As many of you beautiful readers already know, I spend an awful lot of time with books in my hands and I have to believe that this is a good thing.

Books not only educate us, sometimes in a very sophisticated and underhand way, but they also allow us the facility to escape from a life which might be challenging, cruel, or even unfair.  What I do know is, we all have our cross to bear, sometimes it is ill health, sometimes it is poverty, sometimes it is dealing with a whole range of different p...
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I recently came across The Castle of Otranto, written in 1764 by Horace Walpole.

This book is a classic piece of gothic literature, featuring a lot of the main themes, ghost-like apparitions, maidens in distress, a cruel overlord, churches and cloisters, exotic locations, contracts, rites, hidden birthrights and last but not least, a potential curse visited upon the next generation.

I absolutely loved this literary treasure.  In spite of the age of the book, it proved to be a very easy read and...
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