RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off) discussion

Hey guys,

It's October, time for some creepy-a** spooky books!!! This month’s genres are Horror and Paranormal.
Both the genres are similar so this month's going to be one hell of a scary one. As always, there are absolutely no limits. Read what you want to in the broader sense of the genres.

Here are the definitions for each genre:

Horror: Horror fiction is fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the audience. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of a supernatural element into everyday human experience. Since the 1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionally suspenseful or frightening theme has come to be called "horror". Horror fiction often overlaps science fiction or fantasy, all three of which categories are sometimes placed under the umbrella classification speculative fiction.

Paranormal: Paranormal books involve unusual experiences that lack a scientific explanation. Some popular subjects in paranormal books are supernatural creatures, ESP, clairvoyance, ghosts, UFOs, telepathy, and psychics.

Here's a quick summary of the levels:

Level 1: Casual Reader: 1 book (easy)
Level 2: Frequent Reader: 2 books (moderate)
Level 3: Bookworm: 3 books (mildly strenuous)
Level 4: Bibliophile: 4 books (strenuous)
Level 5: Bookiopath: 5 books or more (challenging)

Please feel free to announce your October to-read books along with the level you are targeting for.

All the very best and happy reading!

I'm so frigging excited for this month! I'm going to read Stephen King's books :D

Heena,

Which Stephen King books will you be reading? I have never read Carrie, and was thinking of reading it for the challenge.

@Cheryl I'll be reading The Shining, Dr. Sleep, Needful Things and Gerald's Game (at least I'll try to read all of them.) Have you read all of these?
I haven't read Carrie yet, and I don't even have it. But do let me know how it was when you're done with it.

@Dagny You have a gift to be able to find mysteries in all genres... hehe... :D
Hope you'll enjoy these reads and that you'll find some horrors too :)

Heena wrote: "@Cheryl I'll be reading The Shining, Dr. Sleep, Needful Things and Gerald's Game (at least I'll try to read all of them.) Have you read all of these?"

I have read The Shining (my favorite by the author) and Gerald's Game , but not the other 2. Enjoy your terrifying month of Stephen King! (No sleep for Heena this month, lol.)

Heena wrote: "@Dagny You have a gift to be able to find mysteries in all genres... hehe... :D
Hope you'll enjoy these reads and that you'll find some horrors too :)"

Dagny is the queen of mysteries, that's for sure!

Heena wrote: " I haven't read Carrie yet, and I don't even have it. But do let me know how it was when you're done with it.  "

Heena,
I read Carrie (earlier than scheduled) and wanted to post my review here, since you asked my opinion. Here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

@Cheryl - Haha... Yeah. No sleep this month for sure. I hope Netflix will have The Shining throughout October, I've watched it before, but it'll be fun to watch it right after reading the book!

And thanks for sharing the review of Carrie. :)

Cheryl wrote: "Dagny is the queen of mysteries, that's for sure!"

Yep, she is! And she has a tremendous amount of knowledge when it comes to Classics too.
Here, at RMFAO, we call her Professor Dagny :)

Dagny wrote: "I read The Shining years and years ago. There was one part which almost gave me nightmares - scary!"

Wow. What part was it? I watched the movie a while back and the twins and the butler scene really scared me...

I hope it's ok to start this book a few days early. It's an intralibrary loan, and I only have it for 2 weeks. Since I'll be reading the buddy read book, too (also a 2 week loaned book) I wanted to start this one right away.

The Hunger
This is also the October discussion book at another Goodreads group that I belong to.

I finished The Hunger, my first book for the Horror challenge. My review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My second horror book is The Jersey Devil It's a real B-movie, creature feature of a book.

Cheryl wrote: "My second horror book is The Jersey Devil It's a real B-movie, creature feature of a book."

Finished it. My review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Kind of cheesy, kind of exciting, pretty gruesome towards the end. Literary junk food, but sometimes that's what you want.

I don't know if this book is classified as horror or paranormal. The book flap calls it a ghost story, but it seems to be a mix of genres. The book is: The Night Strangers

Dagny wrote: "It was the maze which scared me! Totally creeped me out, lol. ."

Yeah, the maze scared me too... I'm so looking forward to reading it now.. hehe...

I started with Needful Things today. My first horror for this month :)

Heena wrote: "I started with Needful Things today. My first horror for this month :)"

I look forward to reading your review of this book. I never read it because the length of the book intimidated me. I hope you enjoy it!

Cheryl wrote: "I look forward to reading your review of this book. I never read it because the length of the book intimidated me. I hope you enjoy it! ..."

Thanks, Cheryl! I know what you mean and trust me it's starting to intimidate me too now. I barely noticed it before because it was kept on my shelf next to The Stand. Lol. It's literally half of The Stand.

Happy reading!

I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and a mystery in the background.

Andrew wrote: "I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and a mystery in the background."

I read that book many years ago and enjoyed it. I really need to read more books by McCammon. Perhaps people would like to do a buddy read of one of his books in the future?

Dagny wrote: "Andrew wrote: "I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and a mystery in th..."

The only book I read before this, was Swan Song, a wonderful story. I like this one because, even if set in the modern days, has all the dark atmosphere of a gothic novel.

Cheryl wrote: "Andrew wrote: "I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and a mystery in th..."

This is my second book by McCammon, but he is an author I like very much.
Finished this, I would like to read other novels by him. :)

Andrew wrote: "I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and ..."

Andrew,

Would you be interested in participating in a buddy read of McCammon's book Boy's Life? It wouldn't be scheduled until after January. We can see if Heena would set it up for discussions.

Andrew wrote: "I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and a mystery in the background."

This book sounds very interesting, Andrew! Hope you're enjoying it :)

Cheryl wrote: "I really need to read more books by McCammon. Perhaps people would like to do a buddy read of one of his books in the future?"

Great idea! I've never read anything by him yet, but reading everyone's comments I'm feeling like I'm really missing out on something big.
Please make a suggestion of 5-6 books by McCammon and we can have a poll set up to select 1 or 2 (or more) books for a nice buddy-read.
@Dagny and @Andrew - Your suggesttions will be greatly appreciated too! :)

Heena,

Will you be making a "McCammon Nominations" thread at the Buddy Reads folder for the nomintions? Maybe more people would see it there, if they aren't following this Genre Challenge thread.

Cheryl wrote: "Heena,

Will you be making a "McCammon Nominations" thread at the Buddy Reads folder for the nomintions? Maybe more people would see it there, if they aren't following this Genre Challenge thread."

That's a brilliant idea, Cheryl! I'll set up the thread right away. And while I'm at it, I'll put up a thread for the Stephen King Nominations thread too. Thanks for the idea!
I'll post the links here as soon as I set them up (in an hour or so.)

ATTENTION EVERYONE

I've just set up 2 Nomination threads for Buddy Reads for 2017 - one is for Robert McCammon and the other one is for Stephen King.
Following are the links:
‣ Robert McCammon Nominations (for March 2017): https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
‣ Stephen King Nominations (for April 2017): https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

For now, I've assigned March and April to each of these authors, but that can be changed if needed.

Also, I was thinking if we can have more buddy-reads planned for next year. It'll be fun and we all will get to enjoy reading some great authors together, so please feel free to name a few authors of your choice to have author buddy-reads for the remaining months of 2017.
We can discuss and pick 6-7 more authors :)

How exciting, Heena! I can't wait see wht people will nominate.

Cheryl wrote: "Andrew wrote: "I hadn't thought to read some horror, but I started Usher's Passing some days ago. A great horror, based on Poe's novel, with some incredible element and ..."

Andrew,

..."

This would be fantastic! I would be happy to read Boy's Life. It's a book I didn't know. :)

Andrew,
Here's a link to Mccammon's other books: https://www.goodreads.com/search?page...

If you see something else of his you'd like to nominate, post it at the Buddy-Reads folder Heena mentioned. You can vote for Boy's Life when she sets up the poll.

Cheryl wrote: "Andrew,
Here's a link to Mccammon's other books: https://www.goodreads.com/search?page...

If you see something else of his you'd like to nominate, post it at the Buddy-R..."

Ok, Cheryl!

My fourth book for the Horror Challenge is The Ballad of Black Tom . It's a retelling of H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Horror at Red Hook".

Cheryl wrote: "I don't know if this book is classified as horror or paranormal. The book flap calls it a ghost story, but it seems to be a mix of genres. The book is: The Night Strangers "

Finished it. Definitely horror. Three and a half stars. My review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Dagny wrote: " Did you read The Horror at Red Hook?"

Yes, I did before starting this book. Not my favorite of Lovecraft's stories, and a bit xenophobic. This book is written from the viewpoint of a black musician who lives there and his experiences with Robert Suydam. It's good, so far.

Dagny wrote: "Finished my first one for this month.
Ghost at Work
Definitely has to be paranormal. No real horror, more laughs with this newbie ghost down on Earth trying to save some innocent peo..."

This one sounds fun, Dagny!

Dagny wrote: "It is fun, Cheryl. Lots of laughter as she breaks all - or at least almost all - of the ghostly rules."

My library has this entire series! I will definitely check this out.

Cheryl wrote: "My fourth book for the Horror Challenge is The Ballad of Black Tom . It's a retelling of H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Horror at Red Hook"."

I finished it. A short book, but an interesting alternate take on Lovecraft's story. Three stars.

Wow... you guys are really killing it!

I've managed to read 1/4th of Needful Things and it is AMAZING! Tomorrow is Sunday and I'm planning on reading the entire day as I'm not able to put down this book (even to sleep) at all!!!

Happy reading everyone! Hope you guys are enjoying your spooky reads :D

Heena wrote: "I've managed to read 1/4th of Needful Things and it is AMAZING! Tomorrow is Sunday and I'm planning on reading the entire day as I'm not able to put down thi..."

So glad you are enjoying the book, Heena.

My first for the Paranormal Challenge. Thanks to Dagny's suggestion, I have started Ghost at Work . I've only read the first chapter, but it looks like alot of fun. I really like the main character, Bailey Ruth.

Cheryl wrote: "My first for the Paranormal Challenge. Thanks to Dagny's suggestion, I have started Ghost at Work ."

Finished it. A fun mystery: 3 stars.

My second book for the Paranormal Challenge: Fear the Dark

It's a mystery featuring an FBI Special Crimes Unit composed of psychic detectives.

Dagny wrote: "That sounds like it could be interesting, Cheryl."

It is, so far. This book was an impulse purchase from the drug store book rack. The mystery is pretty creepy - people disappearing from a small town, leaving no clues behind. It's like an X Files episode.

I'm finally done with Needful Things... finished it yesterday. It was Stephen-King-Awesome and I loved it! There was no way I could have finished a 930 pages book in 4 days... :D
The world building was perfect and I LOVED the crazy idea of a creepy store seling 'needful' things in exchange for souls...
It wasn't outright creepy, but it did manage to keep me restless at nights (3 to be exact.)

I'll be starting with Gerald's Game tomorrow :)

Dagny wrote: "Looks like you're having a Stephen King month, Heena!"

Hehe... yeah... Halloween Special King month ;)

Cheryl wrote: "My second book for the Paranormal Challenge: Fear the Dark "

Finished it. The first half was good, but the second half was disappointing. Two stars.

My fifth book for the Horror Challenge: Lord Of The Dead .