Wednesday, October 31, 2007

R.I.P. Challenge wrap-up

Well, I've been doing plenty of reading (although not as much as I'd planned), but precious little writing. So, I have just over an hour to churn out reviews for the 6 books relevant to the challenge:

The Thirteenth Tale (audiobook, finished Aug. 26, on the way back from Kansas)
Bloody Bones (finished Sept 19)
House of the Seven Gables (finished Oct. 3)
Danse Macabre (finished Oct. 7)
Dracula (finished Oct. 15)
Fragile Things (finished Oct. 30)

Looking at the gaps, I certainly could have finished my 2 chunksters, and done the Sunday Short Stories, but in my need to get off-farm, I overscheduled my weekends.

I really enjoyed all these books, and I really wish that I could have participated/interacted more with everyone else. I think that I got in my own way this time.

Well, here I go... am backdating my posts so that they're in some semblance of reading order, but these reviews were all written between now and (gods willing) just-before-midnight so I can post this wrapup entry over at SSD

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Danse Macabre, Peril the First

I wanted to include a non-fiction book into this challenge, and I've been wanting to read this one for a while (aside from the fact that it was published over 25 years ago). The problem I have in general with reading non-fiction is the fact that I wind up with exponentially more books to read. This book was no exception; I believe that I have at least 5 pages of notes documenting more books to read, or movies to see. So, if I die unhappy, it will be because I couldn't finish them all.

I really wish that King would write another volume of this, I'd love to read his take on how the horror genre has evolved in the nearly 30 years since Danse Macabre came out, and I'd like to see what he has to say about current authors, graphic novels, and perhaps some commentary on the flavor of societal violence we're seeing now.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

House of the Seven Gables, Peril the First

I wanted to include a classic in my reading, and when I made my list in August, I hadn't planned on reading Dracula, so this was the one that stood out and said "Pick me!"

This was a nice, solid work, but I didn't really find anything noteworthy/quoteable/thought-provoking for (about) the first half of the book. Looking at my copy, I see several posties holding a place for me to go back and think about...something.

[which I'll do after I get the basics out on the rest of the reviews]