Steppenwolfing

I am a third of the way through the book (you know I am a very slow reader) and am on the third part / chapter . whatever the "Treatise on the Steppenwolf" and have seen the first references to the main subject Harry Haller as a were-wolf, though this is philosophy as a novel, with the man wolf situation almost like the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of Robert Louis Stevenson.

The book drifts between mundane normality and dark areas where the reality becomes more than  a bit blurred and maybe it's this that is keeping my interest. I am not sure that I will pick up another Hermann Hesse book but even though I bought this it nearly never got read. 

I suppose it's like "The Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger , "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac and "Tarantula" by Bob Dylan, books that grace your shelf but maybe you have never read. I still haven't done "On The Road" ,, yet but I am sure I will do.

So musically we will keep the wolf theme going with "Will The Wolf Survive" by Los Lobos which I thought sounds almost like a Stevie Winwood song, it is rather excellent.

.... a Magic Carpet

I finished "Follow The Music" who's final chapter was very contrivedly 33⅓ and was wondering what to read next. I sort of wanted fiction, but something I know I'd be happy with so I have gone back to the first Clive Barker book I read, "Weaveworld", it's in a large format BCA edition with "Cabal" (which found it's way into film as "Nightbreed" , an interesting twist where the real monsters are the humans and the "monsters" are ghettoised and persecuted and features David Cronenberg acting as the major villain).

"Weaveworld" was Barker's second novel after "The Damnation Game" although he had produced "The Books of Blood" short story collection. I am currently reading "Imajica" on Kindle  (my favourite book ever) but I now know why I was hooked by "Weaveworld" , sixty pages in wit just a glimpse of the magic carpet referred to in the title and part of this is telling me "when you have read this you know you have to read the other books" so it looks like I am unlikely to be reading any more new books for a while.

I was trying to think of a song to go with this and while I could have chosen "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf (great name from the Herman Hesse novel), "The Magic Suitcase" by Carbon/Silicon has been playing in my bed, while the subject matter is a little dodgy (the suitcase contains a bomb, I think) it's a superb song and the second best song on their brilliant debut album.

It's grey Tuesday and time for me to leave the house, but if you need some new book places to visit "Weaveworld" is a brilliant place to go.