People and Gods: Myths and Mythology
Open University's Cultural History course book
Interesting point of views and I liked how the author dealt with mythology. Opinions from all aspects and precise writing.

Oh boy, this woman has a somewhat crazy imagination. It's like anything can emerge from her brain. There were a few weaker stories (mostly short snippets and sci-fi), but the stronger ones were rich in language and absolutely beautiful story-wise. If you like fairy tales, I think the last one (White as Sin, Now) is especially going to be to your liking, since it combines a couple of them in quite a clever way.

Overall the topics were just what I'm interested in: vampires, werewolves, mythology etc. but with such twists I have never read before. Weird and sometimes confusing stories with a little bit of fairy tale magic on top. Unfortunately I couldn't give this a full five stars, because the weaker stories were really boring and quite pointless. One of them had mostly just some philosophical babbling that felt detached from the story itself.

Favourites: The Gorgon, Elle est trois (La Mort), Nicholas, Red as Blood and Bite Me Not or Fleur de Fur

For some reason whenever I picked this up it felt like ploughing a muddy field. Lumpy and hard to get through. I found out some of the symbolism in it which made sense but to me this whole book was not a magical treasure chest with hidden meanings but simply one of the most badly written pieces of work I've come across in a long time. Liking it just for the symbolism is not my cup of tea. I need more than boys turning to savages who supposedly for some reason need to kill each other and a bit less shattered writing, please.

Clever use of language, gentle satire of the sometimes ridiculously unintentional hilariousness of Gothic novels, fun characters based on real people, strange fiddling with ghosts and mermaids, and overall funny frolicking in a gloomy castle. Leaves a smile on your face.

Bring on the Madeira (preferably in a skull of a dead ancestor)!

I didn't even realise I had missed Dickens before I strated to read him again. The rhythm of the prose and the word play is clever and fun, in this case like ringing of the bells, and there's humour as well. I also noted this was the first time I'd read Dickens in English, and it was definitely worth every second. The Finnish translations are good, but the descriptions of weather and London feel more vivid in the original language. I especially loved the beginning where Dickens describes how the wind goes through the church and the bell tower.

However, I can't help but compare this to A Christmas Carol, and the latter wins without a doubt. Despite the similar concept, The Chimes is still good. You just have to consider it as an independent novel instead of a part of the Christmas Books -series or as a companion piece to A Christmas Carol. During these final hours of the old year it was great to just calm myself down, and prepare to receive the new year before all the partying. During this time of the year I always get chills, because one period of time is ending and the next is about to start. The most exciting thing is that there's no way of knowing what the future will bring, so you can grab onto it with a new kind of attitude and enthusiasm, and forget all the bad stuff of the previous year. You can start with a clean slate.

This is also the case with Trotty. Even though Scrooge is a more effective character, there's room for improvement with the melancholic Trotty as well. The passing of time offers a chance to improve. There's no use worrying about the past, because it's just that - the past. Don't doubt yourself, but instead you should trust and hope that everything will be alright eventually.