I had a day off on Monday so my wetware got confused and thought it’s only Tuesday. That’s why I don’t have anything prepared for the Midweek-Discussion. I call a lazy day and just ask y’all what your favorite “normie book” is. We’ve seen a few already on April 1st but where they your favorite?
I would start with my favorite but I cannot in good conscience tell you about it because it will never get to the last book in the trilogy and letting readers hang is probably somewhere listed in the Geneva Conventions as a war crime. It’s been over a decade and I still made myself depressed again just thinking about it right now, so go on and tell me about your favorites to cheer me up.
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.
It’s the first in a sort of trilogy called Gormenghast, after the enormous, crumbling, sprawling castle in and around which the story takes place. It and the second book - also called Gormenghast - tell a complete story, but it also stands alone. The third book - Titus Alone - changes the setting and supporting characters entirely, and was left unfinished at Peake’s death.
Peake was quite simply one of the most talented prose stylists ever. And he created a setting and characters that are so bizarre that they couldn’t possibly actually exist, then breathed them so full of so much richly detailed life that it seems as if they not only can exist, but do.