She toyed with her beads Jadedly

Fueled by the desire to find The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Nikki and I ended up at Fully Booked where we not only found the elusive volume but also Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey.

I had read about Gorey before as an illustrator and author, seen a few samples of his artwork, and jumped at the chance to finally get one of his handsome books - which does have sequential art but is not, by any means, a simple comic book. He is a master of the peculiar narrative, a sublime abecedarian and a very careful and detailed artist.

Gorey is a mad genius, with a sensibility that sings to mine and Nikki's. His fractured worldview is simply delicious.

And even more enticing is my discovery that he also wrote a lot of plays, all fueled by his lovely skewed perspectives on death and societal mishaps like love and hope. So now I add a new playwright to my must-read list.

Gah. Must travel abroad to book hunt soon - though Fully Booked offers a surprisingly superior selection nowadays.