My younger brother likes Joseph Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and H. P. Lovecraft. He loves monsters and role playing games and Victorian horror and time travelers. He wants to be the next P.T. Barnum when he grows up.
As you can see, eccentricity runs in the Selavy family.
I'm making him a Cthulhu Hunter's kit for Christmas, inspired by the astonishing fascimile monster hunter kits by Alex CF (a bit of a warning: some of these are a bit gruesome) and the witchy surprise boxes by The Catt. It will be housed in a box that looks like a hardcover box, and contain a nice fountain pen, an antique journal with useful phrases for a monster hunter inside (such as "Something eldritch is dripping on your shoe"), calling cards (which he's wanted a set of for ages) and some tiny specimens. With this, I'd like to include some interesting books about creepy curiosities and wonders, or just strange stuff in general. Books that look like something a monster hunter would actually use--like the Dragonology books--are a plus, but in a pinch he gets a kick out of anything.
Here are some that I have in mind:
A Field Guide to Monsters (My brother likes picture books as much as I do)
How to Catch a Flying Saucer and How to Find a Ghost (these are middle grade books, but very, very well written and full of interesting info)
Yokai Attack!:The Japanese Monster Survival Guide
The Vampire Watcher's Handbook
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases
The Voyage of the Basset
And now I turn the floor over to my amazing readers. What books would you include with his kit? Anything about monsters, ghosts, vampires, demons, and surviving in the wilds of Ry'leh would be perfect, but anything with strange facts and weird stories works too. Thank you so much!
4 comments:
I'm very impressed by this kit you're putting together! You are such a creative gift-giver.
"How to Survive a Zombie Attack" by Max Brooks is pretty fantastic, if he'd like that sort of thing!
Oh yes yes! I have many things that might be good -
Non-Fiction-ish:
Adventures in Unhistory: Conjectures on the Factual Foundations of Several Ancient Legends by Avram Davidson - totally all about monsters and mysteries and where they came from
From Faust to Strangelove, Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature by Roslynn D. Haynes (SO good)
The Magician's Companion: A Practical and Encyclopedic Guide to Magical and Religious Symbolism by Bill Whitcomb
Alchemy & Mysticism (Klotz) by Alexander Roob
Fiction-ish:
The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability by Javier Grillo-marxuach (Author), Les Mcclaine (Illustrator) - was also a surprizingly awesome TV show!
Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
... I could go on for a long time, but those are the first that I thought might be interesting! (Your brother sounds awesome, he's lucky to have a sister like you who's so dedicated to putting together such a cool present for him!)
Hey so apparently i have missed several amazing posts so i must go back and catch up. Our brothers sound almost exactly the same. He honestly does not read too much though, only World of Warcraft manuals i'm afraid :) But i wish you luck on your discoveries, for it sounds like an amazing gift!
♥
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