It must have been during one of such downloading sprees that I came across "The Humber Monster", mistaking it for a work of crime fiction.
I did not know that the author, Mike Covell, is relatively well known around Hull for his investigations into mysterious and paranormal phenomenae; according to his LinkedIn profile, he is a "Freelance Writer, researcher, author, working on various multimedia projects across the board from film, tv, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, ezines, podcsasts, and blogs."
Anyway, the book was clearly not what I had expected. Instead, I found myself going through pages and pages of copies from old newspaper articles about reported "sightings" of the Humber Monster, sort of that region's very own Nessie. Frankly, I was bored, and only stuck to the book because I thought there would be some kind of summary at the end, with the author stating what little known facts there were and giving his personal verdict on the myth. But this wasn't the case, and so the only bits of the book that were slightly interesting to me were the descriptions of the towns and places on Yorkshire's East coast, some of them familiar to me, and how Mr Covell spent hours, days and, in one instance, even an entire night there, watching the sea with his equipment (only to find nothing).
So, instead of this post's title being "Read in 2021" it should be "Scanned in 2021", because I can't really claim I read the entire book.
If you are interested in Hull's past and present, Mike Covell keeps writing extensively about it. Find out more here.
Never heard of it. Perhaps it's me.
ReplyDeleteThat makes two of us. I wonder whether YP will have heard about it, him being a Hull supporter and all.
DeleteI have finally gotten to a time in my life that, if I am not enjoying a book, I can put it down and not finish it! In the past, I would make myself keep reading to see if the book improved. I am glad I don't feel the need to do that anymore. There are so many books that I WANT to read! :)
ReplyDeleteWise and true words, Ellen! When I first started reading this, I my curiosity was piqued and I expected some great big revelation coming up, but when I realised it was newspaper clipping after clipping, I sort of gave up and just thumbed through it until the last chapter - which did not come up with the big revelation, either.
DeleteJust downloaded a Yorkshire themed freebie from Amazon To Sin By Silence (A DI Ellis Yorkshire Crime Thriller Book 1). You may be interested. I have a huge amount of reading to get through. Always worry I will run out of reading material! Have a good Xmas and New Year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pointer - I shall pop over to the Kindle shop right away!
DeleteI‘m not afraid of running out of reading material; it‘s more a question of not having enough time to cover all the reading I am intereseted in.
PS: Found it right away and downloaded it - thanks again!
DeleteHave you noticed that No 7 in J.R. Ellis' Yorkshire Murder Mysteries is out? - entitled "Murder at St Anne's". Same affordable price as the previous ones. I've just started reading it.
ReplyDeleteNo, I had not noticed, Monica - thanks for letting me know! Of course I‘ll buy that one as well. Yay! Plenty of good reading for the Christmas break!
DeleteJust bought it :-)
DeleteMy friend Martina and I have agreed to do a Christmas Eve book exchange this year. I'm so excited...we both have Goodreads accounts so we're able to go check on each other's "want to read" shelf. Do you have any friends who are also avid readers? :)
ReplyDeleteThat‘s lovely, Jennifer! My friends and family are also avid readers, but our tastes often differ. My sister often shakes her head at my reading; hers is a much more intellectual approach than mine. But unlike me, she hardly ever reads non-fiction.
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