running blood water), parts happen on a medieval battlefield which is pretty damn scary, there are vampires involved and supernatural threats, there is considerable angst, and there is cloak-and-dagger villainy that threatens the heroine (who, however, is no shrinking violet and is fully capable of defending herself). Intro, necessary for understanding of some of the below. Cue a bad Christopher Lee vocal imitation doing the starting voiceover to an episode of The Dark and the Dangerous : "The Darkyn were once people, but centuries ago they became infected with an organism that stopped their ageing process...

Click image to read about the challenge My second Gothic Reading Challenge book, but the first to be reviewed. I’m working on the review for the other one. Fits the Gothic theme because: a lot of it takes place at night, there are vampires, ghosts and demons involved, there is angst, the heroine shows some genuine Too Stupid To Live behaviour (a required plot element in the Gothic novels of old), and the hero is tall, dark and dangerous, and was alive during the Gothic era. Genre: Urban fantasy, romance Year of publication: No. in series: 2 Setting & time: London, UK; contemporary Inexperienced Summoner Allegra Telford is in London to prove she can summon and bind ghosts when she begins to have dreams about a wounded, bleeding man. Coming across him for real wasn’t in the bargain, but she does and is swept into an adventure involving ghosts, demons and Moravian Dark Ones (aka “my vampires must be unique” by any other name). There are hardships to overcome and the rew...

I am doing quite well so far in the reading challenges for this year. I have finished 3 Top Mystery Challenge books, which puts me right on schedule. I have finished 4 out of the 6 books in the What’s in a Name challenge and have the remaining two lined up and am already reading one of them. In the Read-a-myth challenge and Gothic Reading challenge I have not yet read any books, but I am reading my first Gothic book and have the two mythology books lined up. It is the TBR challenge I am proudest of. Two weekends ago I met the goal of my TBR reading challenge for 2011: to get the number of TBR books in my stack below 850. This was cause for celebration, because I don't think I have ever finished a reading challenge so quickly. I only did this partially by reading. I have finished 11 TBR books this year, which alone would not have been enough to reach the desired goal. However, the rules were that the reduction of the TBR list could be done by reading or by culling. What I di...

As my regular readers may know, I considered a number of reading challenges for 2011. In the end I decided to do two year-long ones with numerous books: my very own Top Mysteries and TBR challenges. I am stepping up the TBR challenge with the goal of reducing my TBR stack to below 850 books before the end of the year. The rules are, as before, that the stack can be reduced by reading and by culling and the books allowed for the challenge are the many, many books I have accumulated over the years but never read, provided I have owned them for more than a year. Furthermore, I will be unable to do this unless I cut down even more on my book buying. I plan to focus especially on non-fiction and on further reducing the number of my unread short story collections. In the Top Mysteries Challenge I am planning to read 2 books per month, averaged over the year. I will also continue the Frankfurter Büchmesse Challenge until the book fair starts in October. Additionally, I’ll take part i...