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Enfys posted:If you write a whole series of books where your cat is consistently found next to the corpses of dead people (with the first one being a dead neighbour), it sounds more like she had a fantasy about her cat murdering her neighbour than apprehending them. Well, if her cat murders him he's not going anywhere, which is SORT of like apprehension ... My aunt had a fair number of the books in her beach house, so I read then when I was ten or so. I have fond memories of them but never went back to reread them. Koko and Yum Yum tax. 
tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 20:16 on May 7, 2018 |
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May 7, 2018 20:13
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 Please don't put them on diets and start a murder spree.
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May 9, 2018 14:29
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Am I blind or is there not a horror thread? I just got a Kindle and I was going to look in there for books to read
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May 10, 2018 03:26
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the cosmic horror thread seems to be the closest equivalent start with Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas and anything you can find of Jeremy Robert Johnson I’d recommend giving Laird Barron a miss, his work spams the hell out of Kindle horror sections but his actual prose is mediocre
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May 10, 2018 05:30
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you can always make one yourself. I'm not trying to be rude btw but like more threads isn't a bad thing and people would post in it
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May 10, 2018 05:49
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I've been meaning to message Hieronymus Alloy to get the cosmic horror thread name changed to just a general horror thread for a while now, but I kinda didn't want to do it until I had time to write a decent OP. Edit: also, to offer a differing opinion, Laird Barron 100% gets overhyped, especially when he first hit the scene, but I still think he's worth checking out. IMO his collection Imago Sequence is probably his strongest overall offering. You could also just grab a general collection of horror short stories or weird fiction with him in it, usually his best stuff makes it into other collections anyway, and would give you a sense of whether you click with his style. He has a few really good stories, but yes, in general his prose is a bit weak. And practically every protagonist is a cigar smoking, whiskey guzzling, stone cold muscleman. Even the women. Also I like Jeremy Robert Johnson, but he's a bit of a left-field recommendation without any info on what sort of horror somebody likes, or what they've already read. He verges on bizarro horror, which definitely isn't for everyone. Still very good though. Haven't heard of the other book. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 15:38 on May 10, 2018 |
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May 10, 2018 14:52
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MockingQuantum posted:I've been meaning to message Hieronymus Alloy to get the cosmic horror thread name changed to just a general horror thread for a while now, but I kinda didn't want to do it until I had time to write a decent OP. I don't follow either thread closely (I don't want to be scared!) but I had assumed that the Stephen King thread was "general horror" and the Cosmic Horror thread was "lovecraft derived horror." I'll be happy to change thread titles but I don't want to accidentally kill off either thread by merging their topics. I mean I'll be happy do it deliberately if that's what people want but only if it's what's generally desired.
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May 10, 2018 15:34
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I don't follow either thread closely (I don't want to be scared!) but I had assumed that the Stephen King thread was "general horror" and the Cosmic Horror thread was "lovecraft derived horror." I'll ask in the thread. I haven't followed the King thread in a while but it seemed like it really was 90% King discussion. The Cosmic Horror one has definitely drifted more to general horror. It might make more sense to start an actual general horror thread, though, since there's not a ton of traffic in the Cosmic Horror one, plus a huge proportion of the thread kind of boils down to "boy that Lovecraft, wasn't he problematic?" Which it should, I guess, he def was problematic, but it probably turns away posters who don't want to talk about Lovecraft. Also join us, get scared, or we can suggest some non-scary books with ghosts and goblins for you! How do you feel about Goosebumps? Or V.C. Andrews?
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May 10, 2018 15:42
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MockingQuantum posted:I'll ask in the thread. I haven't followed the King thread in a while but it seemed like it really was 90% King discussion. The Cosmic Horror one has definitely drifted more to general horror. It might make more sense to start an actual general horror thread, though, since there's not a ton of traffic in the Cosmic Horror one, plus a huge proportion of the thread kind of boils down to "boy that Lovecraft, wasn't he problematic?" Which it should, I guess, he def was problematic, but it probably turns away posters who don't want to talk about Lovecraft. My favorite horror story is "The Book of the Dunwich Cow" in The Adventures of Samurai Cat, when Miaowara Tomokato visits the new england town of Dunwich, in which all the houses are built only out of victorian attics stacked on top of one another, and battles the great god K'Chu. I might be confusing it with a later sequel short story in which K'chu's brother Bl'syu shows up in a different new england town and proceeds to stomp the poo poo out of a scary car, a scary dog, a scary kitten, and several other terrifying Stephen King villains, while Tomokato battles him aided only by the ineffectual help of a Wise Old Black Lady.
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May 10, 2018 16:07
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:My favorite horror story is "The Book of the Dunwich Cow" in The Adventures of Samurai Cat, when Miaowara Tomokato visits the new england town of Dunwich, in which all the houses are built only out of victorian attics stacked on top of one another, and battles the great god K'Chu. I have no idea how much of this post is true and/or meant ironically, but I do know I love every word of it.
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May 10, 2018 16:15
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I would like to try a scary book that isn't gross.
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May 10, 2018 16:29
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Enfys posted:I would like to try a scary book that isn't gross. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is excellent. As is The Elementals by Michael McDowell (though there's a couple brief gruesome moments in that one, but it's mostly about sand). The Grip of It by Jac Jemc is incredibly eerie and unsettling and not really gross at all. Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay is not strictly capital-H horror but it's very good and creepy and I really wanted to recommend A Head Full of Ghosts by the same author but the latter has some body-horrorish moments if I remember right. Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt didn't have any big grossness, that I can remember. Bird Box by Josh Malerman also doesn't really have any gross shock value stuff. There's a ton more good horror that doesn't lean on gore or shock value, those are just the ones that spring to mind, I could probably find more when not phone-posting. Honestly gratuitous grossness is kind of a uniquely recent thing in horror novels, and we largely have King and Barker to blame/thank for that, I think, so there's ton to pick from that's less blood 'n' guts or weird sex stuff, but you have to dig a bit depending on what's in vogue at the moment.
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May 10, 2018 16:37
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Friends that want a good literary horror book that isn't trite or gross, check out I'm Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid.
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May 10, 2018 16:44
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Franchescanado posted:Friends that want a good literary horror book that isn't trite or gross, check out I'm Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid. I have that on my reading list
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May 10, 2018 17:15
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I do too, I think I will bump it up my list given the recommendation. Franchescanado hasn't led me wrong.
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May 10, 2018 17:49
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Good looking rec, I've put it on my list
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May 10, 2018 19:57
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Franchescanado posted:Friends that want a good literary horror book that isn't trite or gross, check out I'm Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid. I bought this after I saw it recommended in a thread here but I really disliked the writing and stopped reading it maybe 1/4 in. I read plot summaries afterwards and the identity of her caller is telegraphed from a mile away. I found the way the main character spoke to be too unnatural and offputting, in particular when she tells a story about her driving instructor, and starts it the way you would if you were writing it: “it was raining heavily, but the newspaper did a decent job of sheltering me” or something along those lines. I don’t need literal speech littered with “um” and “like” but this was ridiculous. Then again I also didn’t love The Grip of It, so maybe the problem is with my tastes in horror.
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May 13, 2018 22:21
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Sorry you disliked it, but you actually guessed everything wrong. It's not that kind of book.
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May 14, 2018 13:33
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Man what is going on with ebooks? Think I'm just going to stop buying them and hit up the one good used book store still open or libraries again. Sick of paying 10 to 15 dollars per book, even when they are like 200 page basically novellas that I read in 2 hours. I'm also reading a 20 year old series and each one is like 12 bucks now. Wtf.
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May 14, 2018 21:53
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MisterFister posted:Man what is going on with ebooks? Think I'm just going to stop buying them and hit up the one good used book store still open or libraries again. Sick of paying 10 to 15 dollars per book, even when they are like 200 page basically novellas that I read in 2 hours. I'm also reading a 20 year old series and each one is like 12 bucks now. Wtf. Use an ebook sales tracking website like bookgorilla.com. Make a wishlist on Amazon of every book you'd willingly own on kindle and check it every day for unlisted sales. Make sure you sort your list so it shows low prices to high prices. Or see if your library is on a digital loan system like Hoopla. Or see if your library offers ebook rentals (they probably do). Or just go to a loving library. Or read free digital books in the public domain. You have options.
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May 14, 2018 22:14
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MisterFister posted:Man what is going on with ebooks? Think I'm just going to stop buying them and hit up the one good used book store still open or libraries again. Sick of paying 10 to 15 dollars per book, even when they are like 200 page basically novellas that I read in 2 hours. I'm also reading a 20 year old series and each one is like 12 bucks now. Wtf. They're a scam by Big Publisher
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May 15, 2018 00:38
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I finished reading Fat Cat At Large and I can safely say that Fat Cat doesn't do a damned thing. Not a damned thing. Hell, it's kinda funny how pretty much every instance of Quincy the cat's involvement actively damages the main character's attempts to be seen viewed as not the prime suspect, and it is in spite of the cat and his owner's involvement that the hot detective is able to figure out who the murderer is. The only thing the protagonist does is successfully lead the detective to her location once she ends up getting held hostage by the murderer. Lol what a dumb book, I enjoyed it though and I've started on the sequel, Fat Cat Spreads Out.
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May 15, 2018 05:25
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A human heart posted:They're a scam by Big Publisher Every couple of years I get a few bucks in Kindle store credit because of an antitrust lawsuit ruling that publishers are illegally conspiring to push up the price of ebooks and while the credit is nice I’m not really sure how multiple lost lawsuits haven’t done anything about the actual pricing.
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May 15, 2018 11:41
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FirstAidKite posted:I finished reading Fat Cat At Large and I can safely say that Fat Cat doesn't do a damned thing. I'm so glad this book series captures essence of cat perfectly.
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May 15, 2018 12:09
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StrixNebulosa posted:I'm so glad this book series captures essence of cat perfectly. Seriously. Here's a list of all the things Quincy does and how they relate to the plot. 1. Quincy escapes from Bar None, Chase (the main protagonist) follows him and finds him chowing down on some meatloaf while there's a corpse next to him. Chase stupidly grabs the knife handle sticking out of the corpse's body and now Chase is the prime suspect. 2. Quincy escapes again and finds a jacket belonging to the victim's wife, but the jacket is under a dumpster behind the Bar None store. There's a big red splotch on it. Chase calls the Hot Detective about this and he shows up and investigates. The jacket's red splotch is just tomato sauce and the person it belongs to isn't the murderer and the person who stashed it there was the victim's son and was trying to hide the jacket from the police because he was afraid his mom had killed his dad. In other words, nothing mattered. 3. Quincy escapes for a third time and ends up trying to go back to where he found the meat loaf. He can't get into that place though so he ends up chilling with an elderly lady across the street. Chase goes and talks to said elderly lady, Hilda, because she'd heard that Hilda had seen several different potential suspects throughout the day. While talking to her, she ends up jogging Hilda's memory and Hilda ends up calling up the Hot Detective and mentioning that the girl at the Bar None with the cat was at the crime scene in a shirt covered with blood, leading to Chase being interrogated heavily because the police misunderstood Hilda because what Hilda meant was the lady in the Bar None who sold her the dessert bars ie the cashier, referring to Bar None as belonging to the lady with the cat aka Chase. This might seem like it mattered because it means Hilda can place the murderer at the scene of the crime, but it actually doesn't because the murderer had been dropping designer buttons at each crime scene and the police had already decided that the cashier was a suspect because she was the only person around with those same designer buttons. 4. Quincy gets out again runs back to where Hilda is because he wants cheese crackers. Hilda's not there though and Chase is mad about Hilda telling the police about stuff in a vague enough way that it resulted in Chase becoming the #1 suspect. She decides to enter Hilda's house and finds Hilda on the floor with her head bashed in (though still alive because Chase has interrupted the killer and the killer didn't get to finish the job). Chase calls up the police but the neighbor, having seen the killer leave the house, had already called the police and the dispatcher tells Chase to stay put and the police arrive and handcuff Chase until she repeats her story enough that they decide to remove the cuffs. 5. Quincy escapes and doesn't actually come back for 2 whole days. Chase becomes a wreck because she can't find him and is so sick and worried and concerned and this is in addition to all of her other problems that have been building up over the course of the book. When Quincy turns up again, he's pawing at the door to be let in and he is clearly dehydrated and starved, a piece of his ear has been nicked, and he's nictitating. Chase calls up the Hot Vet and the Hot Vet agrees to go ahead and pick up his tools from the office so that he can give Quincy an IV and some antibiotics. Quincy is ultimately fine. There is not a single point in the book where Quincy's actions lead Chase to discovering who the culprit is and it's kind of amazing how it is because of Quincy that she becomes the prime suspect.
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May 15, 2018 13:11
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I figure I should mention it in here too: there is now a General Horror thread for discussing horror novels. Or horror-adjacent novels. Or how a totally-not horror book scared you for some reason, idk. The cosmic horror thread is going to stay open for the time being, too.
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May 15, 2018 17:25
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FirstAidKite posted:
Cat functioning as intended, no refund will be issued.
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May 15, 2018 17:48
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MisterFister posted:Man what is going on with ebooks? Think I'm just going to stop buying them and hit up the one good used book store still open or libraries again. Sick of paying 10 to 15 dollars per book, even when they are like 200 page basically novellas that I read in 2 hours. I'm also reading a 20 year old series and each one is like 12 bucks now. Wtf. In addition to the suggestions from Franchescanado above, there are sites like BookLending.com that coordinate loans of books on Kindle between individual users. I get most of my ebooks from the library, though.
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May 17, 2018 06:44
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One time i saw someone sharing ebooks on soulseek which was really funny to me
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May 17, 2018 07:43
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That could very easily have been me
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May 17, 2018 10:26
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I'm thinking of designing (another) bookplate. A lot of bookplates appear to feature the owner of the books naked for some reason... why is that?
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May 28, 2018 22:11
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Because much like you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, you shouldn't judge its owner by their clothes.
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May 28, 2018 22:15
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Professor Shark posted:I'm thinking of designing (another) bookplate. A lot of bookplates appear to feature the owner of the books naked for some reason... why is that? people who read a lot tend to be inveterate perverts
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Jun 1, 2018 22:13
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I've mostly noticed skulls in the ex librii I've seen.
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Jun 1, 2018 22:19
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I've seen a ton of exlibri and I had no idea they were supposed to be perverted until the above post. maybe 20 books in my collection has either a stamp or a paste-in, my great uncle had his own stamp, ive been digging through used book stores for decades... It seems if you google them, you might get a few from a erotic museum but most are like ravens and owls and statues and what not, but turning on the incognito gives you a strange amount of erotica for what would seem to be a benign search term Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Jun 1, 2018 |
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Jun 1, 2018 22:33
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Most of the bookplates I've seen have been cat- or astronomy-themed.
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Jun 2, 2018 03:15
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I keep meaning to get some medieval book curse book plates but I never get around to it. e.g., https://www.etsy.com/listing/126323750/book-plates-medieval-book-curses-set-of https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/protect-your-library-the-medieval-way-with-horrifying-book-curses quote:“For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand & rend him. Let him be struck with palsy & all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy, & let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, & when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him for ever.”
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Jun 2, 2018 03:54
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ToxicFrog posted:Most of the bookplates I've seen have been cat- or astronomy-themed. wow yeah lots of cats too now that i think about it
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Jun 2, 2018 13:33
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I've been reading a ton of 19th century scifi and fantasy works and a surprisingly large amounts of them seem to be "rich man uses the power of wealth and superior culture to triumph over adversity" Which is a little hard to digest as a current day working person. Am I supposed to idolize this Phileas Fogg guy? Who fired his servant for bringing shaving water 2 degrees (F) off the wrong temperature? Or Victor Frankenstein who just spontaneously decides to go on a trip to across Europe for something like 2 years and his father pays for it. After having spent 6 years at a prestigious school which his father also paid for. Or Pierre Aronnax who travels the world with his own personal man-servant. So dedicated to him that the servant often offers to sacrifice his own life to preserve the life of Pierre. Even Nemo is "man of infinite money buys everything" Pierre spends a lot of time in his collection marvelling at all the stuff Nemo bought. Was this "admire your betters" just a major theme back then? As opposed to "guillotine the rich" Katt fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Jun 3, 2018 |
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Jun 3, 2018 07:22
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Pyromaniac Ida posted:I've been reading a ton of 19th century scifi and fantasy works and a surprisingly large amounts of them seem to be "rich man uses the power of wealth and superior culture to triumph over adversity" The writers wrote what they knew. Mary Shelley’s parents were political radicals, but rich. Jules Verne was on track to become a top lawyer in France, the same as his father. Not too many working class people in the 19th century had the time and resources, even basic literacy, to start writing fiction. I guess having connections to have your works published was also a must. Even Dickens came from a solidly middle class family, although he was forced to work in a factory for a short period while his father was in debtors prison. However, even he had a carefree childhood during which he got to read the classics instead of working the mercury mines at the age of six or something similar.
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Jun 3, 2018 08:26
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