Author: Smehur

E. A. Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher

And thus, as a closer and still close intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the futility of all attempts at cheering a mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe in one unceasing radiation of gloom.

Dueling Grounds

A short Darksiders story celebrating the lovely War/Strife art piece I commissioned from DayGlowBlue. ♥

The crowd cheers, rising from the seats of the marble colosseum in a blinding wave of white robes, whiter hairdos, and a flurry of white wings, as another challenger bites the dust.

Yeah, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Pigeons have their own version of the Arena. They call it “The Dueling Grounds”, and the list of rules is so damn long I got dizzy just watching the scroll unfold. The first one, of course, is that only angels are allowed to fight. Pfft. And he asks me why I feel more at home in Hell despite the heat. There is no place in all of Creation more inclusive than the pits of the Arena. Everyone is welcome to bleed and perish there, bird and bat alike. Here, you’re not even allowed to die.

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My 2021 in Books

Once more, I managed to reach my reading goal of 30 books in a year. I’m glad and I’m proud, but it still feels like far too few. I don’t know if it’s possible for me to read faster without sacrificing comprehension, but I might well devote more time to this. So, for 2022, I upped the goal to 36 books. That’s 3 a month and I’m already lagging behind, lol.

Another “new year resolution” regarding this is that I’ll try to write shorter but more frequent reviews. Leaving it all for one post, with up to a year since the actual reading, doesn’t work. I won’t even try this time. I’ll only leave a couple notes on things I liked (or disliked) more than the rest.

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