I picked up a nice hardback of this in a charity shop recently (always look in charity shops for books- never know what you will find). It contains many of the popular fairy stories such as Beauty and the Beast, the Princess and the Pea and Sinbad the Sailor to name just a few. 

The really good thing about this book is that it is beautifully illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The first edition of this was 1933, but the one I have was published in 1986. If it was a first edition I would be very happy because it is worth quite a bit of money. 

I was quite surprised that he had several different styles with his art- a very fast sketchy style almost like Quentin Blake, silhouettes and his famous detailed pen and wash style.

The stories are very nicely written and illustrated and is a nice bed time read. 

Recently I have been reading more sci-fi and fantasy. I found a book called 'Weird Tales' edited by Peter Haining, which contains short stories by many of the famous fantasy writers from 1934-1952. The weirdest one I have read so far is 'Beyond The Wall Of Sleep' by H.P. Lovecraft in 1938. This story deals with dreams and the psyche. 

There is a lot of variety in the stories, and I think it's a good starting point for fantasy and sci-fi. 

I'm also going to read some of HG Wells short stories.

.............................................

Another thing I have been thinking about is the legacy of war and the terrible consequences that technology and science can inflict even if in the best interests of learning and so called 'enlightenment'.

I am in the favour of science: the pursuit of the truth and how things work etc... however I also see the value of belief and religion, moral values and wot not. I think it is important to look into history and learn from the past mistakes and teachings and also try to understand why things happened in an unbiased way. 

I can't really explain my feelings well enough (I'm not a writer), I am trying my best to see some humanity in the media at the moment and failing miserably. Money is not as important as people, but they go on about it incessantly  in the news. 

An excerpt of the 10th Century poem 'The Wanderer' might help to express my feelings on certain turn of events a bit more at the moment. 

'from the north there comes
a rough hailstorm
in malice against men.
All is troublesome
in this earthly kingdom,
turn of events changes
the world under the heavens.
Here money is fleeting,
here friend is fleeting,
here man is fleeting,
here kinsman is fleeting,
all the foundation of this world
turns to waste!'

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderer_(poem)

I've been raiding my dads library lately. I found two books that caught my interest, one is "The Book of Heroic Failures" by Stephen Pile and the other is "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac" by Mike Harding. Both really funny books, made me laugh out loud in places.
The book of Heroic Failures is great for making your so called failures seem ridiculously small (which mine are in comparison). I have to say I learned a lot from this book, for instance I never realized that the famous poet William McGonagall played Macbeth and refused to die until the other actor began to shout at him.
The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac basically confirms my general cynical thoughts on the human world of politics and religion so far and is very funny.

Please excuse me while I put my "fan" hat on for 2 minutes.

The graphics are superb, very detailed and lush environments. Lara herself looks amazing and even changes expressions, smiles, blinks, glares, grimaces etc.... I would have liked it if they had made her look a bit more scared and scream when being run down and eaten by the tigers, but maybe they are saving it for the next game. Also they made her run a bit like a girl. I sort of miss the old way she ran.
I think the main thing about this game was the environments and puzzle elements that impressed me the most. The game play was fun and challenging enough on the normal setting. I have not played it on the hardest setting yet, but I'll have a go later.

I thought the journal feature was nice, giving some background information on mythology and the story as you progress.

I miss picking up ammo and guns in the levels though. I know from a realistic perspective you would not find ammo in ancient temples and such, but it makes the game more fun (and playable if you run out of grenades).

The only thing that lets it down is that it is not as long a game as I would have liked and I thought the story was really quite weak at the end. I'm not asking for Morrowind proportions, but it would have been nice if it had lasted longer than 2 days. It left a lot of unanswered questions in my mind and was quite anti-climatic. I sort wished it had ended with more of a bang and a resolution, especially if they want to move on to other stories with Lara.

Now that they have this new engine I hope Crystal Dynamics will also bear in mind that good storytelling is very important as well as graphics if not more so. I think labyrinthine plots are probably best left to the legacy of Kain series. They managed to slip some Raziel look-a like zombie things in though which was a bonus- oh and a big squid that reminded me of the Elder God.

Tomb Raider Underworld had beautiful graphics and brilliant fun game play. I was scared in parts too I hate spiders! Just needed a tighter story and a bit longer- then it would have been perfect.

In closing it needed:

At least one dinosaur or mythical being to fight!
More explosions!
More exploration!!
More traps!!!
More puzzles! (Nice hard ones, no point if they are easy)

I found the book again, it was hiding under my bed. I've been reading about secret societies, African Mythology and Mayan archaeology and culture in the mean time. I'm also doing a bit of historical costume research and headdress styles through the ages. Keeping busy as usual.

I got sidetracked from Peter Pan and read this last weekend. I think I'll have to re-read it at some point because it is not what I would call an easy read. Oscar Wilde was an excellent (and very clever) writer though, and I did enjoy it. The ending was not what I had expected thanks to the film "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".

I have read a few of the short stories in this book, and my interest in reading has been re-kindled somewhat after burning myself out reading the "Duncton Wood Chronicles" when I was a teenager. Not that Duncton Wood wasn't good, it is one of the best series I've read, but very disturbing and dark. I did not read a real story book for several years after, sticking to reference books mainly.

In the "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" are some of the best short stories I have read for years, "The Glass coffin" was a beautiful read, and created amazing imagery in my head which I might try to draw at some point if I feel brave. If you have ever watched Jim Henson's "The Storyteller" and enjoyed the stories in that, this book is for you.

I'm going to read Peter Pan again. I haven't read it for years, Hook scared the hell out of me when i was little. I've got the book that was illustrated by Jan Ormerod; she did a really scary Hook.

I was reading Gullivers Travels as well, but I've lost it somewhere. It'll probably turn up one day again.