Goosebumps. House of Shivers. Scariest Book. Ever. by R.L. Stine

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this book after a recommendation from my son 🙂. He gave me his copy. It was a quick read. I enjoyed the story but didn't find it scary. The best part for me was to imagine how my son had reacted to the 2 or 3 twists and the ending. He had already told me about the man-bats (1 pictured in the cover) and how he enjoyed them. 😉

The Return of Captain Nemo by Benoit Peeters and François Schuiten

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Beautiful. Part of the Obscure Cities collection, this volume includes a follow-up to the 20000 Leagues under the sea, which is partly written in prose with illustrations and a few pages in the comic format. It also includes Schuiten's illustrations for Jules Verne lost novel, Paris in the Twentieth century, originally published in 1994.

The Star Diaries by Stanisław Lem

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽✊️ A mixed bag as most short story compilations are. I'd say I liked 70% of the stories, so the balance is positive. Ijon Tichy is a space traveller who flies in his rocket to far away planets for work, or leisure. Most of his adventures are fun and interesting, from a science fiction point of view, my favourite being the 2 time travel tales, and a tale about robots. The seventh voyage - Ijon Tichy passes through a time vortex and finds a version of his future self trying to wake him up. After several time vortexes Tichy finds his rocket crowded with future versions of himself. The Eleventh Voyage - Tichy is sent to a planet governed by an evil computer. This planet is inhabited by robots who hate humans. To get there, Tichy has to wear a disguise, a kind of robot costume which is a bit uncomfortable. In addition, the traveller is instructed not to sneeze or cough as that would give himself away. The Twentieth Voyage - Tichy is visited by a future version of himself who asks him to travel to the future to take a job as Teleotelechronistic Historical Engineering to lead projects to regulate the past. 👍

Akira Club. Artbook by Karsuhiro Otomo

It's been a while since I read Akira. This artbook is a nice reminder. I actually read all the captions. They enhance the enjoyment. Great art!!!

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

👍👍👍 In defence of Science and the acquisition of knowledge using proven and falsifiable methods and reason. Science as the only (?) way to reach the truth. Beliefs, faiths, rumours, etc. are only that, beliefs, etc. producing stories that keep humanity ignorant. This book is full of arguments demolishing historical fallacies, from beliefs in fairies and demons to alien abductions. All very interesting themes. It's a pity I found the book a bit repetitive and long. I didn't enjoy it as much as Cosmos and Contact. I'm happy I read it, though, and I'll keep my copy for future reference.