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We braved the snow and cold to journey (in one of those fancy automobiles) to the library!

And it was worth it. I scoped out the libary book sale and snagged three or four good research books, and a Peter Straub novel. I've read his collaborations with King, so I'm curious about his solo work. And all of that was just two dollars! Then I checked out two King books I've been meaning to read but haven't had a chance to - Dreamcatcher and Bag of Bones. I know Dreamcatcher wanders off into bizarre-o land - or at least that's what I've been told - but I'm not above giving it a try. The only King novel I flat out refuse to read is Cell.

I read an excerpt and that was enough for me. While I do adore and admire (and all those other things) Stephen King as a brilliant man, I am not so blinded by adoration that I believe everything he writes to be the greatest in the world. The man has written some books which are, in my opinion, bad. Not many, but they're out there. Gerald's Game springs to mind....

Cell falls into that category as far as I'm concerned.

And I'm currently reading No Humans Involved, by Kelley Armstrong. I'd heard good things about her, or as good as I ever hear about supernatural romance. Not that I think the genre is bad, it's just the folks I usually talk shop with are not fans of the genre, and therefor don't often have much to say about it. Save snarky comments regarding Laurell K. Hamilton. But doesn't everyone have snarky comments regarding her these days?

Anyway, I'm enjoying Armstrong. Nothing's too graphic, the characters aren't ridiculously fleshed out or interesting, but they aren't just cardboard cutouts either. Side characters have back story and variation, and while there is a bit of purple prose and the heroine can come off as too-good-to-be-true (drop dead gorgeous ex-beauty queen who's now a TV star and a powerful necromancer), it's an engaging read. And the romance aspect takes a back seat to the paranormal mystery aspect, which I enjoy. I'd definitely be willing to give her other work a try.

In non-book related news, we borrowed a snow shovel so we can shovel the driveway, and hopefully go food shopping tomorrow. We're getting down there on supplies, and we ate the pizza we got yesterday.

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Y'know, I know Steph Meyer has a bad rep for the Twilight series, but you might check out The Host. I hear its really good.

I've skimmed through it, actually, as I did want to see what she could do away from the vampire romance genre. It's pretty much the same archetypal story, just with a sci-fi angle rather than paranormal. And she didn't bring anything new to the table with the sci-fi angle, unfortunately. It's like a cross between Twilight and Animorphs, essentially, and the writing style is exactly the same. So sadly, also a miss for me.

Ah, okay XD...ignore me then^^

Well, if you want an interesting cooky read, I would suggest The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes.

Hmm, I've never heard of that one. Who's it by? I'm always looking for new stuff to sink my teeth into!

Tis a compilation between Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart.

I'll add it to my list and see if the library has it! :D

Don't bother! I have it, I will send it to you. You can keep it or send it back when you're done^^

Try Haunted if you're looking for a good Kelley Armstrong :) The last two books haven't grabbed me as much as the earlier ones, although they're not bad - I just didn't click with the main characters. Then again, with KA, all the books are loosely interconnected. You can start with either Bitten, or Dimestore Magic, but after those two, there's connections between all the characters, so reading them in order helps, although the plot isn't directly continguous. You can read them alone, just like you can read NHI as a stand-alone, but it has more impact if you've seen Jaime develop from a uselessly pretty TV personality into someone who actually cares and wants to make a difference, and know Jeremy already. (Sorry. I can babble about KA's books for way too long . . .)

Also in the same genre is Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series . . . a bit less glossy a romance, although the last book of hers I read was definitely leaning in an LKHish direction.

I ended up with NHI at a book sale, where it was 5 books for 5 bucks, provided all five were under four dollars. I picked it up because I needed one more book, and it was only $3.49. I do think I'm going to see if the library has more, as they're good entertainment reads. I don't really mind reading them out of order - I'm not much a fan of the supernatural romance genre on a whole, but the ones along these lines I can see myself getting into. :D

You ever read a story called "The Moving Finger" by Stephen King? Was it good? I wrote a Star Wars story based on the "Monsters" episode based on that story (:D), but I've never read the story itself. I haven't had the chance to pick it up. I believe the book is called "Nightmares and Dreamscapes".

I think Graveyard Shift was better than the story it was based on. The movie was dry on character development, and the thing should have been a one-hour special for TV or an episode of Tales from the Darkside, but I liked the rat-bat more than the rats in King's book. That rats with no form and no eyes were intriguing, but it was stupid the way they kept going on down for no apparent reason. If you see that you're surrounded by mountains of rats, why are you going to keep following the lunatic leading you further? At least the rat-bat was clever, in that it got you were you least expected it.

That being said, Night Shift and Skeleton Crew were awesome. The X-Files episode he wrote was pretty goods too. People were in a hoopla about it being a possessed doll, but come on. Possessed dolls are creepy, and he did a nice job having Scully on her own while Mulder wasted time back at the office. :P I have The Shining on my storage closet, but I really have to get around to reading it (I have like 10 books I have to get around to reading. O_O).

I have read every short story King has ever written, save for what's in After Sunset. :D And that's just because I can't afford to buy a brand new hardcover book. Nightmares and Dreamscapes is one of my favorite short story collections, actually. Moving Finger is a highly entertaining short story - I confess I found a great deal of dark humor in it. It's quirkily morbid, which King does very well. I can't think of many stories in that collection that I didn't like, though.

I haven't caught that film, personally. I did enjoy the novella, personally, but I read it as a metaphor for descending into madness.

Have you picked up Everything's Eventual yet? There are some beautiful stories in that. And the short story version of 1408 is the only thing I've ever read that gave me some chills up the spine and got my blood going a bit! I actually jumped when the phone rang while reading it. :D The Shining's a classic. Definitely worth the read!

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