October Journey

[dask]

September 1st, the official beginning of my Halloween reading (where I drop everything in progress, dig myself a grave and curl up with the spooky stuff), is a stone's throw away and the itinerary for my trip through the season has been configured.

The Novel:

And The Collection (with a nod towards Baylor):

 

[Extollager]

Aickman is, like Bradbury, for me an uneven author. I probably liked "The Hospice" and "The Same Dog" most from this collection, which doesn't include such a favorite as "The Houses of the Russians."

 

[Randy M.]

"The Hospice" is a favorite of mine, too. My reading of Aickman is spotty at best, a story here and there. I started Dark Entries a while back, but the allusiveness of his stories tends to put me off; even when I like or admire the story, one or two make a rich meal and I'm slow to ask for more.

Like you, Dask, I've started reading for October. I finished European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss, sequel to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, neither of which is really horror but each plays with the tropes of horror, and various characters from and story-telling conventions of 19th century Gothic literature. Both are fun slightly irreverent romps interrogating the uses to which young women were put in 19th century fiction.

Now I'm into

Nesbit was better known for her children's stories, but wrote several ghost stories, all of them entertaining so far, and one, "The Three Drugs," which strikes me as an early example of "weird" fiction.

Next up, I think this one,

Then either,

or

At least, that's my thinking now. I might yet change my mind.

Randy M.

 

[Randy M.]

I read The Victorian Chaise Longue, which was not as engaging as I'd hoped. Not that it was bad, but I was thinking maybe to find a ghost story at novel length published between The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House that might hit their level. This wasn't it.

Also finished the Nesbit collection, which was quite enjoyable. At least two proto-s.f. stories, a couple of weird tales, and several good or better ghost stories.

I've veered off from the above to Daphne du Maurier's Echoes from the Macabre for now.

Randy M.

 

[kythe]

I've recently read The Mist by Stephen King, which was a good tribute to Lovecraft. I started Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice, but was put off by the sexuality. I'm now reading The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King). So far so good, but I have always liked his books.