I originally wrote this post last year, but for whatever reason I couldn’t or didn’t want to post it. It’s a very autumnal read, so I’ve pulled it out of the drafts folder and may reread the book itself…
Read A Night in the Lonesome October (Roger Zelazny, 1993) if you like…
- Non-human narrators.
- (As in, this book was sold to me as ‘featuring Jack the Ripper’s dog as narrator’).
- Succinct chapters – there’s one for each day in October.
- Puzzles.
- Paganism.
- Bumping into characters you might have met before in very different books. (You could get a bingo card going.)
- Putting down a novel and thinking, ‘how extremely bizarre, will read again next year.’
I saw the book recommended in a subreddit for ‘spooky season’ books and apparently it’s convention amongst some readers to read a chapter each day throughout October. It’s not a long book, and for a first read I’d probably recommend just reading it as you normally would, because the short chapters are so short I think I’d have lost the thread of the story if I’d only read one chapter at a time. I’ve left it too late this year to read from 1st October, but maybe next year…
Let me know your favourite autumn reads in the comments! I’m rereading The Scorpio Races, as per.
Look after yourselves,
Francesca
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