Why I Love Horror + Some Recommendations

What do you do if you are a librarian who doesn't read horror, but you need to be able to recommend horror books to your patrons? You turn to Becky Spratford. Becky is a Readers' Advisor who trains librarians in helping their patrons find books to read. She literally wrote the book on Readers' Advisory for Horror. She's one of the greatest champions we have in the horror community.

Becky asked me to write up a post on why I love horror and to talk about a few of the horror books I've loved. If you're interested in reading a little bit about why I love horror, you can find that post on Becky's RA for All: Horror blog. I tried to recommend some horror novels that are pretty recent but not widely read. If you are a regular reader of my blog, my horror recommendations will not surprise you. You've heard me recommend each one of these probably more than once already.

I love that Becky is sharing some of the reasons horror readers enjoy the genre. Feel free to add your comments on why you love horror (if you do!) or let me know here.

Rereading Old Favorites | Discussion

I had a lot of thoughts pertaining to rereads as I was writing up yesterday's post on The Lies of Locke Lamora. I thought I'd take advantage of an opportunity to spark some discussion.

The first thing I'd like to know is do you reread?

I am a rereader. I love it. I reread books for pretty much the same reason I sit down and binge watch old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's great to visit old friends, and I love re-experiencing really great writing.

If you reread, why?

I will sometimes reread books in a series before a new one comes out (like The Lies of Locke Lamora), but I don't think I've ever done it just to remember the details. I think I only reread out of love and not out of necessity.

Bonnie (from For the Love of Words) mentioned this week that she's considering rereading Justin Cronin's The Passage series before the final book The City of Mirrors is released. I had an OMG moment because it hadn't crossed my mind. I immediately knew I wouldn't be able to get the idea of a reread out of my mind. I didn't love the second book, though. I think I might just have to reread The Passage and hope that I remember what happened in The Twelve.

If I were a much faster reader, I would probably be willing to reread a series book that I wasn't in love with, but my current reading time is precious to me. Rereads do take up time that could be spent reading new stories. At 766 pages, rereading The Passage will not be insignificant, but I know I will be getting a story that I love so it's a fair trade for me.

The fact that I'm a slow reader and a rereader brings me to a bit of a rant:

Goodreads

Having no way to log a reread is hell on my challenges. I've tried adding multiple copies of the same book, but then that messes up my stats and book comparisons. I recently realized I can at least keep track of the dates in the "private notes" of my review, but I'd love to have the dates reflected in my challenges. The stats I share at the end of the year aren't actually correct because I go by what Goodreads tells me and that doesn't include my rereads.

How do you log your rereads at Goodreads?

The past few years has found me rereading a lot of books with my kids (which has been awesome). There have been a few books I wouldn't have necessarily reread on my own so it has been great getting to remember the things I loved about those books when I was younger. I have also been exposed to some really great books I didn't read as a child. One of those books is Charlotte's Web which I have already reread since first experiencing it two years ago. I may just continue to reread that one every year...

Audiobooks

One thing I've started doing is rereading books via audio. I'm really loving experiencing my favorites in a new way. I've been using my audible credits to gather up Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett books. I have some catching up to do on that series anyway so I thought it might be great to start back at the beginning with the audiobooks.

What books have you reread?

While I've managed reread a lot of my favorite books, Harry Potter is probably the only series I continue to reread over and over again. I can't help myself.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on rereading (or the reasons you choose not to reread).

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {6}

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

Bookish Thoughts

1. What do you guys think of the Goodreads Choice Awards? I really love the concept behind it, but it seems terribly flawed. I'm on the extreme of feeling like I can't vote unless I've read all of the nominees. I don't expect anyone else to follow that logic or there would be no votes. What I do expect, though, is for people to only vote for books they have read. If you haven't read anything in the category, don't vote.
   
   The last three years the Best Horror category has been won by Dean Koontz, Ann Rice, and Stephen King respectively. Now I'm not saying that they won based on name recognition (ok, I probably am), but let's look at this year's votes. Saint Odd received 17,644 votes, but at the time of the voting it had only been rated on Goodreads by less than 8,000 people. (That number has since gone up a bit.)
   
   
   
   
   
   I'm thankful there's a horror category at all, but amazing books exist outside of Koontz, Rice, and King. I'm afraid an open popularity vote, however, will always tend to yield the same results.
   
   
2. Entertainment Weekly posted an excerpt and the cover for Joe Hill's The Fireman yesterday. I'm so damn excited for that book. It comes out in May.
   
   
3.  I'm loving all of the Dark Tower casting rumors. I could totally get behind Idris Elba squaring off against Matthew McConaughey. I really need to get back to my own quest for the Dark Tower. I left off in the middle of Wolves of the Calla. Despite my love of Stephen King, this series has been a struggle for me.
   
   
4. Are you guys watching Jessica Jones? The only chance I have to watch it is on my lunch break at work so I've only made it through a few episodes. I'm digging it so far.
   
   
   

Not So Bookish Thoughts

5. It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas! I'm a last minute crafter so my December is usually filled with a lot of projects I had hoped to do during the year. Last year I finished up my handmade gifts on Christmas Eve! My main focus right now is knitting a Harry Potter scarf for my 6 year old. He is a self-proclaimed Gryffindor.
   
   
   
   
6. Last Saturday I got together with my sisters-in-law to create some Christmas wreaths. I spent about $10 on the stick wreath and the poinsettia bouquet. The garland and pine cones I got super cheap last year during a Christmas clearance. I bought them to go above my cabinets, but I had some left over. I'm so happy with how it turned out.
   
   
   
   
   
7. My sisters-in-law have also been into these Christmas pallet crafts they've seen on pinterest so naturally I've been roped into working on one of those. I'm taking the simple route with a lighted Christmas tree. I still need to locate a star for the top and a little bit of ornaments, I think. I was trying to capture the wreath on my door, too, in the picture below, but damn shadow.
   
   
   
   
   
8. The camera on my phone is going out. The poor quality you see there (all of those lines!) isn't because I was taking the picture at night. I'm pretty bummed about it since I'm so bad about taking pictures. I was much better about it once I got a decent phone. I have a feeling I'm about to go back to being pictureless.
   
   
9. This weekend my youngest turns 3! Pinocchio will be a real boy.
   
   
10. It's been forever since I've been able to do a bookish thoughts post. I'm looking forward to having more blogging time next year. We've already cut out some of our extracurricular activities, but I've been working quite a bit of overtime to cover some of my holiday time off. It will be worth the trade once my holidays start!

Let me hear your thoughts this week!

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {5}

It has been far too long since I've sat down to do a bookish thoughts post! Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

1. This year has been fantastic for reading so far. I started last year in such a slump. I went over 6 months without a single five star read. I'm so happy to be in an upswing this year!
   
   
2. The problem with being in an upswing is my increased lack of reviewing. I don't want to stop to analyze, I want to read, read more. Also, pointing out the flaws is a much easier task than putting into words why I love something. It's not always tangible.
   
   
3. The final Divergent trailer was released this week. I mentioned my lack of excitement in my previous bookish thoughts post. I didn't have an emotional reaction to the previews the same way I did with The Hunger Games trailer. THAT HAS CHANGED. This final trailer was definitely different from the rest and now I'M ON BOARD.
   
   
   
   
4. I still have no intention of reading the rest of the Divergent series.
   
   
5. Expect lots and lots of gushing from me over the Paradox Trilogy in the near future, though. My God. I just finished Honor's Knight, but I was coming off of 2 days with no sleep so I'm going to go back and reread at least the last half. It's way too good to leave it this blurry in my head.
   
   
   
   
   
6. I still can't let go of J.K. Rowling's regrets. Fuckin' J.K., I swear.
   
   
   
   
   
7. It's Women in Horror month! If I may make some suggestions:
   
   
   
   
8. I'm going to continue the awesomeness that is re-reading this month. The gang over at The Midnight Garden is having a read-along of The Golden Compass. If you've never read the His Dark Materials trilogy and would like to have ALL THE FEELS and your heart shattered along with me, please join! It's an amazing series.
   
   
   
   
   

Let me hear your thoughts this week! Do you have any feels over the new Divergent trailer? Will you be participating in Women in Horror Month? Feel free to let out all of your J.K. Rowling rage. I AM HERE TO LISTEN. I know some of you Harry/Hermione shippers are over the moon, and that's OK, too. Are you in an upswing so far this year? What book are you currently pushing?

Reading Resolutions | 2014

Happy New Year! Each year on the blog I set my reading goals for the year. Last year my plan was to have no plan (aka to read what I wanted when I wanted). I'm a big fan of no pressure reading so I will continue that plan this year as well, but I do have a few hopes for this year.

Non-fiction

I love reading non-fiction, and I don't read nearly enough of it. I was beating myself up last year until I looked at my stats and realized I had read 9 non-fiction books. This year my goal is to diversify the types of non-fiction books I read and hopefully even read a little more than last year.

New Releases

I hope to read more new releases this year. I'm actually on the fence about this goal because I don't want to get sucked into only reviewing the new things, but I'd like to see more current year books end up on my favorites list at the end of the year.

Horror

I need more horror in my life - be it new horror, old horror, I don't care. If you read any outstanding new horror at any time this year, please send me a recommendation via comment, email, twitter, goodreads, whatever.

Children's Books

I'm awful at tracking the books I read with my kids. I want to do much better this year.

50 Books

As always, my Goodreads Challenge is set to 50 books. I hope to smash that goal, but as long as I'm reading roughly a book a week, I'm accomplishing what I want to accomplish.

Blogging

As for the blog, I'll continue posting as inconsistently as ever.  I hope to continue only doing what I love to do. I'd like to find my blogging voice in a way I haven't in the past, and I hope to spend 2014 discussing good books with good people.

Do you have any reading or blogging goals set for the year?

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {4}

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

1. Oy, my life is so swamped with life stuff instead of all of the reading of the books right now. The only reading time I've gotten (other than reading to my kids at bedtime) is the middle of the night insomnia reading resulting from the life stuff. It's not quality reading time folks. Anna Dressed in Blood is the book winning my attention, though, and making it even harder to fall back to sleep. That book is turning out to be a surprise win for me. Could my heart be opening up to YA horror? We'll see.
   
   
   
   
   
2. So the Divergent trailer was released yesterday. Are you excited? I'm actually a little disappointed, but it's entirely possible my disappointment in the series is affecting how excited I am for the movie now. I feel like something is missing. The trailer wasn't tense enough for me. Those initiation scenes in the book - like having to jump off the wall - were so tense. I was most looking forward to those moments in the movie and without any build up, just a jump in the trailer, I just didn't feel it. I'm hoping the full version will be a different story.
   
   I got very emotional watching the Hunger Games trailer the first time. "I volunteer as tribute!" Who cares if that little sister crap was a gimmick. Gimmick me up, folks. I didn't have any moments watching the Divergent trailer. Well, other than the moments with Four... but those aren't the moments I'm getting at here. Here is the trailer if you missed it:
   
   
   
   
3. Speaking of Hunger Games, did you see where Entertainment Weekly asked the Hunger Games cast to name their favorite YA books? Of course we could count on Jennifer Lawrence to love Harry Potter. Peeta... Peeta loves Catcher in the Rye. That's just another reason to be team Gale.
   
   
4. The USPS is going to start delivering Amazon.com packages on Sunday. I'm all confused why people think this is a bad thing so I'm just going to let you read about it here at NPR and here at NYTimes.
   
   
5. I'm on the hunt for some great book related podcasts. Do you have any favorites?
   
   
6. A gigantic Harry Potter group read starts next week on Goodreads. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up the very aggressive one a week schedule, but I'm going to try. I'm planning to revisit these books on audio because I love Jim Dale's recordings of HP, and I don't think I've even heard the last two on audio yet. I tried to listen to The Night Circus on audio this past year and Jim Dale's voice kept making me think everything was happening at Hogwarts. I may be ruined for other Jim Dale recordings.
   
   
   
   
   
7. I'm hoping to have my internet (and my cable TV!) hooked up this afternoon. No more tethering to my cell phone. I will make up for my lack of blogging/participating SOON!
   
   
8. Thanksgiving planning is in full force. My niece has requested pumpkin pie this year so I am in need of a great pumpkin pie recipe. The only recipe I have ever used is from the back of the Libby's can. It's actually not a bad recipe, but I'm not an expert in pumpkin pies.
   
   
   
   
   OK, you know what - I just stole that picture from Libby's website, and it is totally making me want to stick to the Libby's recipe. PIE.
   
   
9. A lot of the stores are starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day this year. That's pretty crazy stuff. I feel bad for retail employees having to work through Thanksgiving dinner. I, on the other hand, am one of those frugally coupon people and this whole Black Friday on Thursday thing is luring me out of my nest.  I usually stay away from the Black Friday crowd, but Mama needs all the things. What are your thoughts on Black Friday shopping? Do you partake? I usually only do my Black Friday shopping online.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {3}

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

1. We are finally moving into our new house so I will have very limited internet for a while. This is greatly affecting my posting and commenting. We are out of city limits so I won't find out if we can get service soon until tomorrow.
   
   
2. I've been spending all of my spare time moving and sleeping so I've read pretty much nothing all week long. I need to download a new audiobook at the very least before the weekend.
   
   
3. Entertainment Weekly is trying to crown the best YA novel of all time. "We’re pitting 64 young adult books against each other in a March-Madness style game to determine which you think is the best of all time." Round one is HARD already. At least A Wrinkle in Time (one of my favorites) is up against Dune (one of my least favorites). That was an easy vote. You can vote on each of the round one brackets here.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. The Opening Round of the Goodreads Choice Awards is also happening. I hate these awards just as much as I love them. The only categories I feel comfortable voting in at this point are horror and middle grade. I'm contemplating voting in the memoir category (for The Spark) even though I still have I Am Malala on my TBR. Do you guys only vote if you are well read in the category or do you feel comfortable voting regardless? I usually only vote if I've read at least all the books I want to read out of a particular category.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. While we are on a role with book awards, Publisher's Weekly has revealed their 101 best books of 2013. I'm not sure why the Children's Fiction won't be posted until next week, but you see the best books broken down by category here. It looks like a good list, but I don't think I've read a single one of their selections.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Liam Hemsworth was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno promoting Catching Fire. You can watch the first clip of Catching Fire at the end of his interview:
   
   
   
   
   
   Team Gale *cough*
   
   
7. I'm wondering if anyone has signed up for Oyster yet? It's the "netflix for books" service that allows unlimited book downloads for $9.95/month. When I first heard about Oyster I thought "isn't the library already a netflix for books?" but I can now see a lot of merit in using Oyster. I do get free access to ebooks from my library, but I have to wait in line for them. I think Oyster could be an awesome asset for voracious readers. The only issue I see is whether or not the books I really want to read will be available on Oyster (which is pretty much the only issue I have with Netflix as well). You can get your first month free at Oyster. If you decide to try it out or have tried it, let me know what you think.
   
   
   
   
8. Best of luck to those participating in NaNoWriMo. For those of you who may not know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I used to love participating in NaNo, but over the years I've fallen off participating. I was hoping to jump back in this year just for fun, but the move has made it pretty impossible to keep up. Are you participating this year?
   
   
   
   
   
9. Author John Hornor Jacobs tweeted about a site called I Write Like this week. It's fun site where you paste in something you have written and the site tells you who you write like. I took what I wrote for NaNo this year (before I decided I couldn't keep up) and pasted it in to I Write Like. My result: Stephen King. First of all, I'm pretty certain I don't actually write like Stephen King, but what a badass answer. I can't imagine a better answer given my taste in books. Play around with it and see who you get. I apparently wrote this blog post like Chuck Palahniuk.
   
   
10. That's it for this week. I'm sorry if you haven't heard from me much in a while! I'm hoping things will start getting back to normal next week.
    
    

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {2}

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

1. Simon & Schuster is creating a new science fiction, fantasy, and horror imprint. This is exciting news! I have been crying all year about the lack of full length horror in my life. I'm really happy about the SF & F, too, but I'm hoping horror gets represented early on as well. Source
   
   
2. THIS. This is why I feel like a double agent during real life book conversations. I have to actively stop myself from being a reading one-upper. I think extreme readers can be that way to each other sometimes (I welcome it!), but it's a bit much for mere reading mortals. I try to save up all of my overly excited bookish nerdouts for you guys. You're welcome.
   
   
3. I have a lot of mixed emotions regarding i09's Divergent article. If you've read Divergent, there's a lot worth taking in in the article, but it has minor spoilers so stay clear if you haven't read it and are concerned. There is a telling quote from Director Neil Burger: "I think the book is really true to the essence of the script" Um, what? Don't you have that BACKWARD? The rest of the quote is spoilerish so I will let you read it there, but I really don't have a good feeling behind the changes they have made. There is a reason I have been championing Lionsgate making these films. Saving up the difficult bits of the book for the end isn't it. On the other hand, Four.
   
   
   
   
   
4. It's Halloween! My son's school had a "spooktacular" Halloween program this week. It was awesome. Watching him do Thriller on stage was one of the highlights of my life. Unfortunately he got sick after we got home from the program so along with the threat of heavy rainfall, our Halloween plans hang in the balance!
   
   
5. J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) will be writing the scripts for the Star Wars sequels! This is really great news. Every announcement that has made since Disney acquired Star Wars has been better than the last.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Amazon implemented Kindle Matchbook this week. Have you looked to see how many books are available for you to match? When Amazon did something similar with music CD purchases, my Kindle cloud was filled with so much awesome music for free. I had visions of suddenly owning my favorite books in eformat, but all I got was a mediocre list of ebooks I could buy at $2.99. Let's be honest, that's how much I usually pay for my ebooks (or less) unless it's a pre-order I can't live without. I'm hoping there are folks benefiting from Matchbook much more than I did.
   
   
7. The books for World Book Night have been selected. Are any of you signing up to be book givers? My top choices from the list are Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, and Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow.
   
   
   
   
   
8. I've hardly read a thing this week. I'm in the middle of two awesome books, but I can't muster up the brain power to pick up either one! I find when I get really stressed I can't focus on the story; I just wind up staring at the pages not knowing what I've read. I think I may just try to catch up on some sleep for a couple of days.
   
   
9. I'm moving soon so I've been packing up all of my books. It has been really hard to box up the books I wish I were reading right now. I actually had to leave out a couple I haven't started yet JUST IN CASE.
   
   
   
   
   
10. If you need some awesome music to listen to for Halloween, The 99 Darkest Pieces Of Classical Music is one of my favorites. I will be listening to it all day today.
    
    
    
    
    

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {1}

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

1. I love that everyone is so excited about Allegiant this week, but I only made it 15% into Insurgent before someone completely spoiled Allegiant. It makes me so sad and so angry that people would willingly spoil a book for others when they obviously couldn't wait to read it themselves. I was at the front of the library line for Allegiant so at least I made someone very happy by returning it on day 2. I'm not even going to bother reading any further. I'm going to be one of those people that will JUST WATCH THE MOVIE.
   
   
   
   
   
2. I'm excited about the Republic of Thieves read-along. I love participating in blog read-alongs, and Andrea over at The Little Red Reviewer really does it the right way with discussion questions and the whole nine. I wish there were more read-alongs like it in the blogosphere.
   
   
3. I am so over writing reviews right now. I'm trying to figure out how to talk about the books I read in a less formal way. Posts like these are part of my solution. If you have any advice or have found anything that has worked for you, I'd love to hear from you.
   
   
4. I was going to post that my Anthology Month has been a bust so far, but I started a book last night that has renewed my anthology spirit. I have two anthologies picked out for Halloween week next week, so I'm feeling good about my endeavour.
   
   
5. I try my best to stay anti-review copy, but I couldn't help but grab the first two A Tale Dark & Grimm off of Edeilweiss. I'm weak.
   
   
   
   
   
6. There is a Kickstarter project for The Princess Bride playing cards. I love these. They doubled their goal in the first 24 hours so it sounds like they may keep growing the project. The work they did on The Call of Cthulhu deck is amazing. :nerding out completely:
   
   
   
   
   
   Good night, backer. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.
   
   
7. i09 posted the Top 25 Scariest Science Fiction and Fantasy TV Episodes of All Time. It's a really great list with lots of great episodes to reminisce about. One of my favorite TV episodes of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Hush". That was a perfect hour of television. Do you remember the episodes that made the list? I immediately thought of a couple that could have made the list:
   
   • “The Tale of the Lonely Ghost” - Are You Afraid of the Dark
   • "Imaginary Friend" - Star Trek: The Next Generation
     
     
8. Do you guys feel strange when you have "real life" conversations about books? I do. I feel like I'm some sort of a double agent.
   
   
9. Ana's review of Doll Bones by Holly Black over at things mean a lot has had me thinking a lot this week about why I loved that book and what kids go through as they grow older. I see my 6 year son already going through the struggles of growing up and finding his place now that he is in school.
   
   
10. All of my son's school work this month has been ghost and goblins related. Can I just say I never want October to end? The spooky stuff is everywhere, and it really is my happy place.