Mister B. Gone

I read the book Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker over the past day or so. The story puports to be the autobiography of a minor demon, Jakabok Botch (also known as Mister B.), who is captured and brought to Earth in the fourteenth century, after joining forces with another, more powerful, demon named Quitoon. The two wander the Earth for about a hundred years killing and stealing at will, with Quitoon particularly fascinated by human inventions, especially inventions of war, execution and torture. However they learn of a revolutionary device being invented in a small German town which could change the world, and for which massed supernatural forces are converging on the town, fighting for control of the invention, and leading to Botch discovering a shocking secret about the nature of the battle between Good and Evil. The book constantly "breaks the fourth wall" by having the demon narrator trying to persuade the reader to burn the book and set him free (the idea being that the demon itself is trapped in the book itself) by alternately pleading, threatening, reasoning and insulting the reader. The idea being that the book itself is a dangerous object and that while the reader is reading the demon's story, the demon is "reading" the reader. It's a technique that can work really well, or just become ridiculous. In this book it actually does work well, and the book manages to be scary, gruesome, exciting and often very funny. It's pretty brief, being only 248 pages long.

Last night was really quiet. I was drinking some wine and watching TV. I must have fallen asleep at some point on my couch during For Your Eyes Only. I do have this irrirtating habit of falling asleep on my couch while I'm trying to watch TV, especially if I've had a bit to drink.

I went to my parent's house for lunch as usual. Lunch today was salmon parcels with ricotta cheese and spinach inside, mashed potato and peas, followed up with some profiteroles for dessert and a glass of Budweiser beer. So that was really nice. The afternoon was pretty quiet, I was mostly sitting around and reading my book.