Today in memorable opening paragraphs

Christmas presents should always include reading material and pet squid. This is Beatrice who will spend this summer reading Lovecraft.

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we should either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

The Call of Cthulhu, H. P Lovecraft

Shamefully, I have never read any Lovecraft. Don’t worry I’m sorting this out having been given a beautiful compilation of stories for Christmas. I understand now why people love him so much. The use of language and fear is stunning. I find myself reading out loud, feeling the words in my mouth, letting them dissolve on my tongue like a rich piece of chocolate. What authors make you feel that way?