Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
I know many of my readers have books they enjoy talking about that are scary, both fiction and non-fiction, so I hope this starts a discussion of your favorites. Add in a wind screaming around the house and coyotes who sing at midnight and which books do you recommend not opening after dark?
I was reorganizing my shelves and found a used book from my library that I got years ago and had never read, Book of Skaith by Leigh Brackett (1974). It has three stories in one book and it looked good to me because it is a space story. I started to read it late at night. Oh, boy!! The wimp factor kicked in pretty early. I kept reading. I put my book mark in when the horrifying Northhound heard the hero and started paying attention while the hero was many miles away. But should I turn out the light? Yikes!!
Certain words bother me more than others and the third book in the series is called Reavers of Skaith. Reaver has all kinds of chilling connotations to me. The word killer or murderer or bandit has worn a bit thin, but reaver makes me shiver without even reading the story. Other words are more powerful to me, also.
The word malice bothers me more than the words evil thinking. A character who acts out of malice is truly scary to me. Malevolence is as bad. Much worse than ill will.
I have finished the first story, Ginger Star. I am now reading Hounds of Skaith. And I am still keeping the lights on.
By a computer glitch at my book club, I accidentally got a copy of The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and since I paid for it, I decided to read it. I have not read any of his other books though they have been mentioned by others here often and with praise.
I got clues that there is something not normal going on with the protagonist and then suddenly with no reason for it at all there are three grisly murders. They are simply gratuitous in my opinion. Basically, the author warned me that this was the kind of book I was reading and that I must now expect this to happen. Being warned, I nearly stopped reading. Then the tone swerved back again so I kept going, but with much apprehension that something really nasty can happen at any time. The ick factor also was present and threw me out of the story which I disliked.
Suddenly in the third section it is 2004 and the tone of the book changes again. Now it is deadly serious about Iraq and Fallujah and I am ashamed that I thought the book was just a weird fantasy. Truly, this real story is more frightening than made up stuff. I am carried back to memories of the horror done to civilians and the lies that were imposed on us. Yes, I will definitely want to keep the light on, now. If this had been the second section of the book instead of the third, I might have understood that I was reading literature. But now I am just embarrassed. I really like Ed Brubeck the journalist who is torn between reporting the truth and coming home to his family.
Section four. Back to boring.
On page 294, a review of a book by a character says:
Two: The fantasy subplot clashes so violently with the book’s State of the World pretensions, I cannot bear to look.
Perhaps the author is poking fun at himself or is being ironic. It certainly fits what I am thinking as I struggle forward.
On page 469 out of 624, I quit. As Youffraita has said many times, “Life is too short.”
Feel free to defend this book. That is always good for discussion.
So what books should we avoid after dark?
What books have disappointed you lately?
Write On! Bolting through Characters
by TayTay
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Kos Katalogue 2014 Holiday Mothership - HOTLIST THIS!!
by Sara R
http://www.dailykos.com/...
SNLC, Vol. CDLII / UDKCJ 36: The Death of Klinghoffer Edition
by chingchongchinaman
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Do you want to build a writers group?
by Mark Sumner
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Note: I ordered Mark's new book, The Naturalist, but I am not sure I should read that one after dark, either. :)
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early