It’s been a while

Life has been a lot recently.  One of my cats, my sweet precious O’Malley, passed away last month. It’s been difficult— really difficult. We had a very special bond, and I just miss him so much. Even before that happened, my mental health wasn’t spectacular... and as you can imagine, losing my baby didn’t help. But I’m trying to hang in there. It’s gotten really really hot recently, and I’ve been super dehydrated because of it. I just don’t want to do anything ever, lol. Except swimming, of course... when I get the chance.  I haven’t been reading like I should... I want to and then I just don’t lol. But I have gotten some joy out of watching Hamilton on Disney Plus and The Babysitters Club on Netflix. I’d recommend those if you haven’t seen them, lol.  Work is expecting me to come back really soon, and I just... don’t feel super safe about that right now. 😕 Idk man.

I've been off work since March 20th.  Today is May 21st, just over two months later.  I haven't left the house (but to walk the dog around the neighborhood occasionally).  Mostly I've been passing the time by playing Animal Crossing and watching youtube videos.  I haven't read as much as I wanted to, I haven't written at all... but I'm trying to like.  Cope, lol.  I've been doing some gardening (though I have a black thumb) and taking pictures of my dolls.  Things are really difficult right now.  Everyone I know is depressed.  We all have to do what we can to make this easier on ourselves.

Cats! Bad

I started this post a while ago and just left it in my drafts... for why, I could not tell you, lol.  Just forgot it, I think!  So here it is, weeks after the fact, lol.

Anyways you can tell I've been in self-isolation (or quarantine or whatever you want to call it) for a WHILE because I recently voluntarily watched Cats (2019).  On purpose.  I paid $6 to rent it and everything.  It was absolutely terrible, but you don't need me to tell you that.  You've seen reviews and tweets and even the actors trying to laugh off their involvement in the movie.  What I can tell you is that a lot of people who saw this movie and thought it was terrible weren't familiar with the musical, so some of the craziness they were reacting to is just Cats.  I am familiar with the musical.  I like the musical.  I'm no expert in the show, but I had something in mind to compare it to... and this movie just... sucks in comparison, lol.  This wasn't it, chief!

If you want to read my original, but very brief, live blog of watching Cats (1998), the filmed version of the stage show that is available on home video, followed by my lengthy live blog of Cats (2019), you can do so here.

Love Takes Wing

I don't recall if I have mentioned my love of Hallmark's Love Comes Softly movie series before, but as much as I am in no way, shape, or form the target demographic for those films, I just truly enjoy them.  It's a combination of my love for period films and for innocent love stories with kind men.  These movies are very Christian, and although I'm pagan, it never makes me feel uncomfortable because the characters don't ever judge others that don't share their beliefs -- and they practice the loving, compassionate, non-judgmental type of Christianity that would actually make Christ proud.

These movies make me feel warm and good, and I periodically re-watch the series... and something struck me on my most recent re-watch a few days ago, and I want to talk about it.

So this film series is based on a book series by Janette Oke.  I've only read the first book (and I loved it), but it's quite different than the first film... and from what I understand, the later movies are almost entirely different from the later books.  The film I'm going to be focusing on today is the seventh in the series, and it's about Belinda, a young female doctor in a wild west town.

The reason I'm going to talk about this film, though it's not my favorite in the series, is because right now it really hits home.  Dr. Belinda Simpson begins her medical practice in a town beset by an outbreak of Cholera, and a lot of the behavior we see from the townspeople (in this made for TV movie from 2009, set in 1850-something) mirrors behavior we are seeing NOW amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Love Takes Wing reunites us with Belinda, now a practicing doctor and a recent widow.  When we last saw her, she had just married a young lawyer named Drew Simpson and was preparing to begin studying to become a doctor.  This is obviously several years later, and we have a new actress in the role (and she looks nothing like the previous actress -- but it's fine, the same thing happened with her mother and grandmother lol, it's fine... we accept it).   She arrives at Sikestown (with her best friend Dr. Haylie Duff) and soon finds out about the outbreak of a mysterious illness.  No one in town can agree upon what the illness is and what is causing it.  No one understands how it is spread.  The people are scared, and many of them are angry.  Some of the townsfolk blame the orphanage on the outskirts of town... they think the orphans have caused the illness and are spreading it.

As the disease spreads more, Belinda and the woman who runs the orphanage (played wonderfully by Cloris Leachman) work overtime to care for the children and to try and figure out what is causing the disease to continue spreading.  It's set at a time that not much was known about germs and bacteria, and we see a lot of Belinda having to explain this and certain hygiene and cleanliness best practices.  When Belinda realizes that the illness the town is dealing with is cholera, the mayor attempts to control the narrative around the illness and doesn't believe her that his clean, upstanding town could be facing a disease that he insists "only" hurts the dirty and the poor.  He doesn't want Belinda to let anyone know that she thinks the illness is cholera.

One of the angry townspeople is so insistent that the orphans are the cause of the illness that he campaigns for the orphanage to be shut down -- and when he doesn't get his way, he tries to set the orphanage on fire.

Belinda eventually figures out the root cause of the illness is a contaminated water source.  Some people are thankful to have answers, but others still don't want to listen to her.  She, a doctor, is not trusted as an expert because her expert information contradicts what some people are currently thinking... and it inconveniences them.  People value their own righteous anger and their comfort and their current way of life over science and other people's safety and well-being.

But this is a movie.  It's a fictional story, set in a world where one of the Backstreet Boys plays a saloon keeper and the sidebangs we were all rocking in 2009 are anachronistically rocked unapologetically in the mid to late 1800s.  It ends happily.  Many people died, but the illness ended shortly.  None of the main characters died, and everyone ends the movie in a better place than where they started.  Belinda is more content and confident in her medical prowess, she's remarried to a hot blacksmith, and she adopted a spunky little redheaded orphan.

But in the real world, in Covid-19's 2020, we don't know how this will end.  We're not guaranteed a happy ending.  We don't have a 90 minute runtime to tell us how long it'll last.  We can't say for certain that "main characters" -- ourselves and the people we love -- won't be affected.  If this continues the way it has been going, millions of people will die and every American will know people who were sick or died from this thing.  Even people who recover will be affected for life.  The orphans in this film had Belinda standing up for them, and the leader of the town eventually realized the error of his ways and tried to shut down the irrational hatred against the orphans, but Asian Americans haven't had a leader who stood up for them and did his part to stop irrational hatred against them for something that is OBVIOUSLY 100% not their fault.

I don't have all the answers.  I just know that if we don't start listening to actual experts, if we don't continue staying home, this is going to get worse before it gets better.  I want to see it start getting better, and I need people to care more about human lives than they care about the fact that they want a haircut.  All everyone wants is for this to end soon and with as little damage as possible... so many people have had to suffer this painful illness.  So many people have died and had to be buried in a mass grave because of it.  Medical professionals are being traumatized by what they're having to see and the conditions they have to work under.  They and all other essential workers are putting their own lives at risk every single day -- because they don't have a choice.  We can ease that somewhat by doing something as fucking simple and easy and just staying home.  Being quarantined is not easy, even for someone as deeply introverted as myself, but we are not being asked to do something impossible.  Just please do your part.  Please think of others.

Please watch the Love Comes Softly series -- maybe it'll teach you a thing or two about caring for other people (and just maybe you'll enjoy it, lol).  As for myself, this seventh movie that I've kinda slept on is definitely one I'll be looking forward to much more in my next re-watch.

Despite having nothing but time on my hands, I did not read my March book.  To be fair, I didn't stop working until the middle of the month, and then I got Animal Crossing, lol.  I will at some point, though, and there will be a post about the book.  And... good news, I'm writing this from my new laptop!

Superman Smashes the Klan Review

I've been meaning to sit down and get this post out for a while, and since I've had nothing but time, I have no excuse other than life has been real weird, lol.  Anyways, I recently finally sat down and read the Superman Smashes the Klan miniseries and I just want to talk about it, because it was phenomenal. 

I'm sure you all know that this is based on a storyline that ran on the 1940s Superman radio show -- and that that radio show storyline actually really undermined the real life KKK.  You can grab this book if you want to read more about that, because it is truly fascinating.  Late last year, DC did a three issue miniseries adapting the radio show into a beautiful comic by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru.  The thing that impressed me most with this story was how wonderfully deep and complex Clark is written to be.  Clark Kent is my favorite fictional character ever, and I dig any work that bothers to explore his feelings.  Gene gives us a Clark who is scared and insecure but trying his hardest.  We get a Clark who doubts himself and doesn't always know how to express himself, but a Clark who isn't afraid of his emotions and loves with his whole heart.  We get a Clark who is as emotionally strong as he is physically strong and doesn't give up when he's tested.

Clark wasn't the only character who I loved though.  I absolutely fell in love with Roberta, the young Chinese girl whose family faces discrimination.  She and Clark have very similar character arcs in that they both have a lot of fear holding them back, but they push on for the sake of doing what is right and end up realizing that they're capable of more than they ever realized.  Roberta is sweet and brave and lonely and sad and a little weird.  She's a spectacular character, and I know this is a self contained little miniseries but I wouldn't mind seeing more of her if it was somehow possible.  Maybe a Roberta spin off series?  I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd read it.

 

One thing I also liked was how absolutely shocked the well-meaning white characters (including Clark, to some extent) were to see the Lee family face the kind of discrimination they were dealing with.  It's very realistic for people who are sheltered and who are pretty accepting themselves have a hard time wrapping their minds around that kind of hate.  It also shows that you couldn't really understand how it feels to be treated like shit for who you are unless you've experienced.  Clark is an immigrant and grew up feeling like an outsider because he was different -- he gets it, and I think that's why he and Roberta bond so well.  They have a lot in common. 

I think the fact that there are also white characters who aren't outwardly violent and aren't members of the Klan or anything but still support the same racist views was very important.  A lot of racists are quiet about it, but they're bigots just the same.

Each of the three issues has a prose story from the author about his experiences with the character of Superman and his experiences growing up Chinese.  This story takes place in 1946, and Gene obviously grew up much much later -- but not a lot of things have changed.  The piece is even more relevant now than just a few months ago -- especially considering that anti-Asian racism and hate crimes are on the rise right in the wake of the Coronavirus... really proves that many people are still looking for reasons to hate Asian folks, and it's disgraceful.  (Side note, racism is never excusable, no matter what your "justification" is.)

The art is absolutely gorgeous -- these issues have a precious Clark -- and I would love to see more comics in this style.

Over all, I couldn't recommend this series any more highly.  Do yourself a favor and check it.  Even if you're not a Superman fan, I think you could get something out of this.

And if you're an old time radio fan like myself, or if the comic has piqued your interest, you can listen to the entire Clan of the Fiery Cross storyline from the Superman radio show here on youtube!

animal crossing: gateway to friendship

I mentioned a while ago in this previous post about Pokemon that I had gotten invested in Animal Crossing and was looking forward to the new game, New Horizons.  The game was released (and I received my preordered copy) on March 20th, the same day my job officially closed down due to the Coronavirus statewide lockdown.  I have honestly spent much of my time playing this game, and words can hardly describe how comforting this game has been -- how fun, how wonderful a way to pass time, and how oddly motivating I've found it.

I didn't grow up with Animal Crossing... I picked up the 3DS game New Leaf just last year because life was going bad and I needed a distraction, and this series looked cute. The fact that you're free to play at your own pace and set your own goals really appealed to me.  You're always accomplishing something, no matter how small.  The fact that your villagers notice when you don't check into town regularly really touched my dark little heart.

I preordered the new game, and since I haven't been working, I've had a lot of time to play it.  I don't know how to explain it, lads... it just feels good.  I saw a post that said that Animal Crossing is really just about vibing... and I think that's it, lol.

Because I wasn't able to fully explain how I feel about the series, here are some excellent youtube videos that give you more and better info and things to think about.  The first one by Cygnus Destroyer is especially relatable to me because his history with the franchise is very similar with my own.

Find the thing that brings you the kind of peace Animal Crossing brings its fans.  Even if it is temporary, that's better than nothing.

In Quarantine

Boy has the world changed A LOT since the last time I posted in this blog... and it's only been a month! 😬  Due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 (the coronavirus) and the unprecedented global reaction to the virus, life as we knew it is not really... a thing any more.  While I think that caution is best, I also think it's important that people stop panicking -- stop hoarding more than you need, stop fearing certain death, stop spreading rumors that you scrolled past on facebook without fact checking.  This virus is serious -- I admit I was initially one of the "it's basically the flu" people, and I regret my ignorance and insensitivity.  This thing can obviously be deadly.  This thing spreads fast, and you're contagious before you ever show symptoms... and it's possible not to show symptoms at all.  So caution is best.  Stay home as much as you can, pay extra attention to hygiene, and check up on your loved ones in vulnerable groups.

This past week, I've been home from work.  I work in a building with over 1000 other people, and for weeks now the CDC has been recommending not being in groups larger than 50 (and later, larger than 10).  It got to the point that it scared me that we were still expected to come in... I don't work an essential job.  Businesses were already shutting down, and we should have been among those that shut down early.  Instead we stayed open until California's Governor Gavin Newsom called for a statewide lock down.  Work finally shut down at that point.  I'm not able to work from home (because of a few different reasons, but mostly because of my loud dog -- I work in a call center and the customers can't hear a dog in the background when they call), so things may get dicey with money.  My job won't be paying those of us that can't work from home... and they were so ill prepared for this (because they neglected to prepare any in the past few weeks when the writing was on the wall) that even those that have been approved to work from home have been delayed in actually being able to work.  And I don't expect them to be paid for these last few days here.

Everyone is struggling now... I'm depressed that I won't be able to see the Jonas Brothers in concert in Las Vegas, I'm worried for everyone who is off work without pay, I'm even more worried for people who still have to work and risk exposure every day.  I have artist friends who rely on appearances at comic conventions who are going to struggle to make up this lost income for a long time.  Kids are out of school... the class of 2020 isn't getting a prom or a graduation or any other senior year festivities.  I know a composer who has been working on music for years that she will no longer get to perform.

More insidious, of course, and more aggravating than sad is the fact that capitalism is not taking a break.  Poor people don't have access to covid-19 testing but the wealthy and famous can be tested without any reason to even think they've been exposed.  People still have rent and mortgages and car notes and utility bills, but no pay check to cover them. 

This is all so unprecedented.  It's weird.  Maybe we'll go stir crazy, but hopefully we'll all survive... and maybe some positive changes will come of this.

So far I've spent much of my time home these past few days playing Animal Crossing (post to come), but I hope to get more editing work done and read a couple of books too.  Let's all stay home and do whatever we can to bring ourselves some peace.

I hope I see you all on the other side.




PS: For further reading, you can see the Covid-19 posts on my tumblr blog (some of which are lighthearted, because we can all use a laugh, and the rest are informative and interesting), as well as the wikipedia page on the Spanish Flu -- the pandemic humanity survived 100 years ago.

gotta catch em all

So, as you know, I am a nerd lol... and I do love Pokemon.  I finished Pokemon Shield a while ago and eventually completed the Pokedex.  Like many people my age, I grew up with Pokemon and was a kid during the height of Pokemania in the late 90s/early 2000s.  I started watching the anime in the mornings before school when I was in 5th grade, and that Christmas my dad got me Pokemon Red on Game Boy.  I ended up playing Red, Blue, and Yellow... stood in line with my mom to get Silver the day it and Gold launched.  But I fell off before Crystal launched, and I don't really know or remember why.  I did get a Game Boy Advance (two actually -- the original model and then later the SP, the classic Nintendo special edition one), but I never Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald or even FireRed or LeafGreen.  I feel like a lot of people had a similar experience... Pokemon never stopped being popular, of course, but that was truly the point where Pokemania was kind of over.  I guess I just thought I'd grown out of Pokemon.  That was kind of it until 2013.  I was on Tumblr at that point, and everyone was talking about X and Y, and it looked so good!  I didn't have a DS or 3DS at that point, but I decided that I really wanted to.  I really wanted to play Pokemon again.  I even bought a probably fake copy of FireRed to tide me over and I really enjoyed that (until the cartridge deleted my save file lol)... but I needed to get back into it for real.  I didn't know why I needed it, but I just felt like I did.  I got my 3DS for Christmas that year... there was a Black Friday sales bundle on the system and two games available on the walmart website, and my mom and I made it happen.  I had to defend the fact that, poor as we were, I owned that system... people made so many comments and asked so many questions because poor people are apparently not allowed to own anything or have fun ever.  But I put up with it, because I had Pokemon again, and it was fun and it was good.  It made me happy.  Depression made me lose interest in the game a few times, so it took me forever to finish it... but I did eventually, and I even completed my Pokedex.  I was truly proud of that accomplishment!  Since that point, I've know that I had no desire to give up Pokemon again... I've played Y, Omega Ruby, SoulSilver, Sun, and Ultra Moon on my 3DS (as well Animal Crossing -- a franchise I am fairly new to but ended up falling in love with... expect a post about that after the new game comes out next month, lol).  When I started working, my first BIG purchase was a Nintendo Switch with Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu.  I enjoyed that game a lot, but haven't yet finished it.  Pokemon Shield, for all it's detractors and admitted imperfections, really captured me... and I can't wait for the expansion pass later this year.  I'm just so glad I got back into this franchise!  One of the good things in life.

musings, part ???

It's been just over a year since my mom had her stroke and had to go to the hospital.  She's doing about the same -- she's mostly bed bound, and she responds at times.  Still has a feeding tube.  She's not worse, and that's a good thing to be thankful for.  I still wish I had realized sooner that she was on the verge of this medical crisis.  I wish the situation here was different, and she could be at home.  I feel like an asshole because she's not, and I don't know how much she understands but I hope that she gets that I didn't want to just leave her there.  I don't get to see her often, and I feel horrible about that too.  She's not gone, but the person she was is just not available for medical reasons... and she's someplace different now, so I miss her.  Before she had the stroke, sometimes our relationship was complicated.  Like, I love her and always have, but we'd argue and she would drive me crazy for just... reasons that aren't even worth talking about (but were valid).  And it's sad now to think... our relationship can never be better than it was.  Life is just so mean... she deserved better health and a better home situation.  I blame myself a lot still for not realizing sooner that something was going on with her health wise.  I wish I had done more and done better.  I guess she also deserved a better daughter, lol.  Though my life now, over a year later, has more creature comfort ( running water is a big deal, lol), it's lonelier.  And part of me misses how things were -- not the extreme poverty (as opposed to my current paycheck to paycheck existence) but the fact that I used to have someone to watch TV with and have dinner with.  I didn't panic every time an unknown number called me, thinking it might be a nurse with bad news.  And just... you don't want to see anyone have to go through a medical crisis that changes them.  Life is just really mean and it sucks that we all have to deal with that.

Merry Misfits Book Club (Year Two): February: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

For February, the book club had the choice of a couple of different fairy tale retellings: Cinder by Marissa Meyer and Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.  Although I like Shannon Hale as an author, I chose Cinder simply because it was available as an audiobook from the library through the overdrive app, lol.

I really enjoyed this book.  I do enjoy retellings of the Cinderella story, and this was a really innovative one.  It has this whole sci-fi thing going on that was really cool.  I don't want to sound shady, but I didn't know it was AS sci-fi as it was, so if I had read a summary of the book beforehand I probably wouldn't have read it... which I'm definitely glad I did, because I enjoyed it.  So even if the story doesn't SOUND like it would appeal to you, it just might.  You could still enjoy it.  Like last month's book, this one is the first of a series and I'm considering eventually reading later books in the series.  I'd recommend it!

Merry Misfits Book Club (Year Two): January: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

This year, I'm not doing a traditional reading challenge like I have done these last couple of years... I feel bad about that, because I kind of enjoyed having a theme and picking a book to fit it, but it's just been so stressful as I have not had the time.  I hate not having enough time to read enough, but... you know.  Capitalism, lol.  Anyways... I am still doing the book club I joined last year, but it's been kind of revamped.  Last year, it was similar to the reading challenges in that we'd have a theme and then pick a book to fit it.  This year it's a more traditional book club -- we all read one of a couple of different books and are free to discuss.

January's book was Howls' Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.  I listened to the audiobook of it.

I picked this over the other selection because of the Ghibli movie.  Even though the book is quite different than the movie, I really enjoyed it.  The characterization and world building will really draw you in.  The narrator of the audiobook (I forget her name) had a really enchanting voice that fit the story so perfectly.  I might eventually go back and check out the sequels.  I don't have a lot to say about the book other than the fact that I enjoyed it and definitely recommend it.  Makes me want to re-watch the movie, lol.

I'm going to be doing a more casual format with these book posts and try to make more formal reviews on Goodreads.  Follow me there for more incoherent thoughts, lol.

smh

someone (me) hasn't been feeling so hot mentally and has been Going Through It, and thus not keeping up with arbitrary goals she set for herself, such as posting on this blog once a week.  I kinda hate that, because I do enjoy posting on this blog... I can just kind of write about books and stories and my feelings and my life and it doesn't have to have a structure or anything like that.  It's freeing, kind of like a diary.  Anyways, I'm here to work on a couple book posts and maybe something else, so hopefully something will come of it, lol.

computer...

So I have two laptops and neither does what it's supposed to.  One, the one I'd been using, was actually a really great machine, and then one day the hinge just broke and the screen has been gaping open on the side ever since.  And then it started having an issue where it would fucking constantly disconnect from wifi and I'd have to mess with it to get it to connect again.  Now the option for wifi is completely gone, so it officially no longer goes online.  (I'm sure it'd work with ethernet but I don't have a cable handy.)  The second computer is a hand me down from my friend.  She got a new laptop and gave me her old one because I was having issues with mine.  This computer can stay connected to the internet, and it has nice strong hinges.  But everything else about it is pretty much an exercise in frustration.  It has a touch screen but the touch screen has never worked... so it constantly has a problem with ghost tapping.  The cursor moves itself, so when I'm typing, sometimes the cursor will move to the middle of a word or the beginning of a sentence... so I'll be typing and the words will come up backwards.  I'm not explaining that well, but does it sound frustrating?  Because it's incredibly frustrating!  So I'm planning to get a new computer because I can't fucking live like this anymore... but I hate windows 10 so much I'm thinking of getting a mac, and those are much more expensive.. so maybe a refurb.  So fingers crossed that if I do that I don't end up with a lemon.  But man, I can't keep dealing with these half functioning machines.

DYRC 19/Merry Misfits Book Club December: The Snow Tree by Caroline Repchuk

So this is my second time writing this because the computer I'm using is a literal piece of shit and decided to just... go ahead and delete the entire fucking thing after I added an image lol.  (And then it autosaved before I could load a previously saved draft.  Cool, so cool.)  My next blog post should probably be my computer woes lol.

Anyways...

So there was a lot of cheating involved in the selection of the book I read for December.  As I've mentioned before, I don't have a lot of time to read anymore and due to stress and depression and etc I don't necessarily spend a lot of my very little free time reading (like arguably I should/could).  So in these reading challenges, I'm always excited when I can have a shortcut -- covering both challenges with one book, whenever I can read a short book or a comic or children's book, etc.  The theme for Merry Misfits was holiday -- easy enough.  The theme for DYRC was fantasy.  Now, I know they mean something like Lord or the Rings or Game of Thrones, but I didn't want a big long book right now.  I decided to take "fantasy" as a broad descriptor rather than as a genre, really just so I could make things a little easier on myself.  Sue me, lol.  I just wanted a fantasy-esque Christmassy children's book, so I picked The Snow Tree by Caroline Repchuck.

I'm giving myself a pass on calling this fantasy because it has talking animals and nothing could be more fantastic, lol.  Anyways, this is a really cute little book and the art is beautiful.  The pages are textured and it's really fun and sweet.  Because it's just a little children's book I don't have a lot to say, but I just really wanted to read a cute little book like this and it hit the literary spot.

I didn't post a goodreads review on this book.  However here is my profile, and you should follow me.  Here is the page for this book... other people have written better reviews than this one and you can read them there, lol.

I read this book on December 22.

Would I recommend this book to a friend?  If you like children's books, yes.

DYRC19/Merry Misfits Book Club November: Edgar Allen Poe: The Complete Tales and Poems

New year, same old me.  Here I am, months after the fact, writing a book post for y'all… knowing full well that no one was waiting for this, lol.  Anyways, the theme for DYRC in November was poetry, and the theme for the Merry Misfits was short story.  I was deciding on this book during October, the spookiest month of the year... I dressed as the Phantom of the Opera for Halloween, and there's a scene in that book where the Phantom dresses in a Poe cosplay lol, so it all added up to me picking this Poe collection (which I got in ebook format for my Kindle tablet for like $1).

Full disclosure: I didn't read this entire thing.  But to be fair, that's not the point of a complete works type of book.  Those are meant to be read as you please -- pick and choose pieces, read out of order, read in order but skip things if you want... it doesn't matter.  I read two of the short stories and a selection of the poems.  Obviously, Poe is an incredibly talented and important writer -- you don't need me to explain that to you.  I will say, I enjoyed everything I read here.  The stories I picked ("The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Cask of Amontillado") were great, but you really can't go wrong.  The poetry, of course, was wonderful too.  The great thing about a collection like this is that I can revisit it whenever I want and read another story or a couple more poems.  There's enough material there that even if you do want to read it straight through from beginning to end you won't run out of stuff to read for a while.

Here is my goodreads review.  It's only one sentence, lol.

I read this book between November 7th and (according to Goodreads) December 22.  I don't know if that date is accurate, I don't remember reading any of this that recently.  But whatever... like I said, I just sort of picked and chose what I read, so it doesn't necessarily matter.

Would I recommend this book? Of course.