Today's word cloud: "The Monkey's Paw" - W.W. Jacobs

"Without, the night was cold and wet(...)" 

With this alternative (oldfashioned?) meaning to the word 'outside', W.W. Jacobs gives a well-deserved atmospheric introduction to his gothic masterpiece. And that dictates the tone of how things are going do develop (to the worse) in the very few pages that follow within this classic horror short story.

And if you call yourself a fan of the horror genre and haven't taken the (very short) time to read this tale yet, set aside a similarly cold and rainy evening you happen to be at home to read it in the dim light.
Then come back and let me know how delightful (actually, frightful) your reading experience was. Enough said about how great this story is, let us proceed to the word cloud itself:

If like me, you read it umpteen times before (I actually took it to the next step, as I told it, lights off and all, to several of my pupils aged 9 to 12 and boy, they loved it!), its most frequent words are not much of a surprise, are they?

So it's either down to it being a short story or the fact it's so direct to the point, the words do reflect what goes on in the plot. Or would you rather wish there were some other ones? Just remember to be careful with what you wish for...

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, THE word cloud

Halloa! What have we here, dear chap? Well, were I to have relinquished this post's title, you would still -  by not just seeing, but observing - be quite able to infer whose word cloud it happens to be from, so blatantly obvious it is!

I shall stress out the meaningful employment of words that appear in Sherlock Holmes's first dozen short stories, such as 'think', 'time' and 'know'.

Alas, certain words we'd have taken for granted showed up in abundance, like 'clues'  and 'crime' are nothing but irrelevant. Also, words which may give in their being used more frequently during those old Victorian times (shall, quite, etc.) do abound in this anthology. And, who would guess it, 'fact(s)' are not that prominent either!

Review: Moon Over Soho

Lua Negra Sobre Westminster: Enigmas de Londres 2 by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Maybe the fact I lived both in London and Oxford for several years in the last decade has something to do with my enjoying this read so much; given that, if I haven't been to all the (real) venues and public places portrayed in it, I've at least strolled down the streets where Peter Grant roams about in the story one time or another in the noughties.

At first put off mainly by its Brazilian title, 'Dark Moon Over Westminster', after all there is no jazz club IN Westminster itself (not the London borough, but the area) and as much as I hate reading translations, the real bargain I found it for was too good to be shunned off.

So it transpires I loved this adventurous journey throughout underground London from the first chapter on; given the pure wit and genius behind the adorable, down-to-earth main character, which is Aaronovitch's empowered, tongue-in-cheek writing. Gotta get the previous book of the series pretty soon so hooked I've become on this modern piece of art which the whole series seems to be going to be.

This has most definitely ticked all my boxes regarding enjoyable reading and earned some personal laurels of mine in the process.




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