Sorry for the delay in content at the moment, been feeling like ass and brewing a dose on me the last week, which is now full-blown, headed for my chest and I'm struggling to breathe, let alone read in a coherent manner.
And you don't even wana know about the gunk.
So hopefully will be back to it in the next few days, stick with me, coming up to one of the chapters I enjoyed reading most the first time round - The Terrible Vampire Bat.
If nothing else, I'm super motivated to complete this book, because the next one is the one that inspired all of it! It just arrived in the post today (I left my original copy with the friend I started reading it with in NZ).
It's called The Highest Altar: The Story of Human Sacrifice.
"Human sacrifice is not just a thing of the past. In some remote parts of South America, the ritual killing of men, women and children is taking place today. This book reveals and explores where, how and why this ancient practice persists".
What I love about this book most, is the author's style of writing. The first sections deal with his experiences excavating high altitude archeological sites, and tell his story of becoming fascinated with the topic having reported on an Incan mummy. From here, he ends up living with different communities and trying to learn as much as possible about specific cases of sacrifice that happened in the 1980s (this book was first published in 1989) from the people accused of having committed them. The anthropological, sociological and psychological insights are fascinating, I think, and the author does an awesome job of weaving the theoretical with his direct experiences.
The latter chapters analyse the role of sacrifice in human culture and psyche throughout the ages, and personally, made a big impression on me. In fact, if not for this book, I doubt I would have been nearly as compelled to buy the Headhunters of the Amazon, the Jívaro head-hunting tribe having been referenced in Highest Altar.
So stay tuned, I am fully committed to StoryTime, at least to finishing the two books I started in NZ. If there's demand beyond that, I'm keen, but fully committed to these two books.