I've picked up a few books and even read about 300 pages into one of them, but I couldn't place myself where the author needed me to be in order for his tale to be successful (Straub's Koko).
So I've bummed around a bit, reading from short story collections by Graham Greene, Thomas Ligotti and going cover to cover with a few magazines that have come my way, but nothing novel length has really hit.
This past Saturday, I've picked up David Peace's 1974, which was the basis for a portion of a prestige British television production based on the 5 book cycle called Red Riding and I've gotten a large chunk of it read but I still haven't decided if this is the book I'm going to continue with.
I realize I owe write ups on The Ceremonies (totally awesome, if you put a little bit of work into the source material beforehand) and The World Without Us (a book my GF found depressing, but I found totally optimistic in that life will go on after we've gone).
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Interlude: My Mistake
I've been burning through a lot of other media right now so reading has taken a bit of a back seat to what I normally do with my evenings and train commutes.
In the time which I've been away (nearly 3 weeks from my previous posting on The Ceremonies) I've finished that, another book, started a few more and have finally settle on one only to find it's a bit unwieldy to attempt to negotiate a 500+ page hardcover book with thick paper stock on the subway.
Yesterday I found myself faced with the unfortunate news that JG Ballard had finally succumbed to cancer. He was one of those literary figures who I had circled in periphery but never really took the time to examine as there was only one time I was struck with the investigative impulse which generally drives these brief reading manias.
The book I read was Crash, more because it was what the bookstore had in stock rather than any conscious decision. I'd have rather The Atrocity Exhibition or some other short story collection, but alas. Having grown up in a car culture like the suburban united states, and having traveled enough highway miles to see grisly accidents, the book's perverse love affair at the intersection of human and automobile did affect me, but not in any sort of "why do we accept these machines" way, rather in a "if this is the price for the benefit, it is worth it."
Of course now that I live in an area where many of the residents DON'T own cars, I may read the book five years from now and take away something completely different from the same text. This is the joy of re-reading.
In the time which I've been away (nearly 3 weeks from my previous posting on The Ceremonies) I've finished that, another book, started a few more and have finally settle on one only to find it's a bit unwieldy to attempt to negotiate a 500+ page hardcover book with thick paper stock on the subway.
Yesterday I found myself faced with the unfortunate news that JG Ballard had finally succumbed to cancer. He was one of those literary figures who I had circled in periphery but never really took the time to examine as there was only one time I was struck with the investigative impulse which generally drives these brief reading manias.
The book I read was Crash, more because it was what the bookstore had in stock rather than any conscious decision. I'd have rather The Atrocity Exhibition or some other short story collection, but alas. Having grown up in a car culture like the suburban united states, and having traveled enough highway miles to see grisly accidents, the book's perverse love affair at the intersection of human and automobile did affect me, but not in any sort of "why do we accept these machines" way, rather in a "if this is the price for the benefit, it is worth it."
Of course now that I live in an area where many of the residents DON'T own cars, I may read the book five years from now and take away something completely different from the same text. This is the joy of re-reading.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Interlude: When Guardian Books Mentioned "Predatory Bottoms"
I didn't get the same image that they did by that language choice.
Interesting blog post today on the sustaining power of a genre with which I have absolutely no familiarity; The Girl's Pony Novel.
Interesting blog post today on the sustaining power of a genre with which I have absolutely no familiarity; The Girl's Pony Novel.
Because it's lifestyle porn, of which most genre fiction happens to be. Here's where I once again make a statement and lay out no supporting facts and clip the entry short because I have a headache.
Among the welter of sweetshop colours, glittery titles and garish graphics that indicate you've strayed into the children's section of a mainstream British bookshop, you'll find, for boys, bad smells, farting facts, juvenile spies and predatory bottoms, and for girls, ballerinas, fairies, princesses and … ponies. Series upon series of pony books – Sandy Lane Stables, Pony Pals, Pony Club Secrets – even, God preserve us, Katie Price's Perfect Ponies. And the question I want to ask is: why?
Monday, April 6, 2009
Interlude: I love Terry Pratchett too but...
Town names streets after Terry Pratchett's Discworld books
Isn't this a bit...excessive?If you go down to Wincanton in Somerset today you can wander down Peach Pie Street and Treacle Mine Road, named after Sir Terry Pratchett's fantasy series Discworld.
Pratchett visited the town today to unveil the road names at a new housing estate, and was greeted by hundreds of fans – many dressed in costume.
Wincanton was twinned with the city of Ankh-Morpork from the novels in 2002, becoming the first UK town to link with a fictional place.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Ceremonies Continues
Last night the Machen influence became extremely pronounced with our researcher protagonist going so far as to do research into Machen and a old man reading from The White People to our protagonist.
"Then, on the other hand, we underrate evil. We attach such an enormous importance to the 'sin' of meddling with our pockets (and our wives) that we have quite forgotten the awfulness of real sin."
The book has just introduced another character, a young virginal woman named Carol with a rather lengthy back story, who has an interest in folk lore and such, and is also, this is important in the book, a virgin.
It has been a while since I read The White People by Machen, so I think that I should really dive back into it before I progress too much further just so that I can contextually align some of the mentioned elements and what is to come. I'm about a full fifth of the way through so perhaps tonight I shall do that.
I'm fairly certain I have at least ONE anthology which should contain that tale and if not, it's public domain so it should not be too difficult to just read online.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
New Book: The Ceremonies
To be quite frank, I can never remember T.E.D. Klein vs Ted Deker. One is famously Christian writer who is rather prolific, and the other is better known as the long running editor of The Twilight Zone magazine. My only real exposure to him before starting this book was reading "Growing Things" in Al Sorrento's excellent 999 anthology, the book which brought me back to horror literature after a long absence.
I got this book through an eBay auction for a box of several 80s paper horror paperbacks, which included some stuff by Schow, Simmons, Etchinson's California Gothic (from the 90s), Rice's Interview with the Vampire, and a few other books which I can't quite recall.
I knew of The Ceremonies through reputation, as Thomas F Montelone included an essay as his submission to Jones and Newman's 100 Best Horror (which is an excellent list to work from if anyone is looking to give themselves a bit of an education on the subject), but did no real reading on it beyond this endorsement.
I'm about a tenth of the way through it, but I'm suitably impressed with the novel so far. In a prologue we are introduced to The Bad Place trope in the form of a tree in a grove which is inhabited by an Other. The historical passage which opens the book presents a few different facets of the legend of how The Bad Place came to be so the reader can just use whichever one strikes their fancy should they so choose.
We're introduced to a religious sect which has shades of the Mennonites in the close community, but our protagonists introduction to this sect is done through a pair of college educated individuals who chose the life rather than being born into the sect and experiencing that way of life exclusively.
Internet friends Doug, Kevin and Nick lamented the state of mainstream horror in a recent podcast (an assessment I don't wholly agree with) and in the segment it's mentioned that there's an abnormal amount of horror books who have writers as their protagonists.
That trend continues with our protagonist Jeremy Freirs, who is a graduate student looking for time away from New York to get over a girl and possibly bang out the beginning of his thesis, which will be on Gothic Literature. Haven't spent enough time to really form an opinion on him.
A lot of care has been crafted to really explore the setting and try to communicate small town life to someone whose only experience has been New York City with a particular emphasis of the strangeness of Nature.
Reading up on TED Klein lead me to read that this book is an expansion (unofficially, of course) on Arthur Machen's The White People. Machen is one of my favorite horror authors. He's known most for The Bowmen, the tale in which the Angels of Mons appeared to protect the English soldiers at the start of WWI. A story which took a life on its own and became a modern fantastical legend whose popularity reached critical mass in beleagured Britain. The White People is the tale of witchcraft told from the perspective of a young girl. He also famously wrote The Great God Pan, which in its reading you can see was a huge influence on Lovecraft.
If you want a good place to start with Machen, you could certainly do worse than the three volumes edited by ST Joshi for Chasoim.
I got this book through an eBay auction for a box of several 80s paper horror paperbacks, which included some stuff by Schow, Simmons, Etchinson's California Gothic (from the 90s), Rice's Interview with the Vampire, and a few other books which I can't quite recall.
I knew of The Ceremonies through reputation, as Thomas F Montelone included an essay as his submission to Jones and Newman's 100 Best Horror (which is an excellent list to work from if anyone is looking to give themselves a bit of an education on the subject), but did no real reading on it beyond this endorsement.
I'm about a tenth of the way through it, but I'm suitably impressed with the novel so far. In a prologue we are introduced to The Bad Place trope in the form of a tree in a grove which is inhabited by an Other. The historical passage which opens the book presents a few different facets of the legend of how The Bad Place came to be so the reader can just use whichever one strikes their fancy should they so choose.
We're introduced to a religious sect which has shades of the Mennonites in the close community, but our protagonists introduction to this sect is done through a pair of college educated individuals who chose the life rather than being born into the sect and experiencing that way of life exclusively.
Internet friends Doug, Kevin and Nick lamented the state of mainstream horror in a recent podcast (an assessment I don't wholly agree with) and in the segment it's mentioned that there's an abnormal amount of horror books who have writers as their protagonists.
That trend continues with our protagonist Jeremy Freirs, who is a graduate student looking for time away from New York to get over a girl and possibly bang out the beginning of his thesis, which will be on Gothic Literature. Haven't spent enough time to really form an opinion on him.
A lot of care has been crafted to really explore the setting and try to communicate small town life to someone whose only experience has been New York City with a particular emphasis of the strangeness of Nature.
Reading up on TED Klein lead me to read that this book is an expansion (unofficially, of course) on Arthur Machen's The White People. Machen is one of my favorite horror authors. He's known most for The Bowmen, the tale in which the Angels of Mons appeared to protect the English soldiers at the start of WWI. A story which took a life on its own and became a modern fantastical legend whose popularity reached critical mass in beleagured Britain. The White People is the tale of witchcraft told from the perspective of a young girl. He also famously wrote The Great God Pan, which in its reading you can see was a huge influence on Lovecraft.
If you want a good place to start with Machen, you could certainly do worse than the three volumes edited by ST Joshi for Chasoim.
Interlude: Formatting Change
I've removed the Books Read So Far because I couldn't get it to format in a way that I like. It may come back in the future if I find the time to link all the books to their pages.
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