Horror fiction taking over my reading life, again

For whatever reason, I tend to read in cycles — moving from fiction to non-fiction in long sequences. I don’t know why. For most of my early twenties I was a fiction man all the way. Then at some point I switched over to nonfiction for a few years. Now I’m back to fiction and reading my favorite stuff — new horror fiction that’s actually worth reading.

A few months ago we listened to Stephen King’s Cell on CD and I thought it was one of the most horrifying books I’ve ever read (*is it really reading or no?). I expected it to be some lame “scary object does spooky stuff, connecting to a paralell world” type of story like From a Buick 8, but instead it was non-stop apocalyptic action.

I also listened to Dan Simmons The Terror on CD. Katie wasn’t a huge fan, but I loved it. The NY Times critic panned it for being too long and tedious, but I thought the pace was fine and the monster’s backstory was fantastic.

Now I’m reading The Historian, a book nerd vampire novel by Elizabeth Kostova. It’s actually making me think about traveling to Europe, which I haven’t wanted to do at all in the past few years. And the history, creep-factor and great writing make this a must read.

Halloween is over, and the un-dead have conceded their bid for the presidency, but Fall is still a great time to pick up some scary books.