User Profile

Some of my favorite videogames and tabletop RPGs are inspired by this genre, as well as countless other works of fiction since the author was publishing around 100 years ago. I believe that this is a comprehensive collection; it even includes alternative drafts of some of Lovecraft's stories.

The best parts of Lovecraft's work orient around the fantastic ideas, some of which will seem familiar to modern readers simply because of how important they have been in inspiring other works over the last 100 years. Lovecraft is a figure a bit like Tolkein for being the creator of so many fantasy elements. Story-wise I think the choice of language can be very monologue-heavy and some of the short stories are a little indigestible at first, I don't think he's the greatest writer in some respects. Once he gets going, though, it can feel like you're right there with the characters while their world comes falling apart at breakneck speed; I've stayed up into the small hours for a number of the stories, and the best ones (like Shadow over Innsmouth, Color our of Space, and the Whisperer in Darkness) haunt me months and years after first reading them, truly they are experiences which I expect to treasure for years to come.

Lovecraft wrote of his own stories: “All my tales are based upon the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos at-large.”

This is a good introduction to anarchism. That said, there's a lot more left to discover once you've read it

This book introduced me to meditation and empty space - whilst I haven't "obtained enlightenment" and I'm not sure I feel a desire to, it's a journey that's helped me a lot to free myself from my suffering, so I really appreciate the book

I would say though that I've found books like this more useful as encouragement to meditate - there's no substitute for creating space by just sitting still and doing nothing (to start with just focus on listening to your breathing). I think that the message of destination included in this book might be useful for tempting you in, but it's counterproductive to what it's really trying to tell you - to let go of destination and live instead in the present moment, in peace

Loved this book and the focus on normal people otherwise not the focus of history. Particularly loved the primary sources and how the author helped me to empathise with people in the story and especially with the figure of King Charles I who isn't often talked about so compassionately

I dropped a star because, coming to this book with little knowledge of the English civil war, I found that I couldn't follow chronologically what was happening - so I wouldn't say that on its own it's enough to understand the conflict. I did find it was an excellent companion/contrast to anything I've read or seen about the English Civil War since. While reading the book I listened to the Revolutions Podcast episodes about the English Civil War - which I found enough to piece together the timeline and fit everything together

Fascinating time in history, lots of primary sources and a passionate author who knows a lot about the subject matter. What's not to love?

I've seen people complain about it being too long, and I haven't read it all in one go, but I love to come back to it and I'm not in a rush. It's easy to read and in plain English (except of course when it's a letter written in 17th century dialect)

For context: Rudolf Rocker was a German anarchist, and this book was published shortly after he fled the Third Reich to live in London. Rocker rose to popularity especially in the Jewish-anarchist scene in London

Rocker writes very passionately and his arguments are full of energy, at its best this book echoed off the walls as I read it. It goes quite far back for an investigation of the development of nationalism in Germany and elsewhere, and it looks almost exclusively at English, French and German history (whilst also looking at Italy and Spain). I found it often enlightening

This was one of the first nonfiction books I read, I was fairly young when I read it. In general it taught me a lot about history (I didn't know who Machiavelli was, when I picked it up) and about writing

I'm wary of Nietzsche's ideas, but I really loved the writing style of this book and the mouthpiece Zarathustra

I came to this after reading some of Ishiguro's other books. Klara and the Sun was my first, and coming to this one I was more attentive to Ishiguro's styles and techniques, and to how the story was developing

I found it slow to start, but began to thoroughly enjoy the characters and their diverse styles. If you find it quite dry to start with then persevere, a lot of themes come in quite late in the book, and around the middle of the book the worldbuilding becomes suddenly very vibrant. I loved this in the context of Arthurian legend and the literary/mythological tradition surrounding it

I'd never read anything from Ishiguro before. I picked it up, read the entire thing in one day from dawn til dusk, and found it such an easy read. I didn't even feel particularly engrossed I just knew that I was enjoying it and I wanted to read on. I was unfamiliar with Ishiguro's craftmanship and was unwittingly sucked into his trap

I won't spoil anything, but I spent a good hour or so in silent reflection after finishing the book, and for the week that followed I barely worked and spent a lot of time thinking about the book and reading reviews to try and figure out what on earth had just happened to me

I'm still reading the English version of this book. I'm constantly laughing out loud at Svjek's antics, and I love how jolly and dark this book is in equal measure - I've never found anything like it

Absolutely gutted that the author died before finishing this, getting a bit familiar with the style and the character Svjek, I think that the book on the Russian Revolution would surely have been the best bit!