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The "to read" list I mean lol

Read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in one sitting, essentially. I saw the BBC TV adaptation as a lad and enjoyed it enough but I was frankly bowled over at the quality of the actual writing of the thing. Although I've only read the first part his writing style is reminicent of Terry Pratchett so I'm definitely keen to try and track down the rest of the trilogy.

Eivind August wrote: I read The Trial when I was eleven, and I am pretty sure it is why I am the way I am today. Expose kids to the real shit.

my older brother, who was the coolest member of my nuclear family, gave me a copy of 1984 when i was 12 because he knew i needed to hear it. i first read Kafka when Zappa, in the liner notes to We're Only In It For The Money, suggested that while listening to "The Chrome-Plated Megaphone of Destiny" one should read "In The Penal Colony," and at the end of the piece "your crime will be carved on your back."

Just recently I decided to start reading again. There seems to be an absolute lack of horror books. I’m a big fan of Dennis Wheatley stuff, and there doesn’t seem to be anything like that these days...we’ll, not that I could find in the bookstore. I got a book called Dark Places by Gillian Flynn...so far I’m really unimpressed!

I feel like I should just go back and reread Wheatley again!

What do you guys recommend?

samzadgan wrote:Just recently I decided to start reading again. There seems to be an absolute lack of horror books. I’m a big fan of Dennis Wheatley stuff, and there doesn’t seem to be anything like that these days...we’ll, not that I could find in the bookstore. I got a book called Dark Places by Gillian Flynn...so far I’m really unimpressed!

I feel like I should just go back and reread Wheatley again!

What do you guys recommend?

back from the dead. good to see you poking around here again dude.

i'm not sure if they count as "horror," but there are some Colin Wilson books in a modern-Lovecraftian vein which i read in the 80s and quite enjoyed: The Space Vampires, The Mind Parasites, and The Philosopher's Stone.

<edit> The Space Vampires and The Mind Parasites would possibly be called "Cthulhu Mythos science-fiction."

I JUST DISCOVERED THAT MY SPELL-CHECK RECOGNIZES "CTHULHU"!!!

I just finished House of Leaves a couple weeks ago. More of a mindfuck than traditional horror, but that shit stayed with me for a long time after.

I love house of leaves. You should read Rant if you haven’t.

samzadgan wrote:Just recently I decided to start reading again. There seems to be an absolute lack of horror books. I’m a big fan of Dennis Wheatley stuff, and there doesn’t seem to be anything like that these days...we’ll, not that I could find in the bookstore. I got a book called Dark Places by Gillian Flynn...so far I’m really unimpressed!

I feel like I should just go back and reread Wheatley again!

What do you guys recommend?

Scarlet Gospels by Clive barker has some serious DW detective story vibes. It's not a great horror book but it's a fun read.

i'm stacking them up in a holding pattern at Chez Dubkitty...after seeing a passing reference, i decided to get Trainspotting from the library because i've never read it and i'm very interested in Scotland and Scots life. i ought to be digging into the Library of America comp of five 1950's American noir crime novels, but i'm afraid that they'll be too dark for me from the notes and synopses.

neonblack wrote:I just finished House of Leaves a couple weeks ago. More of a mindfuck than traditional horror, but that shit stayed with me for a long time after.

love house of leaves.

Thanks for the recommendations...gives me a few to read. I’m on gardening leave now, so spare time is all I have, which is a great time to read when I’m at home by myself...stops me from wasting time on TV.

@Odontophobia thanks mate...I’m making an effort to reduce Facebook and IG in favour of forums where it’s real people and real conversations!

dubkitty wrote:i first read Kafka when Zappa, in the liner notes to We're Only In It For The Money, suggested that while listening to "The Chrome-Plated Megaphone of Destiny" one should read "In The Penal Colony," and at the end of the piece "your crime will be carved on your back."

I shall try this.

i haven't read house of leaves since right after high school, so 2005-2006 maybe. it always reminded me of, in certain ways, the journal of albion moonlight by kenneth patchen, a writer i fell in love with at the recommendation of my beatnick creative writing teacher (for anyone who is a fan of poetry look up poet joel long, my high school teacher).



fans of house of leaves might find it interesting. in no way do i think it compares to the mindfuck of house of leaves, but looking at the primitive nature of books in the era it was published, patchen tried a lot of similar techniques aesthetically and i've always wondered if house of leaves owed parts of it if to nothing other than the anxiety of influence. patchen was definitely on a different plane than most other writers of that era, and was a good precursor to the beat era.

so i'm pretty much bailing on the 50's noir compilation. Jim Thompson's The Killer In Me was well-written, but flat-out ugly. i tried 3 of the other 4 (Patricia Highsmith, Charles Williford, and the book that was made into Truffaut's Shoot The Piano Player) none of which i got more than 40 pages in before getting bored. i still want to check the last one, one of Chester Himes' Harlem Detective series, because i have affection for the 60s-era black culture in which i grew up. but in general i'm not enthralled with postwar stuff of this nature...i've never had the American fetishization of the killer/outlaw/cowboy that seems so common here. never wanted to watch The Sopranos either.