October Reads - lots of Poe!

hi everyone I hope you're having a great weekend so far I'm here just to talk about some of the books that I've been reading so far in the month of October and in October I tend to read a lot more fiction um within the genres of horror um Gothic horror or even dark Academia um so the first book that I have to show you is a library acquisition um and it's called The Binding by Bridget Collins I enjoyed this but I'd probably give it a three and a half stars and that's really because I thought the ending um was somewhat abrupt and left a lot of unanswered questions but I I did enjoy this I thought it had a great beginning middle um I enjoyed the plot and I thought it was a unique idea so without ruining um without any spoilers this is about a book binder's Apprentice in England I'm assuming it's England in maybe the 19th or even the late um 18th century and but however it takes place in an alternate universe um I guess where uh book binders or rather books are viewed with suspicion um as are are the binders and that's because um if a person wanted to forget a particularly painful memory they will visit a book binder and the binder would take the memories from them um and uh you know store them in a book so that once a person is bound they no longer have to remember these really painful memories um so yes I thought that was a really clever idea and I did enjoy this book but um I wasn't too keen on the ending uh so I I wouldn't not I wouldn't discourage anyone for picking up they still enjoy it maybe you disagree with my thoughts on the ending but anyways um the one that I read before that was uh dark Harvest by Norman Partridge and this was a recommendation um by book blather uh so thank you uh for the recommendation I did enjoy it um I don't tend to read a lot of modern horror um but I did enjoy it um it takes place in a Midwest Town um and these young young men um are essentially all engaged in um the hunt for the October boy on Halloween night um again I don't want to ruin the plot but I did think it was another interesting unique idea um it was very it was quite violent but you know a lot of modern Horrors are um and I still enjoyed it nonetheless um so now I'm focusing my attention really on um Poe so if you watched my video at the beginning of the month I mentioned that I am going to be reading Poe when I am inviting everyone to read Poe along with me so um it's not a formal readathon it's a very informal read-along and again if you want to participate all you have to do is read one poem or one short story by Poe it can be any you don't have to read the same ones that I am um and we've already got a boxer group going with a few other people who have already started so we don't even need to restrict it to the last weekend of last week of October um so if you want to make a start that's great but I started reading some of Poe's short stories and poems um uh earlier sorry late maybe Thursday or Friday um so far I've reread uh The Fall of the House of Usher uh the gold bug Annabelle Lee um I don't know what I want to read next because I am reading this biography here by um acroid first and if it's anything like his biography on Chaucer you probably can't see it that far away um he'll look he'll examine literary themes I mean it's very short so I don't know what I'm going to gain necessarily um but I'm 40 pages in and I've already learned some new things if you're familiar with Poe or if you're a Poe fan you'll know that um you know his writing um is heavily influenced by the fact that like no less than three of his his family um died of consumption or tuberculosis he had a in estranged relationship with his surrogate father um a lot of pain and tragedy in his life um so obviously that's had quite a heavy influence on on his writing and some of the themes in his short stories but uh like I say I'm 40 pages in and I've already learned some new things and I really want to use this as a guiding um sort of as a as a reference point for other short stories that I want to read just to see if I can identify any new themes when I reread um some of his short stories and poems so anyways um if you want to join the Voxer group uh just to talk about what you're reading uh great let me know um I will leave my boxer in the comment section um if you don't that's also fine feel free to leave a comment if you do decide to read something or if you just want to talk about what I'm reading so anyways I'll stop rambling on like I normally do um I hope you all have a great week ahead and I will talk to you later bye