What are you reading right now?

"King Lear".
"Fast Girls" (non-fiction).
Robert E. Howard's "Conan" (collection)
Edgar Rice Burrough's "A Princess of Mars"
Various Comics.

I generally read multiple books at a time, keeps the creative juices flowing.

right now I'm reading

Spiral (sequel to the ring)
and
the Rising


yes at the same time, don't look at me like that....

Body oil and pure brawn!

I'm reading Long's THE RECKONING as well as you already know. I think I'll save the last 20 pages for tomorrow. I could've read the book in one sitting but I deliberately chose to take it slowly. Books this good should be cherished, not rushed through, no matter how good or suspenseful they may be.

I also read BATTLE ANGEL ALITA - LAST ORDER 3 today, which was cute but not as good as the first two volumes. But I dug how they at one point show politicians munching on the meat of slightly genetically altered human babies. As I said, cute.

Yeah and I also have John Shirley's first published novel DRACULA IN LOVE to finish. It has some of his fascinating ideas about karam and awareness and it's also very violent and sexually perverse for a book published in 1979 and written by an 18 year old. But in the end it's still a novel about Dracula a friggin vampires and that crap just bores me to tears. If it didn't come with John's name attached I wouldn't even have bothered ...

Coming up next are THE CONTORTIONIST'S HANDBOOK by Craig Clevenger, WORD MADE FLESH by Jack O'Connell, NORMAL GIRL by Molly Fast and KISS ME JUDAS, PENNY DREADFUL and HELL'S HALF ACRE, all by Will Christopher Baer. That should keep me busy until October when I'll finally get my hands on Caitlin R. Kiernan's MURDER OF ANGELS and THE DRY SALVAGES.

Long THE RECKONING

Final edits to my latest novel from Simon & Schuster - HERETIC: Book One of the Templar Chronicles

Borderlands 5 anthology from Borderlands Press

-J

I'm reading this thread right now.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

The War Hound & the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock (reread)

On deck:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Finney)
The Anvil Chorus (Shane Stevens)
The Wooden Sea (Jonathan Carroll)
Rear Window & other stories (Cornell Woolrich)
A Ticket to the Boneyard (Lawrence Block)
Denied to the Enemy (Delta Green/Cthulhu mythos novel)
Hyperion (Dan Simmons)
Shadowland (Straub) (reread)
Peaceable Kingdom (Ketchum)
And Then There Were None... (Agatha Christie)
How We Die (a nice book describing the physiological mechanisms behind death by violence, AIDS, heart failure, cancer, etc.)

And on, and on, and on...

Just finished The Keep. Not nearly as good as I expected.

Nothin but a smile big fella

(Sorry I couldn't resist)

Monstrosity Edward Lee

Ray Bradbury's short story collection "The October Country." I can never get enough Bradbury. From the Dust Returned is probably my favorite book ever.

The Evil Dead Companion.

I just the other day finished reading both The Rising and Summer of Night.

I'm currently reading Carrie by Stephen King and Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind, both for about the thirteen thousandth time.

I'm reading Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" because I'm a big Roman Polanski fan--and I heard he's adapting it. (I'm usually a see-the-movie-and-then-read-the-book kinda guy.)

This is what I'm reading: "AD&D T1 The Village of Hommlet / Greyhawk".

What I'm wearing, is some dead guys skin, hey, you asked.

Just finished "1633" by Eric Flint & David Weber

About to start "On A Beam Of Light," Gene Brewer's follow-up to K-PAX. Pretty thin though, so it'll take me less than a day, and I'll probably dive back into "Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson, which I started ages ago and never got all the way through.

I also started "Cosmonaut Keep" by Ken Macleod and never got through it, maybe I'll finish it before I get back to "Quicksilver."

I'm reading The Stand for the 5th time, and it's just as good as the first time. I hit the middle of the book last night, and I often find myself itching to get out of work or whatever I may be doing so I can get home and read more.

I've also been snailing my way through Necroscope again and Danse Macabre. I'm waiting on the last Dark Tower book, then everything else will disappear. But Johnny got first dibs on it (damn!). Then after that I think I may finally pick up the Harry Potter books, since I enjoy the movies so much.

Re-reading the Elric Saga by Moorcock at the moment. Just finished The Weird of the White Wolf and moving on to The Vanishing Tower.

On deck...

The Dark Tower Series

I always wanted to read the Elric series! How many books are there? I think I never bought them because I was afraid of Piers Anthony syndrome, of which the Necroscope series is a victim, sadly.

There are 6 books from the original 'true' series.

Elric of Melniboné
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower
The Bane of the Black Sword
StormBringer

Then he added 3 additional books.

Elric at the End of Time
The Fortress of the Pearl
The Revenge of the Rose

The first 6 are, in my opinion, by far the best of the lot.

Working through the latest Fangoria right now, but then I'm on to Rick Tremble's Motion Picture Purgatory. I also started Dan Savage's Skipping Towards Gamorah last night.

All of that will most likely when I get the new Abarat, which should be any day now.

Oh, and I just finished American Psycho.

I am coming to your house.

Um...okay. You've got a long drive, might want to get started now...

I just finished Abarat 2: Days of Magic, Nights of War. You are in for a treat, Johnny! I thought it was an incredible work of fantasy and there are lots of things in there for the die hard horror fan. I think I'm going to pick up the next Tower book now. I'm kind of feeling sad that the quest for the Tower is coming to an end.

Just polished off LOST BOY/LOST GIRL by Peter Straub, which was a well-done, albeit unremarkable, continuation of his mostly stunning Blue Rose Cycle. I also recently finished THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY by Michael Chabon, which easily deserved the Pulitzer it won.

Currently, I'm in the middle of CHOKE by Chuck Palahniuk and am thoroughly enjoying it in spite of the fact that his authorial voice never seems to change. I've got Palahniuk's LULLABY and Long's THE DESCENT lined up next. Then I'll probably tackle some Harry Shannon and some Edward Lee.

I'm trying to make my way through the Cabinet of Curosities without much success. Otherwise taking a break from horror and re-reading a lot of Donald Westlake stuff, Bank Shot being the one I'm on now.

I really can't stand Ed Lee. I've read Dahmer's Not Dead, City Infernal, and Infernal Angel and havent' been able to enjoy a single one. There's just something about the way he writes his central characters that drives me nuts. Sorry, just thought I would share.

Right now I'm rereading Criminal Macabre and the instruction booklet for my new George Foerman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine.

He's so proud of it, he put his name on it.

"Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal"
Christopher Moore

"Season of Mists" (Sandman, Book 4)
Neil Gaiman

"The Killer Angels"
Michael Shaara

"The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles"
Julie Andrews Edwards
Reading this one with my 7 year old.

I'm reading "The Rising" and "The Gunslinger"

I'm still on Vol.4 of the Dark Tower series. I should be on Song of Susannah but I'm just lazy

I'm going to start Night of the Beast, The Rising, and hopefully Monstrosity when I go to Hawaii on friday. I am also reading The First Deadly Sin.

Abarat 2 is out???!??!??!

I got an advance readers copy a couple of weeks ago. I think the official edition comes out on September 17th. The art work is in black and white in the copy I have, so I'll be picking up the hard cover also.

I haven't read DAHMER yet but his INFERNAL books are utter tripe and it's not surprising you hated them. They feature an unique vision of hell but otherwise read like teen reader books and are broadly and obviously aimed at the mainstream of the mainstream. Maybe you should read some of his hardcore independent stuff like TERATOLOGIST or GOON.

GREAT fucking book. Hope you enjoy it.

Yeah, I got my copy of Abarat 2 today, how cool is that? Tomorrow it shall begin!

Good advice on the Lee front, though it's going to take me a while to be ready to give him another chance. I'm glad there are others than agree with me on the Infernal books, though. Two of the only books that I've actually had to stop reading to sigh heavily, shake my head, and roll my eyes before I could continue.

Floydian, I highly, HIGHLY recommend Battle Royale, but I was pretty dissapointed with the first Ring book. Pretty shabby translation and/or writing if you ask me.

Well, it's written as a "young adult" series, so I guess you could say it is. But considering this is Clive, you know there's going to be some dark shit going on.

Hey, Johnny, why don't you come closer, so I can SMASH THAT BOOK OVER YOU HEAD, AND RUN AWAY WITH IT.

I saw some copies of Abarat 2 on E-bay earlier this summer, and boy, was it tempting to pick up. I think the first book is Barker's best work, and perhaps even one of my top books of all time. I trully love it. Please give us a nice review of it soon.

Well, to keep it relevant, the review won't go up to the closer to the book's release date...sorry.

I just started reading American Psycho and the New Ric Flair book.

What are these BOOKS you speak of...

I think I have seen something about them on tv once or twice...

I am actually in the middle of "MEG" and just started the Ric Flair Bio as well.. Great stuff...

Later
Tony D

I watched Salems Lot on TNT and realized that I've never read the book. Picked up Salem Lot at a flea market , Reading it now

Heinlein's "Number Of The Beast"

So far it reads like a really really bad Sci-Fi Original. But, I'm toughing it out since I've only ever once not finished a book. Cough, Needful Things, cough.

I'm actually reading a nun-horror novel for a change right now, Molly Jong-Fast's NORMAL GIRL. She's obviously trying real hard to be the female Bret Easton Ellis so it's all about unhappy, famous, rich people doing lots of drugs and being mega-sarcastic. Quite amusing but there's not a whole lot of depth to it. Still, Ellis seems to take 10 years to write a new novel these days so whatever comes along that helps pass the time is welcome.

Dagon- Fred Chappell...it's not so good.

Just finished Resume with Monsters by William Browning Spencer...that was actually really good.

...And now I'm officially in the middle of Abarat 2. Good stuff so far. LOTS of death.