Fall is in the air and, before we know it, Halloween will be here. It’s more than pumpkins and costumes and things that go bump in the night; there’s also plenty of room for things that go bump during the day, like zombies. Yup, I love me some campy zombie movies. It all started with Shaun of the Dead, the British Horror Comedy spoofing zombie apocalypse flicks. A friend and coworker, back when I held a real job at a…
I’m reading Four-Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman right now based on a recommendation by Becca Syme, a writer coach whose wisdom particularly resonates with me. Burkeman’s work, while wise in its own way, is also incredibly flawed, particularly in his view of economics. At one point, for instance, he contrasts choosing to island hop across Greece against choosing to feed homeless families. His point is that our time is limited and whatever we choose to do…
The short list below probably looks like I didn’t read much in September. Not true! I started reading IT by Stephen King at the end of August or so, which took up quite a bit of my reading time in September. Notice that I didn’t finish IT, though. It’s a massive book. I finally had to put it down about halfway through and read something else. I’ll come back to it soon, but wow. I still have around 650-700 pages…
Last week or so, I finished reading After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Datlow is an award-winning editor. I heard about her last year when I participated in the Books of Horror Christmas exchange. (Books of Horror is one of the reader-oriented Facebook groups I follow.) So when I was looking for new-to-me Horror recently, I decided to give one of her anthologies a go. I’ll have more on my impressions of…
I read a ton of stuff in August, more than usual even. It was nice to binge read a little instead of having to spread reading a single book out over a few days or longer. When I read Joe Hill’s Horns earlier this year, I fell in love with his writing style and storytelling skill. I’ve been slowly working my way through his other books, spreading them out a little so that I don’t run through them too quickly….
I recently changed up my schedule so that I’d have more time to read. Because I figured y’all weren’t content with the four to eight books or so that I detail here each month. Ok, honestly, I just enjoy reading, though it is necessary to my job, i.e. being a writer. Reading fiction is a pleasurable activity, but it’s also market research in a lot of ways. Which is probably more than you wanted to know. Over the past few…
Because I got a little distracted in early June and completely forgot to do May’s reads (ok, I procrastinated too long), you now have the pleasure of a fairly long list of the books I’ve read since May 1st. First, a short story, “10 Reasons Aliens Just Can’t Get Enough of This Small West Virginia Town” by Shae Davidson. In this cutesy SciFi story, Davidson builds a world changed greatly by the Visitation and the alien tourists who love Pine…
April was not as heavy on the reading front as March was, thanks to a couple of long reads. Anyone who’s read this blog for a while should know that I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan. It started when my son was young and we discovered Coraline and The Graveyard Book. The stories are dark, twisted, and weird, especially considering that they’re aimed at younger readers, but that’s what we liked about them. My son grew older and into…
I read a ton more than normal this month and ranged across a wide variety of genres, from classic SciFi to Southern Magical Realism to Horror. So, let’s get to it. I’m trying to work a little more classic Science Fiction and Fantasy into my reading, especially authors I haven’t read a lot of, like Arthur C. Clarke. Rendezvous with Rama is one of his more well-known and recommended novels, so when I spotted it at City Lights Bookstore in…
February’s reading was slim, much like the month itself. I did read a few really great novels and some excellent short stories, so let’s dive right in. I finally (!) finished reading the January/February 2016 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Yes, it took me around three years to finish it, mostly because I kept setting it aside and forgetting about it, or getting distracted by other stories. I used to spend a ton of time with my grandmothers. Some…