What Book Are You Currently Reading ?

[El Kabong]

@Batman 'Brother' sounds a bit like 'The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders' to me, but I guess the whole deal was Sanford Clark wasn't a willing participant AT ALL in those murders. Gruesome book by the way.


I need to start up a new book, only trouble for me is finding the time to read it.

[Batman]

Well now that I've decided to sack Red Dead Redemption off for a bit I've got back into my reading, I'll update the last few books I've read later.

I saw my mate yesterday though and he got me this to say thanks for being best man at his wedding the other month

The Fall of the House of Usher (1839)
Edgar Allan Poe

The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
Charlotte Perkins

Gilman Count Magnus (1904)
M. R. James

The White People (1904)
Arthur Machen

Ancient Lights (1912)
Algernon Blackwood

The Music of Erich Zann (1922)
H. P. Lovecraft

Smoke Ghost (1941)
Fritz Leiber

Brenda (1954)
Margaret St Clair

The Bus (1965)
Shirley Jackson

Again (1981)
Ramsey Campbell

Vastarien (1987)
Thomas Ligotti

Call Home (1991)
Dennis Etchison

1408 (2002)
Stephen King

Flowers of the Sea (2011)
Reggie Oliver

Hippocampus (2015)
Adam Nevill

Some of my favourite authors are in there, Thomas Ligotti, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Poe, Lovecraft, M.R. James, all brilliant so I'm looking to getting stuck into a few of these.

The book itself is proper nice as well, I might have to take a look at these Folio books and see what else they do.

[Batman]

As I said I've been off the boil for a while so I haven't read all that much in the last month or so

Something Evil is Inside Cassie Stevens.

For fans of The Exorcist and Stephen King comes a terrifying new tale of supernatural horror.

Cassie Stevens was 16 years old the night she died. When she’s revived 20 minutes later, unsettling changes begin to occur. They’re in the shadow she sees from the corner of her eye, and the face in reflections, and the whispers in her mind… and awaking at night to the cold unseen presence of something in her room…

But the changes aren’t just around her – they’re inside her.

Something ominous followed Cassie back from beyond death. Something infinite in hatred and horror. And it won’t stop till she’s dead.

Well that bit in bold is certainly is a pretty bold statement, and it is definitely an ambitious book it doesn't live up to that tag line though.

I’ll be honest I came into it expecting/wanting a straight up old fashioned exorcism, this manages to stay away from the well-trodden path of generic exorcism and possession, It did run into a few problems though, it was almost as if it didn’t know what it wanted to be, it kind of morphed into a weird rampant demon possession come ghost story, by the end I wasn’t sure which one was going to take centre stage (well the title of the book kind of gave that away but you get what I mean)

Some of the writing grated on me a little, ending almost every chapter with ‘everything was fine again…for now’ or ‘for the first time in months, the nightmares had stopped….or had they’ how’s about ‘Cassie is going to have toast for breakfast….or will she’

It got a bit tiresome having things telegraphed like that constantly.

Having said that it was an enjoyable read, it was nice and quick to get through, whilst there weren’t any genuine scares for me I think I’ve been desensitised to this sort of thing now.

I would have liked to have seen more of the demon and had it explained a little more, I quite enjoy reading dialogue including the actual demon but that was lacking here, it also seemed to lack any specific sort of identity, we don’t know who the demon was, how powerful is it, what is its name, what is its origin etc, other books tend to cover this side of things off (albeit it briefly in some instances)

I’d say this was either a high 3/5 or a low 4/5

An ambitious book that could have been improved on.

Everything you need to know about modern physics, the universe and our place in the world in seven enlightening lessons

'Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world. And it's breathtaking'

These seven short lessons guide us, with simplicity and clarity, through the scientific revolution that shook physics in the twentieth century and still continues to shake us today. In this mind-bending introduction to modern physics, Carlo Rovelli explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind. Not since Richard Feynman's celebrated Six Easy Pieces has physics been so vividly, intelligently and entertainingly revealed.

Not much to say on this one, the title says it all, seven brief lessons on physics, I've read a few books on this stuff before but this was a nice little refresher

[Batman]

Brother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald flee their busy London lives for the beautiful but stormy Devon coastline. They are drawn to the suspiciously inexpensive Cliff End, feared amongst locals as a place of disturbance and ill omen.

Gradually, the Fitzgeralds learn of the mysterious deaths of Mary Meredith and another strange young woman. Together, they must unravel the mystery of Cliff End’s uncanny past – and keep the troubled young Stella, who was raised in the house as a baby, from returning to the nursery where something waits to tuck her in at night ...

The second in Tramp's Recovered Voices series, this strange, bone-chilling story was first published in 1942, and was adapted for the screen as one of Hollywood’s most successful ghost stories, The Uninvited, in 1944.

I was pretty gutted about this book, I'd reached the point of the year where I'd hit the wall with my reading and needed a bit of a break from it, unfortunately I was about half way through this when that happened.

I'd been waiting absolutely ages to get hold of it but for some reason it was always about £40 on Amazon, then I had a look and it was there for a tenner, right from the get go though I was struggling with it, the writing just seemed confused and befuddled, I tried to get back into it after a little break but couldn't, I reckon if I re-read it again in the future I'll really enjoy it but for now it is one of the few books that I quit before the end.

An investigative criminologist, Christopher Berry-Dee is a man who talks to serial killers. In this book, their pursuit of horror and violence is described in their own words, transcribed from audio and videotape interviews conducted deep inside some of the toughest prisons in the world. Berry-Dee describes the circumstances of his meetings with some of the world's most evil men, and reproduces their very words as they describe their crimes and discuss their remorse—or lack of it. This work offers a penetrating insight into the workings of the criminal mind.

Talking with Serial Killers? I take issue with the title after reading the book, it is more like a chronological breakdown of their crimes rather than actual interviews, now don't get me wrong you can tell that an awful lot of work went into the book but it certainly isn't 'talking' with the serial killers.

Some of the cases were really interesting, being a horror buff I really enjoyed the Ronny DeFeo Jr chapter, I didn't realise just how messed up that case was, not just the murders but the whole investigation, the corruption that was involved etc, again whilst it wasn't an interview it was a compelling read and it has gave me a good few cases to look into in more detail.

One thing that I will praise is that the author certainly didn't pull any punches when describing the crimes, it was pretty damn gruesome in fact, I like that, I read these books because I want to set it down and just think 'Jesus Christ, what did I just read' and he certainly managed to get me to do that once or twice.

The cons are pretty huge though, again I will say it (for the third or fourth time) this isn't talking with serial killers, it is just a breakdown of their cases, a lot of that info may have come from the killers themselves but it doesn't come across like that when reading the book.

The spelling and grammar mistakes were horrendous as well, I can normally overlook them but in this instance they were jarring and it was hard to just skip over them without grinding my teeth slightly.

I often find with books like these that the authors quite enjoy self praise 'this murder would still be unsolved had it not been for me' is a sentence that crops up several times throughout the book, it didn't overly bother me but it was still worth a mention.

[p4pking]

Stephen king sucks. I just finished reading Our man in Havana, which is terrific. Considering it was written so soon before the Cuban missle crisis, it’s quite prophetic to boot.

[Batman]

Stephen king sucks.

He's not perfect by any stretch, I've often found that he just doesn't know how to finish a book.

IT is the perfect example of that, The Stand, The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, Salems Lot and many others are really good though.

I've not read all of his books but a fair few of the main ones, like I say he's not perfect but he has done some good stuff.

[p4pking]

Stephen king sucks.

He's not perfect by any stretch, I've often found that he just doesn't know how to finish a book.

IT is the perfect example of that, The Stand, The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, Salems Lot and many others are really good though.

I've not read all of his books but a fair few of the main ones, like I say he's not perfect but he has done some good stuff.

Needful things is probably my favourite of his. He has cool ideas for sure, which is why so many of his books became films, but it’s telling that they also became more fun for it.

[Freedom]

Stephen king sucks. I just finished reading Our man in Havana, which is terrific. Considering it was written so soon before the Cuban missile crisis, it’s quite prophetic to boot.

There's a very good movie based on the book.

Some of Stephen King's work isn't so good, for example I hated Pet Sematary, The Dead Zone and Night Shift.

But there are some very good ones like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. I also liked The Langoliers which is more sci-fi than horror.

[X]