Recent Reading

[Banake]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

Years ago I discovered Cormac McCarthy that way.

I'm reading Blood Meridian.

[Murony_Pyre]

Quote Originally Posted by Banake

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic Years ago I discovered Cormac McCarthy that way. I'm reading Blood Meridian.

I think you'll like it.

[Pan Michael]

I'm reading Adam Nevill's "The Ritual". Don't know about the ending yet, but it's perfection up to page 200.

I'm also reading, John Gray's "The Silence of Animals", which is quite good as well.

[ChildofOldLeech]

The Ritual is great; probably Nevill's finest work to date, although Apartment 16 is a not-too-distant second.

[Murony_Pyre]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

I’ve wanted to check out Houellebecq and now is probably as good a time as ever. And I could use a laugh or two right about now, so John Dies at the End might provide it. Thanks again.[/FONT]

I would like to suggest Houellebecq's "The Elementary Particles" or "Possibility of an Island" as good places to start. Funny, depressing, fascinating. "The Map and The Territory"---though so far exc ellent---seems the kind of book a writer tends to write later on in their career and, therefore, it might be better to acquire the taste for this writer first. Just a suggestion.

As for JDATE, I'd say that for all my gushing: it slumps a bit in the last act. I'm about 10 pages away from it biting the dust, though---so it has some time yet in which to well and truly blow my mind with stunning revelations (probably of doom, I'm guessing). The book is 466 pages but still would be best read in 2-3 sittings, I think---this would not be hard, considering how it whips along.

[njhorror]

Quote Originally Posted by Murony_Pyre

Quote Originally Posted by Banake Quote Originally Posted by Druidic Years ago I discovered Cormac McCarthy that way. I'm reading Blood Meridian. I think you'll like it.

Blood Meridian made a great impression on me. So much so that I've read almost all of McCarthy's books.

[Pan Michael]

ChildofOldLeech,

Thanks, I was wondering about "Apartment 16." Unlike some of Nevill's other books, that one had more mixed reviews. But on the strength of the first half of "The Ritual" I ordered it last week anyway. I'm glad you liked it, though. If nothing else, The Ritual is so finely-wrought up to this point, that I'm damned impressed!

[Frater_Tsalal]

I recently finished off the new Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, which I quite liked, though not to the extent of his historical doorstoppers (though in many ways, this was very much a historical novel as well). It's one of the few Pynchon books I've read where I've actually gotten most of the pop culture and historical references.

Even though I started George R.R. Martin's Feast For Crows earlier this month (and am almost a quarter through it already), I decided to set it aside for next month and to devote October primarily to reading books of a horror/supernatural/weird fiction vein. I think it's time that I finally tackle Stoker's "Dracula," which I've never read. My copy is the Barnes & Noble signature edition that came out last year: I like the cover, which uses the art from Caspar David Friedrich's "The Abbey in the Woods," one of the most atmospheric and Gothic paintings of all-time.

I'm also currently reading Laird Barron's The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Although I'm well-read when it comes to the classic weird fiction/horror short story writers, I'm not as well-read when it comes to the modern writers. But reading The Grimscribe's Puppets has convinced me to look more into such writers, and so recently I ordered Matt Cardin's Divinations of the Deep (I've already read Dark Awakenings), Mark Samuels' The Man Who Collected Machen, and Richard Gavin's Omens (I read At Fear's Altar last month and loved it). I'm also expecting S.T. Joshi's The Assaults of Chaos to arrive soon. So, with all those titles in mind, that should keep me busy for most of October.

[Druidic]

Frater Tsalal, I hope you enjoy Stoker’s Dracula. The book is often criticized in pretty harsh terms but as far as I’m concerned, it remains one of the few great novels in the genre.
I suppose it is best read when you’re young but there are so many powerful moments in that work. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a film version that conveyed the power of the scene where Renfield describes how he almost did the Impossible. (“If a madman has the strength of twenty men…”). But I don’t want to spoil it by going any farther.

Like Hodgson’s The Night Land, the book transcends any failings. Interestingly, Dracula (which we think of as a great Gothic bit of fiction) was quite high-tech and modern minded for its time. Blood transfusions, Sewards recording phonograph diary, the subtle sexual themes, even Quincey Morris’ Bowie knife, a compact modernization of the saber, was a symbol of advancing technology.
For all its flaws, it’s a remarkable book; and Stoker, at his best, was a better writer than a lot of critics would allow.

Stoker’s short story “The Squaw” is a Poe-esque masterpiece; and I’ve always wondered if Lovecraft read “The Judge’s House” and if it could possibly have been an influence on “Dreams in the Witch House”.

[njhorror]

Harking back to McCarthy for a moment...one thing that has puzzled me is that I don't know if I've ever run across another reader of CHILD OF GOD who's recognized the weirdness and creepiness that I have in that story. Some of the images and scenes are downright bizarre and frightening in their implication.