the reader of books

"It was a horrid, grotesque shape -- perhaps more like a toad than anything else, and there was a label by it inscribed with the two words, 'Despositum custodi." Maybe not exactly the type of ghost story you'd read around a campfire, holding a flashlight under your face, but really ideal for a stormy autumn night.

I read a few back-to-back over the course of a night, and they sort of blended together. They were still enjoyable, but to maximize enjoyment, I recommend reading one story per night.

My personal favorites were Casting the Runes, The Tractate Middoth (which reminded me a bit of a creepier, less zany version of The Golden Child), The Ashtree, and Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance. The stories generally feature some poor luckless soul who accidentally and innocently unlocks a horrible, centuries old curse. M.R. Rhodes was a Cambridge academic and it is fully apparent -- the stories feature scholars and curators, dusty old libraries, museums, ancient artifacts and other antiquities, antique books, and incorporate archaeology, theology, and mythology. I had to look up several bits of untranslated Latin. I hope that isn't a deterrent. The stories are easy to read, but take for granted that the reader is intelligent and literary, or (like me) has access to google.