“We had 'strayed,' as the Swede put it, into some region or some set of conditions where the risks were great, yet unintelligible to us; where the frontiers of some unknown world lay close about us. It was a spot held by the dwellers in some outer space, a sort of peep-hole whence they could spy upon the Earth, themselves unseen, a point where the veil between had worn a little thin. As the final result of too long a sojourn here, we should be carried over the border and deprived of what we called ‘our lives,’ yet by mental, not physical, processes. In that sense, as he said, we should be the victims of our adventure - a sacrifice."
- Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows"
🎨 Adriana Duduleanu

#BookWormSat #NationalReadingMonth #Literature #Fiction #WeirdFiction #Horror #CosmicHorror #AlgernonBlackwood

"The snow was falling upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
- James Joyce, "The Dead"

#BookologyThursday #NationalReadingMonth #Literature #Fiction #Ireland #Celtic #JamesJoyce

"The Earth is going to be married, and this is her bridal dress," whispered the turtle doves to each other. Their little pink feet were quite frost-bitten, but they felt that it was their duty to take a romantic view of the situation.

"Nonsense!" growled the wolf. "I tell you that it is all the fault of the Government, and if you don't believe me, I shall eat you." The wolf had a thoroughly practical mind, and was never at a loss for a good argument.

- Oscar Wilde, "The Star Child"

#BookologyThursday #FairyTale #Literature #Fiction #Ireland #Celtic #OscarWilde #NationalReadingMonth

"Here my bluest veins to kiss - a hand that kings
Have lipped, and trembled kissing."
- William Shakespeare, "Antony and Cleopatra" (Act 2, Scene 5)

#ShakespeareSunday #NationalReadingMonth #Book #Literature #Poetry #Theatre #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #Antony #Cleopatra

"Footprints?"

"Footprints."

"A man’s or a woman's?"

Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered.

"Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

#BookWormSat #NationalReadingMonth #Literature #Fiction #Mystery #Crime #ArthurConanDoyle #SherlockHolmes #Monster #Dog

In the original short story by Washington Irving and the Walt Disney movie, the legend of the Headless Horseman says that he carries his own severed head. That Ichabod Crane gets hit by a pumpkin instead is a big clue that he's being attacked by a disguised Brom Bones instead of by the real Horseman.
🎨 John Quidor

#PhantomFriday #GothicSpring #NationalReadingMonth #Book #Fiction #Literature #WashingtonIrving #Disney #Ghost #Monster

"Oh, Mole! The beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! The call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us."
- Kenneth Grahame, "The Wind in the Willows"
🎨 Troy Howell

#BookologyThursday #NationalReadingMonth #Book #Literature #Fiction #KennethGrahame #WindInTheWillows