Wot's everyone reading at the minute?

[coral]

I'm not nosey of course!

I've just finished "Cannibal - the history of the people eaters", by Daniel Korn, Mark Radice and Charlie Hawes. I'm on "Rupert Hatton's Tale", a childrens book by Norah Lofts right now. My recent reading has included "The Murderer's Who's Who - 150 years of notorious murder cases", by J H H Gaute and Robin Odell, "A Plague of Murder", by Colin Wilson, and "The Life of Mammals", by David Attenborough.
I haven't read an actual novel in an age, the last I think was "The Secret of Crickley Hall", by the love of my life, James Herbert. For some reason I don't feel able to lose myself in a good novel these days, perhaps because I'm so busy, so am tending to read things with "sections" rather than "all-in-one". However I'm afraid, being nerdy, I do actually prefer reference books anyway. I collect Desmond Morris and David Attenborough, although I don't have many at the moment.
Roger has given me a whole bunch of volumes on Cornish themes; villages, wildlife, flora etc, so I think that will be the next set of books I dip into, so that I can learn about the Cornish environment, it still being relatvely new to me.
Also I aim to re-read my Norah Lofts collection as I was fortunate enough to come across a large box full of these at a car boot sale for three pound fifty! She is one of my favourite authors, and has done most genres of fiction in her time, including collections of horror stories and ghost novels.
Anyhoo, enough about me
What's everyone else reading?

[benedictjjones]

i'm reading 'revelation' by cj sansom, the fourth Matthew Shardlake novel (tudor crime/ dark thriller) excellent stuff should finish it when i get home from work tonight.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I've just got myself the Ash Tree Press anthology "Shades of Darkness", which I intend cracking on with soon. Problem is, I bought this with a few particular stories in mind - Michael Cox's MRJ tribute "In Vitro" foremost among these - and now I don't know if I want to start with these, or keep them to the end, or if I'll read the book from first story to last, in order.

Actually, does anyone else read anthologies and collections in order? I know that I tend to do that with ones that are new to me. Older ones that I'm familiar with, I pick and choose, but I seem to always read new collections in order.

[benedictjjones]

^normally i do but recently i bought 'meddling with ghosts' and 'the mammoth book of short horror novels' to get the last two stories for TED Kleins 'Dark Gods' collection and havent got round to reading the rest of the stories in the books! although i did read, and thoroughly enjoy, ramsey campbells introduction to MWG.

on tuesday i managed to finish the last few stories from 'brooklyn noir' and last night i read stephen kings 'survivor type' from Skeleton Crew while i was having a bath and a break from trying to get a story finished.

[benedictjjones]

oh and 'catch me if you can...' from Brooklyn Noir was definitely as much horror as it was crime - you'll never look at brooklynite ginger bread men in the same light =O)

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Mar 18, 2009 13:11:40 GMT benedictjjones said:

^normally i do but recently i bought 'meddling with ghosts' and 'the mammoth book of short horror novels' to get the last two stories for TED Kleins 'Dark Gods' collection and havent got round to reading the rest of the stories in the books! although i did read, and thoroughly enjoy, ramsey campbells introduction to MWG.

Ramsey's story, "The Guide", is also well worth a read. My favourite from "Meddling with Ghosts".

[benedictjjones]

^cheers i'll give that one a go - it wasn't until recently that i read any of campbells stuff that really did it for me. i liked both his stories in Shadows II (the british version which i think is the line up from the 1st US Shadows) and quite enjoyed his tale in 'the mammoth book of monsters'

[benedictjjones]

read 'the guide' last night and really enjoyed it - great stuff! i may have another look at campbells stuff as i'd never read anything of his that grabbed me like 'the guide' BRILLIANT!

[David Kartos]

Did something of "House by the churchyard", but right now doing "The face in the abyss" by Merritt and just got Michel Bernaros' "The other side of the mountain" in the mail, so.......

[Craig Herbertson]

Tas And the Space machine by elliot

[FM]

Just devoured David Peace's The Damned Utd. Phew!

[Stephen Bacon]

I'm currently reading the Ash Tree Press anthology 'Shades of Darkness', David Peace's 'Nineteen Seventy Four', and 'Beneath the Surface', the debut collection from Simon Strantzas.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I'm approaching the halfway mark on "Shades of Darkness", having decided not to leap straight in at the stories I particularly wanted to read, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. If there's a bad story in it, I haven't found it yet.

(And I'm glad you enjoyed "The Guide", Ben.)

[benedictjjones]

cheers for recommending it. it has made me look at ramsey campbells stuff in a new light - did he do any other stuff in the jamesian-with-emotion style??

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I've only got a couple of RC's short story collections (and one of these is all Lovecraftian tales) but I remember Jamesian touches in a few tales in "Demons By Daylight" and "The Height of the Scream" (without my copies to hand, though, I can't quite recall which stories), but none are as obviously Jamesian as "The Guide".

Out of his novels that I've read, "Nazareth Hill" and "Ancient Images" both have strong Jamesian elements, though I struggled with the writing style of "Nazareth Hill".

For a better clue to some other MRJ-flavoured Campbell, try this review;
www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/RevsArchive.html#anchor40495