Endless Nights

Someone once said something like, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever: it's loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness", a sentiment that could definitely be applied to Endless Nights.

The collection consists of seven stories, each of which is drawn by a different artist, and each of which is centred around different member of the Endless. As with many of the original Sandman stories, the Endless don't usually feature as the focus of the story but rather, they're illuminated by actions of the other characters.

Make no mistake, this collection comes close to perfection: as sweet as Death; as passionate as Desire; lonely as Dream; dark as Despair; as vague as Delirium; as dangerous as Destruction and as certain as Destiny.

As your attorney, I instruct you to go out and buy this book and read it as soon as you possibly can. Then I recommend re-reading it, once, twice, thrice, for, as the poet says, it truly is a joy forever.

Ghostwriting

Today's Observer had an interesting piece on the long and noble history of ghostwriting.

I found the bit on self-delusion pretty interesting — I hadn't realised how many celebs get caught up in the fantasy that, despite not having written the book, it in some way belonged to them because it has their name on the cover. Fortunately, self-delusion does not seem to be totally universal: I particularly liked the quote from Ronald Reagan who, when asked about his ghostwritten autobiography, apparently replied, "I hear it's a terrific book. One of these days I'm going to read it myself."

Fairy tale romance

I admit it: I'm fickle and inconstant in my affections. Cherubino-like, all a book has to do is look at me coquettishly and suddenly I'm overcome by a desire to read it, even if I don't really have the time to spare. The latest treatise to thusly trap my poor battered heart is Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, a particularly gorgeous reprint of her original two volume set for Virago.

I guess it could have been worse: the individual tales are pretty short — some are less than a page long — so there's at least a chance that I might be able to find some time to read some of them, the woodcut illustrations and capitals are suitably folksy, and there's an afterword by Marina Warner. Plus, the rule of trumps says any set of fairy tales compiled by Angela Carter beats anything by Charles Perrault or the Grimm Brothers hands down.