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Reading path

Here Be Monsters

At the edge of every old map, past the last known coast, the cartographer drew the thing he could not name. This path follows that thing for four thousand years. The monster is the oldest character in literature, older than the hero who is invented to kill it, and it keeps coming back wearing new skin: the giant in the cedar forest, the shape in the mere, the count crossing the Channel, the thing dreaming under the sea. What the hero faces is always, in the end, a question about us.

In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.

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The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.

The route

  • 1. The Epic of GilgameshAnonymous, 2100 BCE
  • 2. The OdysseyHomer, 750 BCE
  • 3. BeowulfAnonymous, 850 CE
  • 4. Sir Gawain and the Green KnightAnonymous, 1400
  • 5. FrankensteinMary Shelley, 1818
  • 6. Moby-DickHerman Melville, 1851
  • 7. CarmillaSheridan Le Fanu, 1872
  • 8. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis Stevenson, 1886
  • 9. The King in YellowRobert W. Chambers, 1895
  • 10. The Island of Doctor MoreauH.G. Wells, 1896
  • 11. DraculaBram Stoker, 1897
  • 12. The War of the WorldsH.G. Wells, 1898
  • 13. The First Men In The MoonH.G. Wells, 1901
  • 14. The MetamorphosisFranz Kafka, 1915
  • 15. The Call of CthulhuH.P. Lovecraft, 1928
  • 16. At the Mountains of MadnessH.P. Lovecraft, 1936
  • 17. The HobbitJ.R.R. Tolkien, 1937
  • 18. The Lord of the RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien, 1954
  • 19. GrendelJohn Gardner, 1971
  • 20. The Hound of the BaskervillesArthur Conan Doyle, 1902
  • 21. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe, 1902
  • 22. Ghost Stories Of An AntiquaryM.R. James, 1904
  • 23. A Wizard Of EarthseaUrsula K. Le Guin, 1968
  • 24. The War of the WorldsH.G. Wells, 1898
  • 25. Journey to the WestWu Cheng'en, 1592
  • 26. The Castle of OtrantoHorace Walpole, 1764
  • 27. Household TalesBrothers Grimm, 1812
  • 28. Interview with the VampireAnne Rice, 1976
  • 29. The Orlando FuriosoLodovico Ariosto, 1516
  • 30. From the Earth to the MoonJules Verne, 1865
  • 31. The Mysterious IslandJules Verne, 1874