Of course, I am not just a lover of books, but also the many endearing tales they contain, short, long, weird and otherwise. This post, is about some of those tales!
You know how it goes. You subscribe to a newsletter or something similar and then start wondering when you will find a real use for it, right? Seems to happen all the time, when the entire world seems to be engaged in a ponzi scheme with all of us trying to take each other’s cash with some marketing gimmick or the other. Not so for “Open Culture” a newsletter I appear to have subscribed a few weeks or months ago. I have been satisfactorily on the receiving end of at least mildly odd and interesting reading bits and pieces from them.
And today, for this fan of pulp fiction, especially pulp science fiction, grunge and the like, boy, it landed! That too in a week when I have been chipping away at a host of B-grade science fiction and horror movies on Peacock, ranging from the very watchable Splinter to the “what the hell were they thinking” Lavalantula…!
On my reading list, is HP Lovecraft of course, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Open Culture recommend a whole mess of downloads on stories by him and others from the magazine “Weird Tales“. I am a big fan of origin tales, and to think the starting point of The Walking Dead, which is darn near religion in my household, to a Stephen King (who is dang near a god for me) favorite, Dracula (give his introduction to Salem’s Lot a read or a listen for more deets), is all ensconced in the grungy archives of Weird Tales is endearing.
A big fan of archive.org, I am glad they are also part of the exercise to preserve back issues so future generations may partake of, and spin more horror, hopefully solely of the fictitious kind. Maybe the next generation of The Twilight Zone, or it’s British Cousin, The Black Mirror shall originate from the same font.
Until then, our lot is to enjoy the array of downloads here: https://www.openculture.com/2024/06/download-issues-of-weird-tales-1923-1954.html#google_vignette
Reference:
- Cover image, thanks to Ray_Shrewsberry via pixabay: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/hands-eye-eye-ball-creepy-scary-5700337/