October - Horror Month (2016)

[Randy M.]

Since Fried Egg hasn't mentioned it: It's October. Anyone else read ghost/horror stories in anticipation of Halloween?

Reading time has been limited lately, so I still have about 70 page to go in The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons. So far it is justifying all the praise heaped on it in Stephen King's Danse Macabre.


Randy M.

 

[kythe]

I just read "The Boy Who Couldn't Die" by William Sleater. It's a creepy YA story, but not really his best work. I've also started "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. So far its long-winded and descriptive, but not much has happened. It's a classic for some reason though, so I will finish it.

 

[Randy M.]

Hi, Kythe.

I think it's a classic mainly because it was the first to do something, really the first story (that I'm aware of at any rate) that is recognizably science fiction. (For what it's worth, Brian Aldiss has said as much, too.) Further the character of the mad scientist and his monster is so embedded in our culture now that it appears in all sorts of unlikely places.

I recall it being a slog punctuated by some vivid scenes, but one of the profits from finishing it is recognizing just how widely it permeates our reading and viewing, how even contemporary authors nearly 200 years since its first publication are still tapping into it.


Randy M.

 

[ratsy]

I've been trying to get a copy of Hell House by Matheson in my hands but can't find one used or at library. Might have to kindle it.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

I'm currently reading The Fireman by Joe Hill - it's a scorcher!

 

[kythe]

I've been trying to get a copy of Hell House by Matheson in my hands but can't find one used or at library. Might have to kindle it.

That's a good idea, though my library also doesn't have a copy. They do have "The Shrinking Man" on e-book, so I borrowed it on my Kindle app.

 

[ratsy]

I'm currently reading The Fireman by Joe Hill - it's a scorcher!

Look what I have....

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Wow! Very impressed!

 

[ratsy]

Well someone was nice enough to ask if anyone wanted a signed copy from a UK event. It isnt cheap getting a book this size sent to western Canada!

 

[Randy M.]

Just started the novel, The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck by Alexander Laing, which has a terrific cover by Lynd Ward:

There's something about that illustration that screams 1930s. I see that both Centipede and Valancourt used it as the covers of their reissues.

Apparently, Ward's novels in wood cuts were reissued awhile back by Library of America and I've seen some of the illustrations in an exhibition where I work. Just striking art. If you're interested in seeing more, Ward illustrated a 1934 edition of Frankenstein, some of the art can be seen at Pagan Press Books: Lynd Ward's illustrations for Frankenstein.

I Googled Ward and there's a good deal of his work represented out there.


Randy M.

 

[Fried Egg]

October, this year, seemed to creep up on me unexpectedly.

Didn't plan on combining this deliberately with the month but right now I'm reading: "Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth" an anthology edited by Stephen Jones containing stories inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Apparently this is a follow up to a previous anthology of the same theme. Includes contributions from Ramsey Campbell, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Brian Lumley and many others.