I like collecting, so naturally, I like lists. Lists are a very easy and non-committal way of collecting. For Dismember my Monster, I made a reading list. Fictional. Just for myself (another indulgence). But then I extended it to include film. I suppose it’s like having an accompanying soundtrack, except a lot more work if one were to combine it with a viewing.
In no particular order:
My favourite children’s book. Possibly my favourite book ever. The home interiors are masterpieces. The simple text can be read 1000 times without boredom. The monster eats the boy (or is the boy the monster?) and it teaches all you need to know about modern parenting.
A man gets stranded on a motorway island and finds he doesn’t really want to leave. Concrete island is a container of sorts – and full of oddities.
I often have daydreams about living somewhere cut off with the vaguest connection to the outside world and minimal social responsibility, although it’s generally somewhere minus concrete.
Colour saturation and a table laid with a roasted lover.
Not sure which I prefer; film or book. I think about them both all the time.
Humans are animals.
“Four legs good two legs bad”
My favourite Sendak. There is a wonderhorn, a red cloak and the goblins are chubby babies. I’ve had this book since birth and it’s imprinted on me.
A reminder that horror sits very close to laughter.
Also, Steven, a close family friend and my spirit guide in (horror) film and fiction told me that Britt Ekland had a bum double.
Faith intertwined with folklore makes heady reading; and the British landscape has its own brooding personality.
There is something of the evocative, eerie strangeness that I’d like to keep close.
A final note to reiterate my love of lists; I have a list of all the books I’ve ever read since I was eight years old and attended Ms Ounsted’s afterschool bookclub. One of the activities was to write such a list (another was to examine old books and work out their edition, I forget what else).
My lists has two rules; I have to finish the book and re-reads count.
I wish I’d done this for film.
Lottie Stoddart 