I’m not sure what happened, but just discovered I didn’t actually post this last week!
It’s been an expensive week. I’ve been waiting for a while for Apple to announce the latest generation of MacBook Pros, which they finally did this week. I’ve taken the plunge and ordered one, the first really significant expense I’ve had since starting the channel. Since the early days I’ve been editing on a 2020 MacBook Air and that is already starting to struggle quite often. As the channel continues to grow there are a few more ambitious things I’d like to do video-wise, and the Air definitely couldn’t cope with those. Hopefully the new machine will prove to be a worthwhile investment.
Book-wise I finally finished ‘Shogun’ (review below). It’s taken me the whole month, but the effort was worth it.
Outside of books, I’ve been listening to this Spotify playlist, which is great for reading to.
I also checked out this short indie horror film on YouTube, which had an enjoyable EC Comics feel to its plotting.
Cheerio!
Books I’ve Read This Week
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Clive Barker’s 1986 novella, which he filmed the following year as ‘Hellraiser’ is a masterclass in taught, tight and very dark storytelling. He packs an enormous amount into a very slim volume. There’s a rich seam of untold backstory for both the main characters and the monstrous Cenobites which the reader ends up putting together in their own minds. The inventively grotesque horror is great, but the real star of the show is the web of human relationships at the heart of the book which drives all the characters’ actions. This was a reread for me, I knew it was good but I’d forgotten quite how good.
The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
Reading a solid collection of short stories from an author I haven’t read before is always a joy. This one was really fun – well written, inventive and creepy. All follow the adventures of Kyle Murchison Booth, a young man who works in a museum. He’s an expert in mysterious books and (naturally) gets involved in investigating supernatural goings on. There’s a range of creepy things for him to go up against in a series of elegantly told tales that recall the classic style of Lovecraft. It was the quality of the writing that impressed me most about this collection, it has a beguiling richness that makes you want more.
Shogun by James Clavell
There is an awful lot that Shogun does right. It’s got some great characters, a wonderful sense of time and place, thrilling action set pieces and some enjoyable turns to the plot. Its length is, I guess, part of the point of it. It’s a book you sink into ad become absorbed by.
But at over 1100 pages it’s just too long. That same sense of immersion could have been achieved with 100 pages less, or 200, or even 3 or 400. For everything I loved about it I did find myself hating it at times because it just took so much time to get through.
Still, it’s definitely an achievement to be proud of, for author James Clavell as well as any readers who conquer it, the kind of influential popular fiction that I always admire.
This week’s videos
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CriminOlly 
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