I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to Carl's RIP Challenge!! I'm so psyched about this one. "Halloween time" has always been my favorite time of the year and I have so many books that go along with it. Gothic/Horror/Dark Fantasy is one of my favorite genres as well. It's probably the genre that I've been reading the longest, starting with Clive Barker and Anne Rice, 2 authors that I will be revisiting with old reads in this challenge. I'm looking forward to everyone else's lists and to all of the great conversation that will be going on in blogland about all of these great books :D
I've set aside 20 books for this challenge....I know, yikes! I'm officially signing up for Peril the first, which is to read four books of any length, though I'm also reading two rather chunky books and as far as additional perils go, I have Dracula and Fragile Things on the list too. I seriously doubt that I'll get through 20 books in 2 months, but I'm officially committing to 6 and would REALLY like to read the other 14 during this time of the year. So I'm going to try my damndest. Here they are:
Official Reads
1. Dracula by Bram Stoker
2. Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
4. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
5. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
6. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Bonus Reads
7. Something Wicked This Was Comes by Ray Bradbury
8. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
9. The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
10. Whispers by Dean Koontz
11. I'll be Watching You by Charles de Lint
12. Blaze by Richard Bachman AKA Stephen King
13. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
14. Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
15. Currency of Souls by Kealan Patrick Burke
16. A Soul In A Bottle by Tim Powers
17. Thief of Always by Clive Barker
18. Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
19. Tamsin by Peter Beagle
20. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
So there it is. Can't wait til September 1st to get started on these! Until then, I'll try to get caught up on all of my other challenges!
42 comments:
Cool I am off to go check out the details. I love Anne Rice, Peter S Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint.
I'm also really excited about this challenge! I've missed the OUaT challenge since it ended...Carl is just too good a host!
Glad to see Clive Barker on your list - he's making an appearance on mine too with a couple of re-reads and the second Abarat book.
Great list. Dracula is a brilliant read, and I loved The Historian, Heart-Shaped Box and The Thirteenth Tale. Four and Twenty Blackbirds is also fab, and I hope you get round to that one during the challenge.
I'll also be reading The Homecoming and A Soul in a Bottle.
Will be posting my list later today!
Very nice list. You have a lot of books I've been meaning to read (or re-read), and "Heart-Shaped Box" will be on my list too.
Carl's challenges are my favorites because they give me permission to indulge in my favorite genres!
Loved Dracula, The Historian, and The Thirteenth Tale. Have enjoyed others on your lists, too, but really appreciate some new (to me) titles that I'll be looking for!
Great list (with lots of book ideas that I might have to steal). I loved The Historian, and I'm going to try Dracula and The Thirteenth Tale as well!
I'm really excited by this challenge too!! It's my favorite time of year, and my favorite genre to boot!!
The Witching Hour is my favorite Anne Rice book. And Thief of Always is probably my favorite Clive Barker!! I hope you get to them as well!!
I'm compiling my list now.....my brother stole away Heart-Shaped Box, and I don't know when I'll get it back! He's got my copy of the Historian too, that weasel!
Wow...what an amazing list! I'm embarrassed to say that I've only read one of those. But I do have Fragile Things and Something Wicked This Way Comes on my list. Haven't read much of this type in many, many years, and am so looking forward to diving back in! Have fun...you've got a lot of good reading ahead!
Ohh, You've got a great list there. Some are new to me but I loved Tamsin, Thief of Always and of course, Dracula.
Rhinoa, Those are some of the ones I'm looking forward to most!
Quix, Me too! I've been looking forward to this one ever since OUaT ended. Clive Barker wasn't on the original list, but I put him on there as this was a favorite as a child. I'm trying extra hard for Four and Twenty Blackbirds, I picked up that one on your recommendation!
Nymeth, Yay for Heart-Shaped Box! I have a feeling that's going to be a popular one. He has a book of short stories called 20th Century Ghosts out in the states in October, but it may be available by you now. I know it's out in England.
Jenclair, So glad to hear that you've enjoyed those books! Makes me all the more excited to jump into them myself ;)
Sarah, Steal away! I've heard that Dracula and The Thirteenth Tale are both wonderful, so we should enjoy those!
Stephanie, Me too! This challenge is going to rock! The Witching Hour is my favorite Rice book too! This will be my 3rd time reading that big ol' book. Get those books back from your brother!
Debi, Don't be embarrased at all! I've only read two of them :p Have fun with the challenge! This is going to be so much fun!
Nicola, I'm really looking forward to Tamsin! That book is really new to me. I don't know much about it at all, so it should be fun!
I read The Thirteenth Tale for this challenge last year. It is one of my favourite books ever! Maybe I should reread it, make it a tradition... hm... I suck at rereading, though, too many other books I want to read.
Good luck on the challenge!
Wonderful list of books. Can't believe you are going to try to read so much! ;)
You certainly don't have to wait until Sept. 1st to start, I'm not!!!
you like everything you read, so where's the challenge?.. *just kidding*.. any excuse to read more books eh Chris? lol.. you are even one of the few I know of that finished Jonathan Strange!.. I stopped at about page 247when i realized i was skimming more than reading..just couldn't handle it...so i know you'll do fine in this challenge!!
Kailana, Yay! Now I'm really psyched about the Thirteenth Tale if it's one of your favorite books. I'm horrible at re-reading as well. Like you said, there are too many new books to read!
Carl, I seriously doubt that I'll finish all of these in 2 months! I really want to start now, but I have these other challenges that I have to finish soon too...what to do, what to do...We'll see...
Deslily, I'm always looking for excuses to read more :p like I need them! Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was great, but it starts off really slow...I know what you mean. By the end though, I absolutely loved it!
Wow 20 books!
My dh read Dracula last year and LOVED it. I almost chose it too but I felt like reading urban fantasy so I decided not to. I still could add it later though.
Looking forward to reading your thoughts on some of these so I can add them to my list! :)
The heart shaped box was a tough read for me. It was a great book, but it really creeped me out. I couldn't read it alone at night.
Amy, I figured that it's about time I read Dracula...I'm a horror movie and book nut, so it's really a shame that I haven't read it before now!
Carrie, LOL! I usually don't get creeped out too easily, but I've heard the same said about that book by many people! We'll see how it goes...
Is it time, already? Wow! I'll have to go dig for my books. You are such a nut. I love your huge list! It'll be fun reading your reviews.
Bookfool, I am indeed a nut! I'll readily admit that, lol...I'm looking forward to writing the reviews ;) Can't wait to read your list!
great list! i'll be curious to see what you make of "the witching hour".
i too have been waiting for this ALL year! of all the challenges that come up this is the coolest. the whole feel of it and the way carl orchestrates it makes it just the best!
JP, This will be my third time reading The Witching Hour actually! It's one of my favorite books. It's set in New Orleans and I've actually been to the house that it's set in. The house is gorgeous. I'll post some pics in the review. I live about 10 minutes away from it! This book has the perfect feel for this season and is Anne Rice at the top of her game in my opinion. I like the Mayfair Witches series better than her Vampire Chronicles personally.
good grief charlie brown! do you intend to sleep or eat during this challenge??? lol..
Deslily, nah, who needs that? lol...
I hope you are able to work in Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. I read it for the RIP Challenge last year (a re-read from high school days years ago)and loved it :)
Ex Libris, That one will definitely be read! I'm reading that one for the Seconds Challenge as well, so I'll be sure to fit that on in ;) I'm hoping to get in everything, but we'll see how easily that is accomplished :/
Looking forward to this one! If I can get the second third of this donkey article posted, I'll work on posting my Challenge list tonight.
Oh, and I have to see where I am with my other challenges, make sure I can still finish those, too.
Marina, I can relate...I feel like I'm drowning in challenges right now! Can't wait to see what you're reading!
Looking forward to your reviews, there are some great books on that list!
Quite the list!! I read The Thirteenth Tale a few months ago, and it's wonderful. :)
Court, Yay, another positive vote for The Thirteenth Tale ;)
Great list! Stephanie just told me about this one, but I'm just not sure if I can squeeze in anymore books. Your list looks great--The Historian was really good, very creepy. :) Good luck!
Trish, I'm really looking forward to The Historian! I've heard so many great things about it. I hope that you find the time to squeeze it in. Carl's challenges are so much fun...and he gives away some really bad ass prizes ;)
I read The Historian for last year's RIP challenge and loved it. It's a chunkster but well worth it.
After I read The Thirteenth Tale I had to add it to my list of all time favorite books. I hope you enjoy it too.
Wow, that is an impressive list. I have three of your official reads on my list as well. I missed this challenge last year so I am really looking forward to taking part in it. I look forward to your reviews.
JennyEllen, I'm really looking forward to both of those! I've heard so much good stuff about both of them that they just had to go on the list. Can't wait!
Framed, I missed it too, mainly because I hadn't discovered this wonderful blogging community yet :p So glad I did, and I'm looking forward to your reviews too :)
There are now so many cool sounding books on various peoples' list that even once the challenge is officially over, I will have enough reading to keep my busy well into 2008! And that's just this genre. I am sure my housekeeping will suffer...lol. I'm going to have to start up a master list of books to check out in the future.
And to second what everyone else is saying, The Historian is FANTASTIC. It took me a week to read and it only took that long because I deliberately slowed myself down, to prolong the enjoyment. I'm re-reading it for this challenge.
Jen, I'm starting to fear the same thing...my reading list is growing to heights that I never imagined! And it was quite high to begin with! The Historian sounds incredibly cool. Can't wait to read it!
That's such an interesting list that I must add you to my watch list so that I can read your reviews. I'm currently reading Dracula myself - not officially for the challenge but so that I can better understand The Historian which I *am* reading for the challenge. Can't wait as I've heard so many good things about it.
I forgot all about Blaze by Bachman/aka King. I think I'll add this book to my list if I finish my chosen four early...My list is up as well!
Rusvw, I picked that one up when it came out and haven't had a chance to read it yet, so I figured now was the perfect opportunity!
I've read three of the books on your list, and have several more on my wishlist. Looks like we have some similar tastes. :)
Dewey, Then I must say you have great taste in books ;) I can't wait to read all of these!
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