Today’s Long and Short review is….”Things that Scare Me”. Swarm insects that sting/bite, obviously. Falling off bridges into deep water. The increasing dystopia of the 21st century, as technology further destroys our ability to be human and AI begins destroying our ability to act like sentient creatures. themselves. The prospect of having a stroke and being a prisoner in my own body. Also, the white cougar level in Red Dead Redemption 2 still gives me the heebie-jeebies even though I’ve played the game through more times than I can remember. The player enters a dark cave where mauled bodies show up periodically, the player hears his partner get attacked, and as he gets deeper and deeper into the cave he can hear the thing growling and pacing WAITING and COUGARS ARE SCARY ENOUGH IN BROAD DAYLIGHT! There’s just that flash of white, and if you don’t go into deadeye fast enough to shoot it, you’re going to die and get to be terrorized again. Seriously, in 25+ years of gaming that cougar mission creeps me out like nothing else.

WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Normans: From Raiders to Kings, Lars Brownworth.

WHAT are you reading now? Still working on finishing Against the Machine (80+ highlights to date), and I started nosing into biographies of both Grover Cleveland and Otto von Bismarck. Clearly, I’m in a “Known for their Mustaches” mood.

WHAT are you reading next? I should focus on Devil in the White City: not only is it a library loan, but it seems like it would be good for Halloween week, what with the murder and such. However, Kingsnorth is making me want to read Brave New World again. However, I’m also planning on re-reading 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, a small collection of Alabama ghost stories — inspired by both the season and the fact that I recently enjoyed the 44th Annual Tale-Telling Festival in Selma, an event inspired — and originally led by — Kathryn Tucker Windham, a journalist, folklorist, and storyteller who settled in Selma.