What are you reading?

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

We Belong Dead: 30th Anniversary Special Edition. Last year at G-Fest, I bought a book tied with this publication about Hammer and really enjoyed it, so I picked this up when I saw it at this year's convention. In it, the various writers who work on this magazine each choose one of, or their absolute favorite, horror films and write about their personal history with them. It was really cool to read, with some of them choosing to talk about movies you didn't necessarily hear people mention as being among their favorites (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, Taste the Blood of Dracula, the 1977 BBC Count Dracula, etc.), although some of their choices don't necessarily qualify as "horror," like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The War of the Worlds, and especially Pan's Labyrinth (great movie, but it's more dark fantasy than outright horror). Still, this more than made up for the disappointment that was that Tod Browning book.

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

For a second I thought you were referring to a 1997 Midnight Marquee book called WE BELONG DEAD: FRANKENSTEIN ON FILM, to which I contributed some sub-par video grabs from movies with hard-to-locate stills. That was back when the technology was still very unsophisticated.

[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Settling in for Christmas with Annihilation by the mighty Michel Houellebecq.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Was just gifted a copy of My Friend Dahmer the other day, so working my way through that now. Interesting stuff.

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

Was just gifted a copy of My Friend Dahmer the other day, so working my way through that now. Interesting stuff.

It was a pretty decent movie (assuming it was made from that book).

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

King Kong: A novelization of the Peter Jackson movie that I picked up at this past year's G-Fest. Pretty faithful to the movie, including some scenes that weren't in the theatrical version, and excluding some others. Although, once it gets to the part where they reach Skull Island and Kong is introduced, it feels like the story gets rather rushed. We're talking about a novelization of a three-hour movie that's less than 400 pages; doesn't that fell kind of short?

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

I was going to make several posts, but I think I’ll be compassionate and just make one, as well as try to keep it mercifully brief.

Right after I finished reviewing all the YEAR’S BEST HORROR STORIES volumes in June of 2022, my work initiated a requirement that folks get a certain certification to remain on the job, so the left side of my brain had to take over for a couple of months in order for me to study and then pass the exam. After that, it took a long time for me to begin exercising the right side again, and that commenced with reading all of the SHADOWS series, edited by Charles L. Grant.

Like Grant’s own stories, there was a heavy emphasis on “quiet horror,” and because of that, I didn’t really love much of it. Maybe it was the “disclaimer” that influenced me, but out of the eleven volumes, #8 was my favorite. At the start of that one, Grant declared, “Pat LoBrutto (Doubleday’s editor) and I have agreed that this time, considering the stories’ somewhat grim contents, we’ll forgo my introductions on the authors’ work.” Originally I completed the set with paperbacks and hardcovers, but since cover illustrations for the former were much more interesting (the hardcovers were in fact very dull), I made sure I got all of them in that format.

As they’re closer to my tastes, I am more fond of Grant’s many other anthologies, so I decided to get the last two I did not have (out of, I believe, a total of eight), GALLERY OF HORRORS and AFTER MIDNIGHT. I preferred GOH, especially since it started off with a William F. Nolan story called “Something Nasty” that I didn’t know by name but had been seeking out for about forty years, ever since a friend a mine first described it to me when I was in my misspent youth.

I’ve now moved on to the NIGHT VISIONS series, which has a pretty cool concept: each volume contains the writings of three authors, and each of them has 30,000 words to create either several short stories, a longer work (novella or novelette), or a combination. I have obtained all nine of the books in the first group (which ended in 1991), and I haven’t decided if I will pursue the final three from when the series resumed a decade later, because with one or two exceptions, the authors involved in those don’t appeal to me that much.

If anyone has read any of the books I’ve mentioned, I would love to hear your assessments.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

Oh, we keep things brief around here, do we? Lol.

I'm currently reading Herzog's autobiography. I have the Sinead O'Connor book upstairs and the lady bought thr Brittany Spears book which I also want to read.

I'm also purging stuff, so I'm re-reading a lot of books I own that I'm going to unload. So in conjunction with recently watching THE ORDER, I'm also reading THE SILENT BROTHERHOOD, which i promised to a friend.

Recently read the Jesus and Mary Chain Autobiography by Will and Jim Reid, amd it's amazing

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

Oh, we keep things brief around here, do we? Lol.

Yeah, sorry about that. I was just trying to condense about 2-and-1/2 years worth of stuff into one post.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Kong: Skull Island: Official Movie Novelization. My personal favorite film in the MonsterVerse, this novelization is pretty faithful, although it adds not only plot-points but different character insights and even scenes that were either in the initial screenplay or the author came up with himself. Also, you can tell that some of the actors like John C. Reilly and Samuel L. Jackson probably ad-libbed some of their most memorable moments and lines on the set, as they're not in this book.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: The Official Movie Novelization. Very good adaptation, as it's not only faithful to every scene and moment in the film itself, but adds a lot more to it, with scenes concerning both characters and monsters that don't appear in it. There's even a brief scene with Kong on Skull Island here. Each chapter also starts with a recitation of notes or mythical scripture, some of which I'm unsure of whether or not they're fictional. Still, this is the best MonsterVerse novelization yet in my opinion.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

THE FIVE FAMILIES by Selwyn Raab, only a few chapters in, but loving it; a detailed history of the rise of Cosa Nostra in America, specifically in New York.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

The Nightrunners. Been on a serious Joe Lansdale kick recently . This is some very unsophisticated splatter horror and I almost gave up on it early on, as too trashy even for me. It's kind of a home invasion story where the Invaders are possessed/disciples of the God Of The Razor. A supernatural entity who wants slaughter. As much as I was writing it off early it does get propulsivly readable by the end. Thrilling? I guess I was thrilled.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Ghibliotheque: The Unofficial Guide to the Movies of Studio Ghibli: I picked this up at Barnes & Noble way back in August, and just now got around to reading it. I have to say, of all the books I've read about the works of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, this one has to be the best, as it takes you on a chronological journey through the studio's catalogue of movies, with behind-the-scenes stories and the authors personal thoughts on each film. Really good reading and recommended for any fan.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

Also made my way through Lansdales Drive In Trilogy. Comedy/horror about a bunch of people who get trapped in the drive in after the rest of the world disappears. The shtick is that you have the worst atrocities imaginable described to you in the driest most deadpan fashion our author can muster. Rape, cannibalism, crucifiction and a dude who kind of gets fused with the popcorn machine. The first book is a lot of fun in a gonzo sort of way. The second tries the patience as it's mostly people telling their backstory and has a very strange anti climactic ending. The third ties things off in about the best way possible. Splattery, hilarious fun with a body count that amounts to pretty much everyone.