Thanks to a website Goodreads where occasionally I check out the recommendations and keep my own list of how much I read, the self-imposed number of 12 books per year was accomplished in 2023. To be honest, that was not even particularly large number but it seemed reasonable, after giving myself much higher numbers previously and than it made me feel disappointed when it did not happen. The success of last year, inspired me to lift it up slightly and instead of 12 this year I gave myself 24 books to read. I don't think its difficult and in fact, I am doing perfectly well so far, in fact I am on the track and its not even half of February. Streisand 1000-page autobiography took a while but I continued and added a few more titles.
"The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1934) is now known more as a classic film noir but once upon a time it was a book. And not just any book, but a scandalous and shocking bestseller that people bought because it was all about sex and deviant behaviour and lovers who not only plot how to kill the husband but also enjoy sort of brutal sex that reflects how violent they were (in minds of the audience). I don't remember the movie but the book was not bad, except that naturally today is not so scandalous anymore - there is still some interesting atmosphere and chilling coldheartedness about the lovers plan, in fact both of them are nasty piece of work, by far the nicest person in the book is actually a husband who is purposely made to be annoying but actually he is a sweetheart. I mean, his only sin is that he is Greek and sweet-natured.
"Childhood's End" (1953) is a very highly regarded book by SF master Arthur C. Clarke - with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein he is celebrated as genius of science fiction genre. Which made him intimidating to me and I always expected his books might be too technical for me - you know, when they go into elaborate description of the space ships and you feel like an idiot for not understanding any of it - this one was a safe bet because it grew out of the popular short story he wrote in 1950 and than enlarged into a book version several years later. Its about the arrival of alien space ships on Earth and how their seemingly friendly, peaceful and harmless intentions eventually turn much darker than initially perceived. It was actually quite gripping because this is more or less how I always imagined aliens to be - benevolent at first but in reality still totally alien to us. Quite excellent, this one.
"From the Dust Returned" (2001) was incidental choice because I decided to read a horror for a change - completely coincidentally it was by another SF genius Ray Bradbury and he also created it out of previously published short story. Also it was not horror at all but a very, very beautiful dark fantasy collection, tailored for a Halloween reading - dark but not disturbing, simply beautiful. Its about a old house inhabited by all sorts of magic creatures and how they live in a complete harmony, hidden from the outside world - there is a real Egyptian mummy ("“A Thousand Times Great Grandmère"), her husband, a magic spider, a magic cat, winged Uncle Einar, perpetually sleeping visionary Cecy who can enter other people's bodies in her sleep, etc, etc - and a little human boy Timothy. Its just a beautiful book, written in a style that is just breathtaking. I didn't mind it being a collection of obviously short stories because they were all beautiful and somehow connected. I thought it was interesting that magic creatures feared that their powers will diminish since humans refuse to believe in them any longer, this was kind of idea that Neil Gaiman used for his excellent "American Gods".
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