Sunday, December 31, 2017

2017 Reading List Monthly Update: December (Finale)

Books read in December of 2017:
-
“Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks” (Stephen Davis) 12-2-17
“The White Plague” (Frank Herbert) 12-5-17 *
“Monster Musume Volume 1” (Okayado) 12-9-17
“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Skyrim Library Vol.  1: The Histories” (Various) 12-9-17
“Mr. Bump” (Roger Hargreaves) 12-9-17 *
“The Pilgrim of the Absolute” (Léon Bloy) 12-15-17
“The Big-Headed People And Other Stories” (D.F. Lewis) 12-17-17
“The Drone Outside” (Kristine Ong Muslim) 12-17-17
“Shiver” (Junji Ito) 12-20-17
“The Account of David Stonehouse, Exile” (Daniel Mills) 12-20-17
“Dissolving Classroom” (Junji Ito) 12-21-17
“Calvin & Hobbes” (Bill Watterson) 12-22-17 *
-
2017 Reading List Total:
-
1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques" (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Star Wars: Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "Star Wars: The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
45. "The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
46. "Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
47. "The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
48. "History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
49. "My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
50. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *
51. "Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn) 8-2-17
52. "Visions: Stories and Photographs" (Leonid Andreyev) 8-5-17
53. "The Disintegrations" (Alistair McCartney) 8-12-17
54. "Timequake" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-17-17
55. "The Desire Line: Memory & Impermanence" (Sven Davisson) 8-19-17
56. "The Hasish-Eater" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8-22-17
57. "Fungi from Yuggoth: An Annotated Edition" (H.P. Lovecraft) 8-29-17
58. "Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings" (Carson McCullers) 9-2-17
59. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (Carson McCullers) 9-3-17
60. "The Real Story" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-6-17 *
61. "Unpleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-8-17
62. "Forbidden Knowledge" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-13-17 *
63. "Pleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-14-17
64. "Providence Act 3" (Alan Moore) 9-15-17
65. "A Dark and Hungry God Arises" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-21-17 *
66. "Chaos and Order" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-30-17 *
67. "Second Person" (Gabi Losoncy) 10-7-17
68. "Slabs from Paradise" (Jason Williamson) 10-7-17
69. "Creepshots" (Simon Morris) 10-8-17
70. "This Day All Gods Die" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 10-9-17 *
71. "Talisman Angelical" (Samantha Davies/Matthew Bower) 10-10-17
72. "Captagon" (Philip Best) 10-12-17
73. "District" (Tony Duvert) 10-13-17
74. "Odd Jobs" (Tony Duvert) 10-14-17
75. "The Dark Domain" (Stefan Grabinski) 10-19-17
76. "Out of the Deep and Other Supernatural Tales" (Walter De La Mere) 10-20-17
77. "Super Sons Volume 1: When I Grow Up" (Peter J. Tomasi) 10-20-17
78. "Born To The Dark" (Ramsey Campbell) 10-26-17
79. “The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions” (H.P. Lovecraft & Others) 11-6-17
80. “Special Friendships” (Roger Peyrefitte) 11-10-17
81. “Through The Looking-Glass” (Lewis Carroll) 11-12-17 *
82. “Seventh Decimate” (Stephen R. Donaldson) 11-19-17
83. “The Names” (Don DeLillo) 11-21-17
84. “Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks” (Stephen Davis) 12-2-17
85. “The White Plague” (Frank Herbert) 12-5-17 *
86. “Monster Musume Volume 1” (Okayado) 12-9-17
87. “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Skyrim Library Vol.  1: The Histories” (Various) 12-9-17
88. “Mr. Bump” (Roger Hargreaves) 12-9-17 *
89. “The Pilgrim of the Absolute” (Léon Bloy) 12-15-17
90. “The Big-Headed People And Other Stories” (D.F. Lewis) 12-17-17
91. “The Drone Outside” (Kristine Ong Muslim) 12-17-17
92. “Shiver” (Junji Ito) 12-20-17
93. “The Account of David Stonehouse, Exile” (Daniel Mills) 12-20-17
94. “Dissolving Classroom” (Junji Ito) 12-21-17
95. “Calvin & Hobbes” (Bill Watterson) 12-22-17 *

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"The Red Book (Liber Novus)" (C.G. Jung)
"Call Me By Your Name" (Andre Aciman)

Friday, December 22, 2017

Ten Year Reading Experiment Grand Finale Reading Total (2008-2017)

Seeing as I don't think I'll be finishing any more books this late in the year, I suppose I can go and post this now.
 
For most of my life, I’ve been a voracious reader. Yet when I started work as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble in February 2004, I found after awhile that I wasn’t reading nearly as many books as I used to (perhaps as a consequence of being surrounded by books all day). In 2006, I began posting at Dennis Cooper’s blogs, and making friends with various people on there, and one thing that impressed me about that crowd at that time was how well-read and erudite so many of the people there were at the time. Around that same point of time Dennis posted a list of his top 50 novels, which also impressed me… I decided I wanted to make such a list as well, but that I needed to read way more books first. So at the end of 2007, I made a plan: to try to read 50 books a year for a ten year span, so that after ten years I’d have around 500 books read. I decided the best way to go about doing this was to keep a list of all the books I read during the year. You know how the human mind works when it comes to keeping a list: it’s only natural to want to add to it.
 
Well, now that ten years have passed, I suppose I can post the fruit of my labors. As one can see, I did end up hitting at least 50 books a year (and in some cases far surpassing that) for ten years, so that I ended up with 812 books read (which amounts to an average of 81 books read a year). In truth, that number should be higher: for the first year, in 2008, I only kept track of fiction books, and it was not until 2009 that I began keeping track of non-fiction as well. There were some graphic novels I read that, for whatever reason, I neglected to mark down as well, and in 2016 I read 32 of Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury collections that also went unmarked (as I didn’t want the list to appear that cluttered). So, if you factor all that into account, a more accurate number would probably be close to 870 books read.
 
As one can see, they are listed by the order in which they were read, and classified by the book’s title, its writer/editor, and the date on which I finished reading it. An * mark following the date indicates that the book in question was a re-read. Also, don’t bother looking up info on anything by Tom or Andrew Champagne: those books are unpublished books written by my younger brothers.

2008 (total read= 56)

1. "The City and the Pillar" (Gore Vidal) (Jan. 3)
2. "Sway" (Zachary Lazar) (Jan. 9)
3. "Paradoxia" (Lydia Lunch) (Jan. 12)
4. "Eden Eden Eden" (Pierre Guyotat) (Jan. 23)
5. "The Maimed" (Hermann Ungar) (Jan. 25)
6. "Jack the Modernist" (Robert Gluck) (Jan. 25)
7. "The Stranger" (Albert Camus) (Jan. 26)
8. "Less Than Zero" (Bret Easton Ellis) (Jan. 30) *
9. "The Torture Garden" (Octave Mirbeau) (Jan. 31)
10. "Zombie" (Joyce Carol Oates) (Jan. 31)
11. "The Atrocity Exhibition" (J.G. Ballard) (Feb. 7)
12. "Play it as it Lays" (Joan Didion) (Feb. 10)
13. "The Blind Owl" (Sadegh Hedayat) (Feb. 10)
14. "La-Bas" (J.K. Huysmans) (Feb. 15) *
15. "Against Nature" (J.K. Huysmans) (Feb. 22)
16. "Moravagine" (Blaise Cendrars) (Feb. 29)
17. "Briefing for a Descent Into Hell" (Doris Lessing) (March 14)
18. "In a Glass Darkly" (Sheridan Le Fanu) (March 18)
19. "The Weaklings" (Dennis Cooper) (March 22)
20. "The Mage's Holiday" (Tom Champagne) (April)
21. "Invisible Cities" (Italo Calvino) (April 9)
22. "Exercises in Style" (Raymond Queneau) (April 17)
23. "The Wild Boys" (William S. Burroughs) (April 21) *
24. "Downstream" (J.K. Huysmans) (April 21)
25. "The Crying of Lot 49" (Thomas Pynchon) (April 27)
26. "The End of the World Book" (Alistair McCartney) (May 1)
27. "Foucault's Pendulum" (Umberto Eco) (May 8)
28. "Us Ones in Between" (Blair Mastbaum) (May 10)
29. "The Man Who Fought Alone" (Stephen R. Donaldson)(May 23) *
30. "Valis" (Philip K. Dick) (May 26) *
31. "Angels of Perversity" (Remy de Gourmont) (June 30)
32. "Monsieur de Phocas" (Jean Lorrain) (July 6)
33. "Inferno" (August Strindberg) (July 10)
34. "Soul Kitchen" (Poppy Z. Brite) (July 19)
35. "Monsieur Venus" (Rachilde) (July 20)
36. "A Haven" (J.K. Huysmans) (July 26)
37. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (Truman Capote) (July 30)
38. "Surfaces" (Thomas Moore) (Aug. 7)
39. "Bat-Wing" (Sax Rohmer) (Aug. 13)
40. "Convolvulus & Other Poems" (Kenneth Grant) (Aug. 14)
41. "Recollections of the Golden Triangle" (Alain Robbe-Grillet) (Aug. 18)
42. "Gamaliel/Dance, Doll, Dance!" (Kenneth Grant) (Aug. 23)
43. "The Other Child & Other Tales" (Kenneth Grant) (Aug. 27)
44. "Our Lady of the Flowers" (Jean Genet) (Sept. 3)
45. "The Street of Crocodiles" (Bruno Schulz) (Sept. 7)
46. "The Hearing Trumpet" (Leonora Carrington) (Sept. 10)
47. "En Route" (J.K. Huysmans) (Sept. 10)
48. "Some Kind of Love" (Jack Dickson) (Sept. 14)
49. "God Jr." (Dennis Cooper) (Sept. 21) *
50. "The Beetle" (Richard Marsh) (Sept. 22)
51. "Action Kylie" (Kevin Killian) (Oct. 20)
52. "Against the Light" (Kenneth Grant) (Nov. 5) *
53. "The Elementary Particles" (Michel Houellebecq) (Nov. 15)
54. "The Miracle of the Rose" (Jean Genet) (Nov. 22)
55. "Teatro Grottesco" (Thomas Ligotti) (Dec. 17)
56. "Grimscribe" (Thomas Ligotti) (Dec. 23)

2009 (total read=70)

1. "Songs of a Dead Dreamer" Thomas Ligotti (1/6/09)
2. "Gnosticism" Stephen Hoeller (1/9/09)
3. "Voudon Gnosis" David Beth (1/10/09)
4. "My Work is Not Yet Done" Thomas Ligotti (1/12/09)
5. "Hospital" Thomas Moore (1/23/09)
6. "Nausea" Jean-Paul Sartre (2/18/09)
7. "Kierkegaard for Beginners" Donald D. Palmer (2/20/09)
8. "Ariel: Restored Edition" Sylvia Plath (2/21/09)
9. "The Bell Jar" Sylvia Plath (2/23/09)
10. "Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" Various (3/12/09)
11. "The Mind Parasites" Colin Wilson (3/23/09)
12. "The Philosopher's Stone" Colin Wilson (4/2/09)
13. "The Magus" John Fowles (4/27/09)
14. "Snakewand/The Darker Stain" Kenneth Grant (5/2/09)
15. "Noctuary" Thomas Ligotti (5/8/09)
16. "Lovely Biscuits" Grant Morrison (5/21/09)
17. "Ugly Man" Dennis Cooper (5/23/09)
18. "The Space Vampires" Colin Wilson (5/30/09)
19. "Cities of the Red Night" William S. Burroughs (6/29/09) *
20. "Safe" Dennis Cooper (7/7/09)
21. "The Show That Smells" Derek McCormack (7/8/09)
22. "Count Magnus & Other Ghost Stories" M.R. James (7/11/09)
23. "The Burning Bombing of America" Kathy Acker (7/11/09)
24. "Great Expectations" Kathy Acker (7/18/09)
25. "Empire of the Senseless" Kathy Acker (7/19/09)
26. "Florida" Kathy Acker (7/22/09)
27. "The Place of Dead Roads" William S. Burroughs (7/27/09) *
28. "Blood and Guts in High School" Kathy Acker (8/1/09)
29. "Perdido Street Station" China Mieville (8/4/09)
30. "A Season in Hell/Illuminations" Arthur Rimbaud (8/5/09)
31. "The Shit of God" Diamanda Galas (8/6/09)
32. "Ficciones" Jorge Lois Borges (8/9/09)
33. "The Consumer" Michael Gira (8/17/09)
34. "Funeral Rites" Jean Genet (8/26/09)
35. "Inherent Vice" Thomas Pynchon (8/28/09)
36. "The Thief's Journal" Jean Genet (9/10/09)
37. "The Western Lands" William S. Burroughs (9/16/09)
38. "Magic & Mystery in Tibet" Alexandra David-Neel (9/18/09)
39. "The Gita: a New Translation of Sacred Hindu Scripture" Irina N. Gajjar (9/19/09)
40. "Official Book Club Selection" Kathy Griffin (9/23/09)
41. "Shy" Kevin Killian (9/30/09)
42. "Ether, God & Devil/Cosmic Superimposition" Wilhelm Reich (10/3/09)
43. "The Letters of Mina Harker" Dodie Bellamy (10/10/09)
44. "The Interior Castle" St. Teresa of Avila (10/20/09)
45. "Lost Souls" Poppy Z. Brite (10/29/09) *
46. "Marthe: The Story of a Whore" J.K. Huysmans (10/29/09)
47. "The Dhammapada" Buddha (10/29/09) *
48. "Downstream" J.K. Huysmans (10/31/09) *
49. "The Wall" Jean-Paul Sartre (11/2/09)
50. "The Plague" Albert Camus (11/6/09)
51. "The Flowers of Evil" Charles Baudelaire (11/10/09)
52. "The Informers" Bret Easton Ellis (11/14/09) *
53. "Cold Print" Ramsey Campbell (11/25/09)
54. "Against Nature" J.K. Huysmans (11/29/09) *
55. "The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis" Mark Gluth (12/4/09)
56. "In November We'll Burn" Andrew Champagne (12/10/09)
57. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Oscar Wilde (12/16/09)
58. "No Exit" Jean-Paul Sartre (12/25/09)
59.-70. “Death Note” Volumes 1-12 Tsugumi Ohba (Fall 2009)

2010 (total read=83)

1. "The Devil: Perceptions of Evil From Antiquity to Primitive Christianity" (Jeffrey Burton Russell) 1/1/10
2. "V." (Thomas Pynchon) 1/11/10
3. "Naked Lunch: The 50th Anniversary Edition" (William S. Burroughs) 1/16/10 *
4. "Hollywood Babylon" (Kenneth Anger) 1/19/10
5. "T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism" (Hakim Bey) 1/29/10
6. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll/Camille Rose Garcia) 2/1/10 *
7. "Impossible Princess" (Kevin Killian) 2/7/10
8. "Satan and the Early Christian Tradition" (Jeffrey Burton Russell) 2/19/10
9. "Child of God" (Cormac McCarthy) 2/23/10
10. "The Origin of Satan" (Elaine Pagels) 2/27/10
11. "The History of Hell" (Alice K. Turner) 3/2/10
12. "Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness of the West" (Cormac McCarthy) 3/13/10
13. "Good Girls Don't" (J.M. Cosentino) 3/14/10
14. "Tongues Tied to Anchors" (Laurence Wilhelm Lillvik) 3/20/10
15. "No Country for Old Men" (Cormac McCarthy) 3/22/10
16. "The Road" (Cormac McCarthy) 3/26/10
17. "Grimoire" (James Champagne) 3/30/10 *
18. "Despair" (Vladimir Nabokov) 4/7/10
19. "Invitation to a Beheading" (Vladimir Nabokov) 4/13/10
20. "Port of Saints" (William S. Burroughs) 4/18/10
21. "Maldoror" (Comte de Lautreamont) 4/23/10 *
22. "Turmoil in the Toybox" (Phil Phillips) 4/25/10
23. "Mere Christianity" (C.S. Lewis) 4/29/10
24. "The New Testament" (Various) 5/2/10
25. "The Abolition of Man" (C.S. Lewis) 5/3/10
26. "The Great Divorce" (C.S. Lewis) 5/9/10
27. "A Grief Observed" (C.S. Lewis) 5/10/10
28. "Lolita" (Vladimir Nabokov) 5/15/10
29. "The Screwtape Letters"/"Screwtape Proposes a Toast" (C.S. Lewis) 5/15/10
30. "Wittgenstein's Nephew" (Thomas Bernhard) 5/19/10
31. "Pnin" (Vladimir Nabokov) 5/20/10
32. "Death Sentence" (Maurice Blanchot) 5/22/10
33. "Less Than Zero" (Bret Easton Ellis) 5/26/10 *
34. "American Psycho" (Bret Easton Ellis) 6/3/10 *
35. "Psycho" (Robert Bloch) 6/4/10
36. "Moonchild" (Aleister Crowley) 6/12/10 *
37. "The Book of the Law" (Aleister Crowley) 6/13/10 *
38. "Imperial Bedrooms" (Bret Easton Ellis) 6/17/10
39. "Coma" (Pierre Guyotat) 6/22/10
40. "Pale Fire" (Vladimir Nabokov) 6/30/10
41. "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race" (Thomas Ligotti) 7/11/10
42. "Smothered in Hugs" (Dennis Cooper) 7/12/10
43. "Tao Te Ching" (Lao Tzu) 7/14/10
44. "Necronomicon" (Simon) 7/19/10 *
45. "The Naked Civil Servant" (Quentin Crisp) 7/20/10
46. "The Hellbound Heart" (Clive Barker) 7/24/10
47. "Books of Blood Volume I" (Clive Barker) 8/3/10
48. "Closer" (Dennis Cooper) 8/8/10 *
49. "Kwaidan: Japanese Ghost Stories" (Lafcadio Hearn) 8/8/10
50. "Bruges-la-Morte" (Georges Rodenbach) 8/10/10
51. "Frisk" (Dennis Cooper) 8/11/10 *
52. "Try" (Dennis Cooper) 8/15/10 *
53. "Guide" (Dennis Cooper) 8/19/10 *
54. "Period" (Dennis Cooper) 8/21/10 *
55. "Scorch Atlas" (Blake Butler) 8/22/10
56. "Crash" (J.G. Ballard) 8/29/10
57. "The Curse of the Blue Figurine" (John Bellairs) 9/7/10 *
58. "Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley: a Correspondence" (Aleister Crowley/David Curwen) 9/8/10
59. "American Campgrounds" (Philip Best) 9/9/10
60. "The Cathedral" (J.K. Huysmans) 9/25/10
61. "The Malady of Death" (Marguerite Duras) 9/25/10
62. "Recollections of the Golden Triangle" (Alain Robbe-Grillet) 9/25/10 *
63. "Imperial Bedrooms" (Bret Easton Ellis) 9/28/10 *
64. "At the Feet of the Guru" (Kenneth Grant) 10/2/10 *
65. "Hidden Lore" (Kenneth & Steffi Grant) 10/3/10
66. "Songs of a Dead Dreamer" (Thomas Ligotti) 10/5/10 *
67. "Obsessions" (Joseph Mills) 10/9/10 *
68. "Soluble Fish" (Andre Breton) 10/11/10
69. "The Upanishads" (translator: Eknath Easwaran) 10/12/10
70. "First Steps 2 Forever: My Story" (Justin Bieber) 10/15/10
71. "The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi" (Ramana Maharshi) 10/17/10
72. "Uncle Silas" (J.S. Le Fanu) 10/21/10
73. "Siddhartha" (Herman Hesse) 10/27/10
74. "Frankenstein" (Mary Shelley) 10/28/1
75. "ACT" (N.J. Rhoades) 11/7/10
76. "The Collector" (John Fowles) 11/8/10
77. "Dark Awakenings" (Matt Cardin) 11/19/10
78. "Communion" (Whitley Strieber) 11/20/10
79. "Close Range: Wyoming Stories" (Annie Proulx) 11/27/10
80. "The Problem of Pain" (C.S. Lewis) 11/28/10
81. "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman" (Angela Carter) 12/8/10
82. "The Man Who Was Thursday" (G.K. Chesterton) 12/10/10
83. "Dark Entries" (Robert Aickman) 12/30/10

2011 (total read= 77)

1. "Welcome to my World" (Johnny Weir) 1/12/11
2. "Cold Hand in Mine" (Robert Aickman) 1/14/11
3. "The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse" (Lonely Christopher) 1/20/11
4. "Illuminated Shadows" (James Champagne) 1/20/11 *
5. "Eat When You Feel Sad" (Zachary German) 1/23/11
6. "The Marble Index" (James Champagne) 1/25/11
7. "Brigit" (Andrew Champagne) 2/15/11
8. "Gravity's Rainbow" (Thomas Pynchon) 2/25/11
9. "Demons by Daylight" (Ramsey Campbell) 3/4/11
10. "Neuromancer" (William Gibson) 3/7/11 *
11. "Don Quixote" (Kathy Acker) 3/16/11
12. "Snow Crash" (Neal Stephenson) 3/31/11
13. "Shoplifting From American Apparel" (Tao Lin) 4/1/11
14. "Franny and Zooey" (J.D. Salinger) 4/7/11
15. "The Failure" (James Greer) 4/8/11
16. "The Gospel of Anarchy" (Justin Taylor) 4/16/11
17. "Dhalgren" (Samuel R. Delany) 4/21/11
18. "There Is No Year" (Blake Butler) 4/25/11
19. "Star Maker" (Olaf Stapledon) 5/1/11
20. "Death in Venice" (Thomas Mann) 5/3/11
21. "The Celestine Prophecy" (James Redfield) 5/9/11
22. "Selfish, Little: the Annotated Lesley Ann Downey" (Peter Sotos) 5/11/11 *
23. "The Quantity Theory of Insanity" (Will Self) 5/15/11
24. "Principia Discordia" (Malaclypse the Younger) 5/18/11 *
25. "Topology of a Phantom City" (Alain Robbe-Grillet) 5/21/11
26. "The Archaic Revival" (Terence McKenna) 5/23/11
27. "The Wasp Factory" (Iain Banks) 5/27/11
28. "Stories Toto Told Me" (Baron Corvo) 5/29/11
29. "The Oblate of St. Benedict" (J.K. Huysmans) 6/2/11
30. "Ubik" (Philip K. Dick) 6/8/11
31. "Ecpyrosis: The Best of Starfire Vol. I" (Various) 6/12/11
32. "Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts & Cults" (Jacques Vallee) 6/15/11
33. "Earth Inferno" (Austin Osman Spare) 6/18/11
34. "The Book of Satyrs" (Austin Osman Spare) 6/18/11
35. "A Scanner Darkly" (Philip K. Dick) 6/20/11
36. "Nineteen Seventy Four" (David Peace) 6/21/11
37."Nineteen Seventy Seven" (David Peace) 6/24/11
38. "Nineteen Eighty" (David Peace) 6/28/11
39. "Nineteen Eighty Three" (David Peace) 7/2/11
40. "Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception" (Frater Achad) 7/7/11
41. "Graves" (Thomas Moore) 7/9/11
42. "The Book of Lies" (Aleister Crowley) 7/13/11 *
43. "The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/14/11
44. "The Focus of Life" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/16/11
45. "Anathema of Zos" (Austin Osman Spare) 7/16/11
46. "Querelle" (Jean Genet) 7/19/11
47. "Myths of the Near Future" (J.G. Ballard) 7/29/11
48. "Empire Star/Babel-17" (Samuel R. Delany) 8/12/11
49. "The Waves" (Virginia Woolf) 8/19/11
50. "Lost Worlds" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8/26/11
51. "Grimscribe: His Lives & Works" (Thomas Ligotti) 8/28/11 *
52. "The Great Gatsby" (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 9/5/11
53. "The Remains of the Day" (Kazuo Ishiguro) 9/11/11
54. "Nova" (Samuel R. Delany) 9/12/11
55."Mrs. Dalloway" (Virginia Woolf) 9/20/11
56. "French Hole" (Dennis Cooper) 9/29/11
57. "Tropic of Cancer" (Henry Miller) 10/2/11
58. "The Age of Nothing" (James Champagne) 10/3/11
59. "Confessions of a Mask" (Yukio Mishima) 10/8/11
60. "Vineland" (Thomas Pynchon) 10/17/11
61. "Scared Stiff: Tales of Sex and Death" (Ramsey Campbell) 10/21/11
62. "Confessions of a Guidette" (Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi) 10/22/11
63. "The Marbled Swarm" (Dennis Cooper) 11/2/11
64. "Wormwood" (Poppy Z. Brite) 11/19/11 *
65. "The Haunting of Hill House" (Shirley Jackson) 11/24/11
66. "The Boy With Pink Hair" (Perez Hilton) 11/30/11
67. "The Recognitions" (William Gaddis) 12/1/11
68. "The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein" (Thomas Ligotti) 12/2/11
69. "The Turn of the Screw" (Henry James) 12/7/11
70. "Backwoods" (Natty Soltesz) 12/11/11
71. "Ghost Story" (Peter Straub) 12/11/11
72. "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (H.P. Lovecraft) 12/14/11
73. "ACT" (NJ Rhoades) 12/14/11 *
74. "The Face That Must Die" (Ramsey Campbell) 12/15/11
75. "Powers of Darkness" (Robert Aickman) 12/21/11
76. "Lady Gaga/Terry Richardson" (Lady Gaga/Terry Richardson) 12/30/11
77. "The Hill of Dreams" (Arthur Machen) 12/30/11

2012 (total read=55)

1. "In Youth is Pleasure" (Denton Welch) 1/26/12
2. "Grapefruit" (Yoko Ono) 2/2/12
3. "Sub Rosa" (Robert Aickman) 2/7/12
4. "Grimoire: uncorrected publisher's proofs" (James Champagne) 2/9/12 *
5. "Dark Companions" (Ramsey Campbell) 2/17/12
6. "The Inhabitant of the Lake & Other Unwelcome Tenants" (Ramsey Campbell) 2/17/12
7. "Goose of Hermogenes" (Ithell Colquhoun) 2/23/12
8. "Obsession" (Ramsey Campbell) 2/29/12
9. "Mason & Dixon" (Thomas Pynchon) 3/10/12
10. "The Crystal World" (J.G. Ballard) 3/24/12
11. "Finnegans Wake" (James Joyce) 4/14/12
12. "Dark Gods" (T.E.D. Klein) 4/22/12
13. "High-Rise" (J.G. Ballard) 4/28/12
14. "It" (Stephen King) 5/7/12
15. "Grimoire" (published version) (James Champagne) 5/20/12 *
16. "Grist to Whose Mill?" (Kenneth Grant) 5/29/12
17. "Sam's Port" (Andrew Champagne) 6/13/12
18. "Spreadeagle" (Kevin Killian) 6/19/12
19. "Tales of Horror and the Supernatural" (Arthur Machen) 6/25/12
20. "The Croning" (Laird Barron) 6/28/12
21. "Orthodoxy" (G.K. Chesterton) 7/6/12
22. "Lord Foul's Bane" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 7/16/12 *
23. "The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell" (Chris Colfer) 7/24/12
24. "The Ceremonies" (T.E.D. Klein) 7/30/12
25. "The Bloody Chamber" (Angela Carter) 8/4/12
26. "To The Lighthouse" (Virginia Woolf) 8/11/12
27. "The Magic Toyshop" (Angela Carter) 8/19/12
28. "Jhonn, Uttered Babylon" (David Michael Tibet) 8/21/12
29. "The Sky Went Red While He Was Inside" (Ken Baumann) 8/27/12
30. "Death Poems" (Thomas Ligotti) 8/27/12
31. "Orlando" (Virginia Woolf) 8/28/12
32. "Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction" (Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik) 8/31/12
33. "Venus in Furs: (Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch) 9/5/12
34. "Notes From Underground" (Fyodor Dostoevsky) 9/8/12
35. "Noctuary" (Thomas Ligotti) 9/20/12 *
36. "The Garden of Mercedes" (Tom Champagne) 9/24/12
37. "Drama" (Raina Teigemeier) 9/29/12
38. "The Magic Mountain" (Thomas Mann) 10/6/12
39. "All God's Angels, Beware!" (Quentin S. Crisp) 10/11/12
40. "The Dark" (Scott Bradley & Peter Giglio) 10/18/12
41. "Edwin Mullhouse" (Steven Millhauser) 10/27/12
42. "The Drowned World" (J.G. Ballard) 11/3/12
43. "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" (Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson) 11/13/12 *
44. "The Maids/Deathwatch" (Jean Genet) 11/16/12
45. "I Murder So That I May Come Back" (O.B. De Alessi) 11/16/12
46. "The Feast of St. Rosalie" (Poppy Z. Brite) 11/18/12
47. "The Story of the Eye" (Georges Bataille) 11/18/12 *
48. "Ghost of Chance" (William S. Burroughs) 11/18/12 *
49. "The Cat Inside" (William S. Burroughs) 11/18/12 *
50. "Love" (Angela Carter) 11/18/12
51. "The Drought" (J.G. Ballard) 11/22/12
52. "Masks of the Illuminati" (Robert Anton Wilson) 11/25/12
53. "The Verifiers" (Andrew Champagne) 11/30/12
54. "Howl and Other Poems" (Allen Ginsberg) 12/10/12
55. "Against The Day" (Thomas Pynchon) 12/25/12

2013 (total read=93)

1. "Omensetter's Luck" (William H. Gass) 1/5/13
2. "My Crazy Beautiful Life" (Ke$ha) 1/6/13
3. "Nightwood" (Djuna Barnes) 1/10/13
4. "A Lady of a Certain Rage" (AJ McKenna) 1/11/13
5. "Struck by Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal" (Chris Colfer) 1/12/13
6. "Infinite Jest" (David Foster Wallace) 1/22/13
7. "Snow Country" (Yasunari Kawabata) 1/26/13
8. "Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde" (Oscar Wilde) 2/1/13
9. "Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace" (D.T. Max) 2/2/13
10. "The Crying of Lot 49" (Thomas Pynchon) 2/18/13 *
11. "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (Joan Didion) 2/27/13
12. "Ancient Images" (Ramsey Campbell) 3/3/13
13. "The Brothers Karamazov" (Fyodor Dostoevsky) 3/6/13
14. "The White Album" (Joan Didion) 3/9/13
15. "The Catholic Imagination" (Andrew Greeley) 3/15/13
16. "Cat's Cradle" (Kurt Vonnegut) 3/20/13
17. "The Broom of the System" (David Foster Wallace) 3/26/13
18. "Midnight Sun" (Ramsey Campbell) 3/28/13
19. "Slaughterhouse-Five" (Kurt Vonnegut) 3/29/13
20. "Naughty Cherie!" (Joyce Carol Oates) 3/30/13
21. "Dark Reflections" (Samuel R. Delany) 4/2/13
22. "Bright Lights, Big City" (Jay McInerney) 4/5/13
23. "My Only One" (Tom Champagne) 4/5/13
24. "The Gun is Loaded" (Lydia Lunch) 4/8/13
25. "Moju: The Blind Beast" (Edogawa Rampo) 4/11/13
26. "Kappa" (Ryunosuke Akutagawa) 4/13/13
27. "No Longer Human" (Osamu Dazai) 4/19/13
28. "The Woman in the Dunes" (Kobo Abe) 4/19/13
29. "The Sound of Waves" (Yukio Mishima) 4/20/13
30. "Mawrdew Czgowchwz" (James McCourt) 4/25/13
31. "Four Quartets" (T.S. Eliot) 5/1/13
32. "Illuminations" (Arthur Rimbaud, Ashbery translation) 5/4/13
33. "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (Carson McCullers) 5/7/13
34. "The Wasteland and Other Poems" (T.S. Eliot) 5/8/13
35. "Psychology & Alchemy" (C.G. Jung) 5/9/13
36. "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (Carson McCullers) 5/9/13
37. "The Vatard Sisters" (J.K. Huysmans) 5/16/13
38. "Miss Lonelyhearts/The Day of the Locust" (Nathanael West) 5/16/13
39. "The Member of the Wedding" (Carson McCullers) 5/21/13
40. "The Trial" (Franz Kafka) 5/28/13
41. "Parisian Sketches" (J.K. Huysmans) 5/31/13
42. "Other Voices, Other Rooms" (Truman Capote) 6/3/13
43. "Cocaine Nights" (J.G. Ballard) 6/11/13
44. "A Game of Thrones" (George R.R. Martin) 6/19/13
45. "Demian" (Herman Hesse) 6/23/13
46. "Victory" (Joseph Conrad) 6/25/13
47. "The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons of the Dead" (Stephan A. Hoeller) 6/28/13
48. "Foam of the Daze" (Boris Vian) 7/16/13
49. "Death Poems" (Thomas Ligotti) 7/16/13 *
50. "Counting With Calico" (Phyllis Limbacher Tildes) 7/16/13 *
51. "Answer to Job" (C.G. Jung) 7/21/13
52. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (H.P. Lovecraft) 7/22/13 *
53. "The Dream Police" (Dennis Cooper) 7/22/13
54. "The Last Revelation of Gla'aki" (Ramsey Campbell) 7/28/13
55. "A Clash of Kings" (George R.R. Martin) 7/31/13
56. "Dubliners" (James Joyce) 8/7/13
57. "Wise Blood" (Flannery O'Connor) 8/12/13
58. "Dragon Age: The World of Thedas: Volume 1" (Various) 8/20/13
59. "Following an Angel" (Tom Champagne) 8/27/13
60. "L'Amour" (Marguerite Duras) 8/29/13
61. "Betrayal" (Harold Pinter) 8/30/13
62. "A Storm of Swords" (George R.R. Martin) 9/3/13
63. "Girl With Curious Hair" (David Foster Wallace) 9/5/13
64. "Project for a Revolution in New York" (Alain Robbe-Grillet) 9/8/13
65. "At Fear's Altar" (Richard Gavin) 9/13/13
66. "Dorian" (Will Self) 9/14/13
67. "My Loose Thread" (Dennis Cooper) 9/15/13 *
68. "Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories" (Craig Laurance Gidney) 9/18/13
69. "A Certain Kind of Light" (Thomas Moore) 9/25/13
70. "Bleeding Edge" (Thomas Pynchon) 9/28/13
71. "Mira Corpora" (Jeff Jackson) 9/29/13
72. "The Grimscribe's Puppets" (Various) 10/1/13
73. "Macbeth" (William Shakespeare) 10/10/13 *
74. "The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All & Other Stories" (Laird Barron) 10/14/13
75. "Divinations of the Deep" (Matt Cardin) 10/15/13
76. "Dracula" (Bram Stoker) 10/18/13
77. "Home" (Michael Salerno/Peter Sotos) 10/19/13
78. "The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales" (Mark Samuels) 10/22/13
79. "Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three" (Clive Barker) 10/26/13
80. "A Mind Forever Voyaging: A History of Storytelling in Video Games" (Dylan Holmes) 11/3/13
81. "Zenith" (Grant Morrison) 11/10/13
82. "Two Boys Kissing" (David Levithan) 11/11/13
83. "A Cat Compendium: The Worlds of Louis Wain" (Editor: Peter Haining) 11/12/13
84. "Audrey: The 60s" (David Willis & Stephen Schmidt) 11/12/13
85. "Lil Bub's Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet" (Mike Bridavsky) 11/12/13
86. "Madonna: Inspirations" (Kate Ward) 11/12/13
87. "Kenneth Grant- A Bibliography- from 1948" (Henrik Bogdan) 11/12/13
88. "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" (Edward Gorey) 11/12/13 *
89. "A Feast for Crows" (George R.R. Martin) 11/17/13
90. "Bedrooms Have Windows" (Kevin Killian) 11/24/13
91. "The Outsider" (Colin Wilson) 12/10/13
92. "A Dance With Dragons" (George R.R. Martin) 12/24/13
93. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (James Joyce) 12/25/13

2014 (total read= 84)

1. "Ulysses" (James Joyce) 1-17-14
2. "The Fall of the Towers" (Samuel R. Delany) 1-21-14
3. "The Weaklings (XL)" (Dennis Cooper) 1-22-14
4. "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion" (William Blake) 1-26-14
5. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (J.K. Rowling) 1-29-14
6. "Sparks-Tastic: Twenty-One Nights With Sparks in London" (Tosh Berman) 2-11-14
7. "Crime and Punishment" (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) 2-15-14
8. "Giovanni's Room" (James Baldwin) 2-16-14
9. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (J.K. Rowling) 2-28-13
10. "The Kreutzer Sonata" (Leo Tolstoy) 3-2-14
11. "The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories" (Saki) 3-7-14
12. "The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler & Other Strange Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-13-14
13. "Sing Omega" (David Tibet) 3-17-14
14. "The Third Policeman" (Flann O'Brien) 3-26-14
15. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (J.K. Rowling) 3-27-14
16. "Blue Nights" (Joan Didion) 3-30-14
17. "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again" (Andy Warhol) 4-4-14
18. "Clock Without Hands" (Carson McCullers) 4-5-14
19. "A Sentimental Novel" (Alain Robbe-Grillet) 4-9-14
20. "The King in Yellow" (Robert W. Chambers) 4-20-14
21. "Left Hand" (Paul Curran) 4-21-14
22. "Dialogues With Silence: Prayers & Drawings" (Thomas Merton) 4-23-14
23. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (J.K. Rowling) 4-25-14
24. "In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales" (Lord Dunsany) 4-28-14
25. "Paris Spleen" (Charles Baudelaire) 4-29-14
26. "The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe" (Edgar Allan Poe) 5-2-14
27. "The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies" (Clark Ashton Smith) 5-17-14
28. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (J.K. Rowling) 5-20-14
29. "Tweaky Village" (Kevin Killian) 5-25-14
30. "Mighty in Sorrow: A Tribute to David Tibet & Current 93" (Various) 5-26-14
31. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (J.K. Rowling) 5-30-14
32. "Our Man in Havana" (Graham Greene) 6-9-14
33. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (J.K. Rowling) 6-12-14
34. "Gone: Scrapbook 1980-1982" (Dennis Cooper) 6-17-14
35. "Wonder Boys" (Michael Chabon) 6-23-14
36. "'Remember You're a One-Ball!'" (Quentin S. Crisp) 6-26-14
37. "The Spectral Link" (Thomas Ligotti) 7-7-14
38. "Moby-Dick or The Whale" (Herman Melville) 7-8-14
39. "Born to Fear: Interviews With Thomas Ligotti" (Matt Cardin: Editor) 7-12-14
40. "The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories" (Bruno Schulz) 7-18-14
41. "The Pastel City" (M. John Harrison) 7-22-14
42. "The Secret of the Red Truck" (Kyler James) 7-24-14
43. "A Storm of Wings" (M. John Harrison) 7-28-14
44. "In Viriconium" (M. John Harrison) 7-30-14
45. "The City & The City" (China Mieville) 7-30-14
46. "Young God" (Katherine Faw Morris) 8-1-14
47. "Patriot Games" (Tom Clancy) 8-6-14 *
48. "Skeleton Costumes" (Thomas Moore) 8-11-14
49. "Kraken" (China Mieville) 8-17-14
50. "Viriconium Nights" (M. John Harrison) 8-18-14
51. "The Nameless" (Ramsey Campbell) 8-20-14
52. "The Face of Twilight" (Mark Samuels) 8-24-14
53. "Tom Daley: My Story" (Tom Daley) 8-24-14
54. "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" (Italo Calvino) 8-30-14
55. "The Hunt for Red October" (Tom Clancy) 9-6-14
56. "Two Serious Ladies" (Jane Bowles) 9-14-14
57. "Jesus' Son" (Denis Johnson) 9-16-14
58. "Kindred" (Octavia Butler) 9-20-14
59. "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" (Tom Clancy) 9-21-14
60. "Good Morning, Midnight" (Jean Rhys) 9-25-14
61. "Sesqua Valley & Other Haunts" (W.H. Pugmire) 9-28-14
62. "The Height of the Scream" (Ramsey Campbell) 9-30-14
63. "The White Hands and Other Weird Tales" (Mark Samuels) 10-3-14
64. "Skin Deep Magic" (Craig Laurance Gidney) 10-7-14
65. "Streisand: in the Camera Eye" (James Spada) 10-16-14
66. "No Other" (Mark Gluth) 10-24-14
67. "Orion's Candle" (Tom Champagne) 10-25-14
68. "The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft" (H.P. Lovecraft) 10-30-14
69. "Trouble on Triton" (Samuel R. Delany) 10-31-14
70. "Slime Dynamics" (Ben Woodard) 11-4-14
71. "Hey, Let's Make a Band! The Official 5SOS Book" (5 Seconds of Summer) 11-4-14
72. "On the Heights of Despair" (E.M. Cioran) 11-5-14
73. "The Peripheral" (William Gibson) 11-10-14
74. "The Plays of Oscar Wilde" (Oscar Wilde) 11-17-14
75. "300,000,000" (Blake Butler) 11-23-14
76. "Written in Darkness" (Mark Samuels) 11-28-14
77. "Umbrella" (Will Self) 11-29-14
78. "A Short History of Decay" (E.M. Cioran) 12-4-14
79. "More Pricks Than Kicks" (Samuel Beckett) 12-14-14
80. "Consumed" (David Cronenberg) 12-16-14
81. "Revival" (Stephen King) 12-19-14
82. "Phyl-Undhu- Abstract Horror- Exterminator" (Nick Land) 12-24-14
83. "Who Was Andy Warhol?" (Kristen Anderson) 12-25-14
84. "Waiting for Godot" (Samuel Beckett) 12-30-14

2015 (total read= 103)

1. "The New Gods" (E.M. Cioran) 1-4-15
2. "The Great Cat: Poems About Cats" (Edited by Emily Fragos) 1-6-15
3. "Les Misérables" (Victor Hugo) 1-12-15
4. "Enigma" (Peter Milligan) 1-13-15
5. "Murphy" (Samuel Beckett) 1-14-15
6. "Zac's Haunted House" (Dennis Cooper) 1-15-15
7. "Fashion in Impressionist Paris" (Debra N. Mancoff) 1-16-15
8. "Endgame & Act Without Words I" (Samuel Beckett) 1-17-15
9. "Là-Bas: A Journey into the Self" (J.K. Huysmans) 1-20-15 *
10. "Heart of Darkness" (Joseph Conrad) 1-23-15
11. "Dawn: Xenogenesis" (Octavia Butler) 1-24-15
12."Sky Saw" (Blake Butler) 1-28-15
13."Angels" (Denis Johnson) 1-28-15
14."Flutes in the Garden" (Chip Richards) 1-31-15
15. "The Temptation to Exist" (E.M. Cioran) 2-4-15
16. "The Sound and the Fury" (William Faulkner) 2-5-15
17. "Train Dreams" (Denis Johnson) 2-6-15
18. "Ice" (Anna Kavan) 2-9-15
19. "How It Is" (Samuel Beckett) 2-9-15
20. "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly" (Denis Johnson) 2-10-15
21. "The Annotated Sandman Volume One" (Neil Gaiman) 2-14-15
22. "Poor Things" (Alasdair Gray) 2-14-15
23. "The Trouble With Being Born" (E.M. Cioran) 2-17-15
24. "I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like" (Justin Isis) 2-19-15
25. "Nobody Move" (Denis Johnson) 2-21-15
26. "Angels in America" (Tony Kushner) 2-26-15
27. "The Goners" (Mark Gluth) 2-26-15
28. "The Annotated Sandman Volume Two" (Neil Gaiman) 2-26-15
29. "Girl in a Band" (Kim Gordon) 3-2-15
30. "The Annotated Sandman Volume 3" (Neil Gaiman) 3-7-15
31. "Concrete Island" (J.G. Ballard) 3-19-15
32. "Tree of Smoke" (Denis Johnson) 3-24-15
33. "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" (Alison Bechdel) 3-24-15
34. "Burnt Black Stars: a Collection of Weird Tales" (Simon Strantzas) 3-31-15
35. "The Seven Hearts of Abby Leah" (Andrew Champagne) 4-23-15
36. "The Filth: Deluxe Edition" (Grant Morrison) 4-30-15 *
37. "Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories" (Algernon Blackwood) 5-5-15
38. "Liber Null & Psychonaut: an Introduction to Chaos Magic" (Peter J. Carroll) 5-6-15 *
39. "Autopsy of an Eldritch City: Ten Tales of Strange and Unproductive Thinking" (James Champagne) 5-8-15
40. "Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction" (Ray Brassier) 5-15-15
41. "Selfish" (Kim Kardashian West) 5-16-15
42. "Hospice" (Gregory Howard) 5-20-15
43. "Extreme Metaphors: Selected Interviews With J.G. Ballard, 1967-2008" (J.G. Ballard) 5-25-15
44. "The Imago Sequence and Other Stories" (Laird Barron) 6-3-15
45. "Disagreeable Tales" (Léon Bloy) 6-5-15
46. "Silk" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 6-17-15
47. "Gyo" (Junji Ito) 6-18-15
48. "Fragments of Horror" (Junji Ito) 6-20-15
49. "Flowers of the Sea: Thirteen Stories and Two Novellas" (Reggie Oliver) 6-22-15
50. "The Void Ratio" (Shane Levane/Karolina Urbaniak) 6-22-15
51. "Joe the Barbarian" (Grant Morrison) 6-25-15
52. "The Batman Adventures Volume 1" (Kelley Puckett/Martin Pasko) 6-26-15 *
53. "Zone" (Mathias Énard) 6-28-15
54. "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (H.P. Lovecraft) 7-1-15
55. "The Laughing Monsters" (Denis Johnson) 7-2-15
56. "The Batman Adventures Volume 2" (Kelley Puckett) 7-7-15 *
57. "Defeated Dogs" (Quentin S. Crisp) 7-17-15
58. "The Silver Age: Black & White Photographs From Andy Warhol's Factory" (Billy Name) 7-18-15
59. "Running Wild" (J.G. Ballard) 7-24-15
60. "Religion and the Rebel" (Colin Wilson) 7-29-15
61. "Threshold" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 7-30-15
62. "Mummy Cat" (Marcus Ewert) 7-30-15
63. "Sphinx" (Anne Garréta) 8-6-15
64. "The Unlimited Dream Company" (J.G. Ballard) 8-6-15
65. "The Influence" (Ramsey Campbell) 8-11-15
66. "Annihilator" (Grant Morrison) 8-19-15
67. "Neonomicon" (Alan Moore) 8-19-15
68. "Hello America" (J.G. Ballard) 8-25-15
69. "Outer Dark" (Cormac McCarthy) 9-2-15
70. "The Red Tree" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 9-5-15
71. "The Name of the World" (Denis Johnson) 9-8-15
72. "Zac's Control Panel" (Dennis Cooper) 9-10-15
73. "The Wind from Nowhere" (J.G. Ballard) 9-13-15
74. "The Glass Cage" (Colin Wilson) 9-19-15
75. "Blood Lad Volume 1" (Yuuki Kodama) 9-20-15
76. "Low Red Moon" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 10-1-15
77. "Exquisite Corpse" (Poppy Z. Brite) 10-6-15 *
78. "Childhood" (Michael Salerno) 10-9-15
79. "Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe" (Thomas Ligotti) 10-21-15 *
80. "The Case Against Satan" (Ray Russell) 10-22-15
81. "Glyphotech and Other Macabre Processes" (Mark Samuels) 10-28-15
82. "Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu" (Junji Ito) 10-29-15
83. "Daughter of Hounds" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 11-1-15
84. "The Batman Adventures Vol. 3" (Kelley Puckett/Paul Dini) 11-4-15 *
85. "The Nectar of Nightmares" (Craig Laurance Gidney) 11-4-15
86. "The Multiversity" (Grant Morrison) 11-5-15
87. "The King's Justice: Two Novellas" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 11-10-15
88. "After the Flood" (Andrew Champagne) 11-22-15
89. "Murder of Angels" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 11-27-15
90. "Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy" (Graham Harman) 11-29-15
91. "Skeleton Costumes: Second Expanded Edition" (Thomas Moore) 12-1-15
92. "The Magical Revival" (Kenneth Grant) 12-5-15 *
93. "The Drowning Girl" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 12-8-15
94. "H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life" (Michel Houellebecq) 12-10-15
95. "Amphigorey" (Edward Gorey) 12-12-15 *
96. "Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God" (Kenneth Grant) 12-14-15 *
97. "All of my Fears are Shared with Strangers" (Thomas Moore) 12-17-15
98. "Blue on Blue" (Quentin S. Crisp) 12-20-15
99. "Red Dragon" (Thomas Harris) 12-21-15 *
100. "Cults of the Shadow" (Kenneth Grant) 12-22-15 *
101. "The Sandman: Overture" (Neil Gaiman) 12-26-15
102. "Welcome to the Arms Race" (Justin Isis) 12-30-15
103. "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror" (Thomas Ligotti) 12-30-15 *

2016 (total read= 96)

1. "Nightside of Eden" (Kenneth Grant) 1-8-16 *
2. "The Tears of Eros" (Georges Bataille) 1-8-16
3. "Theory of Religion" (Georges Bataille) 1-10-16
4. "Divorce Procedures for the Hairdressers of a Metallic and Inconstant Goddess" (Justin Isis) 1-16-16
5. "A Suite in Four Windows" (David Rix) 1-17-16
6. "Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan Vol. 1" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 1-19-16
7. "Outside the Circles of Time" (Kenneth Grant) 1-23-16 *
8. "Nightmares of an Ether-Drinker" (Jean Lorrain) 1-24-16
9. "Literature and Evil" (Georges Bataille) 1-28-16
10. "Hecate's Fountain" (Kenneth Grant) 1-30-16 *
11. "Outer Gateways" (Kenneth Grant) 2-5-16 *
12. "The Strange Dark One: Tales of Nyarlathotep" (W.H. Pugmire) 2-6-16
13. "The Einstein Intersection" (Samuel R. Delany) 2-10-16
14. "Lunar Park" (Bret Easton Ellis) 2-13-16 *
15. "A Cat, a Man, and Two Women" (Junichiro Tanizaki) 2-15-16
16. "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (Joan Lindsay) 2-22-16
17. "Age of Blight" (Kristine Ong Muslim) 2-25-16
18. "Consumer Guide" (Simon Morris) 3-3-16
19. "Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan Vol. 2" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-5-16
20. "The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs" (Cylin Busby) 3-9-16
21. "Libra" (Don DeLillo) 3-18-16
22. "England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground" (David Keenan) 3-20-16
23. "The Ballad of Black Tom" (Victor LaValle) 3-24-16
24. "Kylie Fashion" (Kylie Minogue/William Baker) 3-25-16
25. "Nameless" (Grant Morrison) 3-29-16
26. "Slow Learner" (Thomas Pynchon) 3-31-16
27. "Submission" (Michel Houellebecq) 4-2-16
28. "The Architect" (Brendan Connell) 4-6-16
29. "The Fur Person" (May Sarton) 4-9-16
30. "The Book of Thoth" (Aleister Crowley) 4-10-16
31. "Out of Space and Time" (Clark Ashton Smith) 4-12-16
32. "Wonder Woman Earth One" (Grant Morrison) 4-12-16
33. "The Shadow Tarot: Dancing With Demons" (Linda Falorio) 4-16-16
34. "Junky" (William S. Burroughs) 4-22-16 *
35. "The Sea of Blood" (Reggie Oliver) 4-23-16
36. "Maat Magick: A Guide to Self-Initiation" (Nema) 5-1-16
37. "The Counterfeiters" (André Gide) 5-5-16
38. "Providence: Act I" (Alan Moore) 5-8-16
39. "Queer" (William S. Burroughs) 5-9-16 *
40. "The Lure of Devouring Light" (Michael Griffin) 5-12-16
41. "Gone Fishing With Samy Rosenstock" (Toadhouse) 5-12-16
42. "September" (Quentin S. Crisp) 5-12-16
43. "Butterfly Dream" (Kristine Ong Muslim) 5-13-16
44. "Metrophilias" (Brendan Connell) 5-16-16
45. "Beyond the Mauve Zone" (Kenneth Grant) 5-20-16 *
46. "The Soul-Drinker and Other Decadent Fantasies" (Jean Lorrain) 5-27-16
47. "The Hurtin' Club" (Martin Bladh) 5-28-16
48. "A is for Alien" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 5-30-16
49. "Sweating Blood" (Léon Bloy) 6-5-16
50. "Valencia" (James Nulick) 6-8-16
51. "The Nameless Dark" (T.E. Grau) 6-16-16
52. "The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick" (Kyle Arnold) 6-16-16
53. "Marked to Die: A Tribute to Mark Samuels" (various/edited by Justin Isis) 6-22-16
54. "The Stars at Noon" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-16
55. "The Moons At Your Door" (David Tibet: editor) 7-5-16
56. "The Inhuman Condition" (Clive Barker) 7-15-16
57. "Dagon" (Fred Chappell) 7-18-16
58. "The Illearth War" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 7-21-16
59. "The Power That Preserves" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 8-5-16
60. "Monsieur De Phocas" (Jean Lorrain) 8-6-16
61. "The Jewels of Aptor" (Samuel R. Delany) 8-12-16
62. "The Birth of Tragedy" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 8-13-16
63. "Sylvan Dread: Tales of Pastoral Darkness" (Richard Gavin) 8-19-16
64. "Penetralia" (Gea Philes) 8-23-16
65. "Tales of Pain and Wonder" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 8-24-16
66. "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 8-29-16
67. "Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue" (The Marquis De Sade) 9-1-16
68. "Revenants: A Dream of New England" (Daniel Mills) 9-8-16
69. "Essays and Aphorisms" (Arthur Schopenhauer) 9-19-16
70. "Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials" (Reza Negarestani) 9-24-16
71. "Novi Sad" (Jeff Jackson) 9-27-16
72. "Philosophy in the Boudoir" (The Marquis De Sade) 9-29-16
73. "The Wonder Republic" (Tom Champagne) 10-2-16
74. "The Searching Dead" (Ramsey Campbell) 10-9-16
75. "Skipping to Armageddon: Current 93 & Friends" (Ruth Bayer) 10-11-16
76. "In Their Arms" (Thomas Moore) 10-15-16
77. "The Damnation Game" (Clive Barker) 10-22-16
78. "Beneath the Moors" (Brian Lumley) 10-22-16
79. "The Woman Who Was Poor" (Léon Bloy) 10-28-16
80. "The Voynich Manuscript" (edited by Raymond Clemens) 10-30-16
81. "New X-Men Ultimate Collection Volume 1" (Grant Morrison) 11-7-16
82. "Rule Dementia!" (Quentin S. Crisp) 11-9-16
83. "Against the Light: A Nightside Narrative" (Kenneth Grant) 11-19-16 *
84. "The Immoralist" (André Gide) 11-23-16
85. "Weaveworld" (Clive Barker) 11-27-16
86. "The Tarantula's Parlor and Other Unkind Tales" (Léon Bloy) 12-2-16
87. "They Don't Come Home Anymore" (T.E. Grau) 12-4-16
88. "New X-Men Ultimate Collection Volume 2" (Grant Morrison) 12-4-16
89. "The Magickal Record of Nema: An Initiatory Journal For Admittance To The Typhonian Order" (Nema) 12-7-16
90. "Alien Existence" (Philip Best) 12-8-16
91. "Fiskadoro" (Denis Johnson) 12-13-16
92. "New X-Men Ultimate Collection Volume 3" (Grant Morrison) 12-15-16
93. "Beyond Good and Evil" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 12-25-16
94. "The Wounded Land" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 12-26-16
95. "Klaus" (Grant Morrison) 12-27-16
96. "The Secret of Ventriloquism" (Jon Padgett) 12-29-16

(not included on the list but also read in 2016: the "Power Girl: Power Trip" graphic novel, Warren Ellis' "Injection" volume 1 & 2 graphic novels, all 4 volumes of Ales Kots' "Zero" graphic novel, and 32 "Doonesbury" collections: if these are taken into account, then I have technically read 135 books this year)

2017 (total read=95)

1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques" (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Star Wars: Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "Star Wars: The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
45. "The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
46. "Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
47. "The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
48. "History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
49. "My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
50. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *
51. "Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn) 8-2-17
52. "Visions: Stories and Photographs" (Leonid Andreyev) 8-5-17
53. "The Disintegrations" (Alistair McCartney) 8-12-17
54. "Timequake" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-17-17
55. "The Desire Line: Memory & Impermanence" (Sven Davisson) 8-19-17
56. "The Hasish-Eater" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8-22-17
57. "Fungi from Yuggoth: An Annotated Edition" (H.P. Lovecraft) 8-29-17
58. "Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings" (Carson McCullers) 9-2-17
59. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (Carson McCullers) 9-3-17
60. "The Real Story" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-6-17 *
61. "Unpleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-8-17
62. "Forbidden Knowledge" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-13-17 *
63. "Pleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-14-17
64. "Providence Act 3" (Alan Moore) 9-15-17
65. "A Dark and Hungry God Arises" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-21-17 *
66. "Chaos and Order" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-30-17 *
67. "Second Person" (Gabi Losoncy) 10-7-17
68. "Slabs from Paradise" (Jason Williamson) 10-7-17
69. "Creepshots" (Simon Morris) 10-8-17
70. "This Day All Gods Die" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 10-9-17 *
71. "Talisman Angelical" (Samantha Davies/Matthew Bower) 10-10-17
72. "Captagon" (Philip Best) 10-12-17
73. "District" (Tony Duvert) 10-13-17
74. "Odd Jobs" (Tony Duvert) 10-14-17
75. "The Dark Domain" (Stefan Grabinski) 10-19-17
76. "Out of the Deep and Other Supernatural Tales" (Walter De La Mere) 10-20-17
77. "Super Sons Volume 1: When I Grow Up" (Peter J. Tomasi) 10-20-17
78. "Born To The Dark" (Ramsey Campbell) 10-26-17
79. “The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions” (H.P. Lovecraft & Others) 11-6-17
80. “Special Friendships” (Roger Peyrefitte) 11-10-17
81. “Through The Looking-Glass” (Lewis Carroll) 11-12-17 *
82. “Seventh Decimate” (Stephen R. Donaldson) 11-19-17
83. “The Names” (Don DeLillo) 11-21-17
84. “Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks” (Stephen Davis) 12-2-17
85. “The White Plague” (Frank Herbert) 12-5-17 *
86. “Monster Musume Volume 1” (Okayado) 12-9-17
87. “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Skyrim Library Vol.  1: The Histories” (Various) 12-9-17
88. “Mr. Bump” (Roger Hargreaves) 12-9-17 *
89. “The Pilgrim of the Absolute” (Léon Bloy) 12-15-17
90. “The Big-Headed People And Other Stories” (D.F. Lewis) 12-17-17
91. “The Drone Outside” (Kristine Ong Muslim) 12-17-17
92. “Shiver” (Junji Ito) 12-20-17
93. “The Account of David Stonehouse, Exile” (Daniel Mills) 12-20-17
94. “Dissolving Classroom” (Junji Ito) 12-21-17
95. “Calvin & Hobbes” (Bill Watterson) 12-22-17 *

(Grand Total= 812)
94 of which are re-reads

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Top Ten Favorite H.P. Lovecraft Stories

Top Ten Favorite H.P. Lovecraft Stories (in no order):

The Picture in the House
The Outsider
The Festival
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman's Model
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Dunwich Horror

Honorable mentions:

The Cats of Ulthar
The Haunter of the Dark

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

2017 Reading List Monthly Update: October

Books read in October of 2017:
-
"Second Person" (Gabi Losoncy) 10-7-17
"Slabs from Paradise" (Jason Williamson) 10-7-17
"Creepshots" (Simon Morris) 10-8-17
"This Day All Gods Die" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 10-9-17 *
"Talisman Angelical" (Samantha Davies/Matthew Bower) 10-10-17
"Captagon" (Philip Best) 10-12-17
"District" (Tony Duvert) 10-13-17
"Odd Jobs" (Tony Duvert) 10-14-17
"The Dark Domain" (Stefan Grabinski) 10-19-17
"Out of the Deep and Other Supernatural Tales" (Walter De La Mere) 10-20-17
"Super Sons Volume 1: When I Grow Up" (Peter J. Tomasi) 10-20-17
"Born To The Dark" (Ramsey Campbell) 10-26-17
-
2017 Reading List Total:
-
1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques"  (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Star Wars: Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "Star Wars: The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
45. "The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
46. "Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
47. "The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
48. "History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
49. "My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
50. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *
51. "Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn) 8-2-17
52. "Visions: Stories and Photographs" (Leonid Andreyev) 8-5-17
53. "The Disintegrations" (Alistair McCartney) 8-12-17
54. "Timequake" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-17-17
55. "The Desire Line: Memory & Impermanence" (Sven Davisson) 8-19-17
56. "The Hasish-Eater" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8-22-17
57. "Fungi from Yuggoth: An Annotated Edition" (H.P. Lovecraft) 8-29-17
58. "Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings" (Carson McCullers) 9-2-17
59. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (Carson McCullers) 9-3-17
60. "The Real Story" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-6-17 *
61. "Unpleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-8-17
62. "Forbidden Knowledge" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-13-17 *
63. "Pleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-14-17
64. "Providence Act 3" (Alan Moore) 9-15-17
65. "A Dark and Hungry God Arises" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-21-17 *
66. "Chaos and Order" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-30-17 *
67. "Second Person" (Gabi Losoncy) 10-7-17
68. "Slabs from Paradise" (Jason Williamson) 10-7-17
69. "Creepshots" (Simon Morris) 10-8-17
70. "This Day All Gods Die" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 10-9-17 *
71. "Talisman Angelical" (Samantha Davies/Matthew Bower) 10-10-17
72. "Captagon" (Philip Best) 10-12-17
73. "District" (Tony Duvert) 10-13-17
74. "Odd Jobs" (Tony Duvert) 10-14-17
75. "The Dark Domain" (Stefan Grabinski) 10-19-17
76. "Out of the Deep and Other Supernatural Tales" (Walter De La Mere) 10-20-17
77. "Super Sons Volume 1: When I Grow Up" (Peter J. Tomasi) 10-20-17
78. "Born To The Dark" (Ramsey Campbell) 10-26-17

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions" (H.P. Lovecraft and others)
"Special Friendships" (Roger Peyrefitte)

Sunday, October 1, 2017

2017 Reading List Monthly Update: September

Books read in September of 2017:
-
"Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings" (Carson McCullers) 9-2-17
"The Ballad of the Sad Café" (Carson McCullers) 9-3-17
"The Real Story" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-6-17 *
"Unpleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-8-17
"Forbidden Knowledge" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-13-17 *
"Pleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-14-17
"Providence Act 3" (Alan Moore) 9-15-17
"A Dark and Hungry God Arises" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-21-17 *
"Chaos and Order" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-30-17 *
-
2017 Reading List Total:
-
1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques"  (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Star Wars: Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "Star Wars: The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
45. "The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
46. "Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
47. "The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
48. "History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
49. "My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
50. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *
51. "Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn) 8-2-17
52. "Visions: Stories and Photographs" (Leonid Andreyev) 8-5-17
53. "The Disintegrations" (Alistair McCartney) 8-12-17
54. "Timequake" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-17-17
55. "The Desire Line: Memory & Impermanence" (Sven Davisson) 8-19-17
56. "The Hasish-Eater" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8-22-17
57. "Fungi from Yuggoth: An Annotated Edition" (H.P. Lovecraft) 8-29-17
58. "Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings" (Carson McCullers) 9-2-17
59. "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (Carson McCullers) 9-3-17
60. "The Real Story" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-6-17 *
61. "Unpleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-8-17
62. "Forbidden Knowledge" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-13-17 *
63. "Pleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell) 9-14-17
64. "Providence Act 3" (Alan Moore) 9-15-17
65. "A Dark and Hungry God Arises" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-21-17 *
66. "Chaos and Order" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 9-30-17 *

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"This Day All Gods Die" (Stephen R. Donaldson)

Thursday, August 31, 2017

2017 Reading List Monthly Update: August

Books read in August of 2017:
-
"Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn) 8-2-17
"Visions: Stories and Photographs" (Leonid Andreyev) 8-5-17
"The Disintegrations" (Alistair McCartney) 8-12-17
"Timequake" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-17-17
"The Desire Line: Memory & Impermanence" (Sven Davisson) 8-19-17
"The Hasish-Eater" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8-22-17
"Fungi from Yuggoth: An Annotated Edition" (H.P. Lovecraft) 8-29-17
-
2017 Reading List Total:
-
1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques"  (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Star Wars: Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "Star Wars: The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
45. "The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
46. "Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
47. "The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
48. "History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
49. "My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
50. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *
51. "Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn) 8-2-17
52. "Visions: Stories and Photographs" (Leonid Andreyev) 8-5-17
53. "The Disintegrations" (Alistair McCartney) 8-12-17
54. "Timequake" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-17-17
55. "The Desire Line: Memory & Impermanence" (Sven Davisson) 8-19-17
56. "The Hasish-Eater" (Clark Ashton Smith) 8-22-17
57. "Fungi from Yuggoth: An Annotated Edition" (H.P. Lovecraft) 8-29-17

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings" (Carson McCullers)
"Unpleasant Tales" (Brendan Connell)

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

2017 Reading List Monthly Update: July

Books read in July of 2017:
-
"The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
"Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
"The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
"History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
"My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *
-
2017 Reading List Total:
-
1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques"  (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Star Wars: Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "Star Wars: The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
45. "The Red Laugh" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-6-17
46. "Star Wars: Specter of the Past" (Timothy Zahn) 7-13-17
47. "The Little Angel" (Leonid Andreyev) 7-14-17
48. "History and Utopia" (E.M. Cioran) 7-19-17
49. "My Education: A Book of Dreams" (William S. Burroughs) 7-26-17
50. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll) 7-28-17 *

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"Star Wars: Vision of the Future" (Timothy Zahn)
"Visions" (Leonid Andreyev)

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Goal of reading at least 50 books a year for ten years= complete


Just now I finished my re-read of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which is a book I like to re-read every few years or so, as it was one of the first books I ever read when I was a child... probably when I was 6 years of age. It was the 50th book I've read this year. When I started keeping reading lists (back in 2008), I had a goal of reading at least 50 books a year, for ten years. So, I can now claim to have completed that goal. I have failed at so many other things in life, but at least this is something I managed to complete!

Monday, July 3, 2017

Favorite Bands/Top Ten Albums


Top Thirty Bands/Musical Acts
--------------------------------------

First Tier: 1-10 (in no order, save for the first two)
------------------------------------------------------------

Siouxsie & the Banshees (tied for first)
Nine Inch Nails (tied for first)
Current 93
Throbbing Gristle
Coil
Whitehouse
Madonna
Lady Gaga
Suzanne Vega
Fleetwood Mac

Second Tier: 11-20 (again, in no order)
-----------------------------------------------

Depeche Mode
Dead Can Dance
Joy Division
Manic Street Preachers
Nico
The Velvet Underground
Bauhaus
Ministry
David Bowie
Consumer Electronics

Third Tier: 21-30 (yet again, in no order)
-------------------------------------------------

Cut Hands
Genesis
Kylie Minogue
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Skinny Puppy
Sting/The Police
Talking Heads
Sonic Youth
Pink Floyd
Keane

Top Ten Favorite Albums (in no order)
-----------------------------------------------

A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (Siouxsie & the Banshees) 1982
The Downward Spiral (Nine Inch Nails) 1994
The Marble Index (Nico) 1968
The Holy Bible (Manic Street Preachers) 1994
Imperium (Current 93) 1987
Horse Rotorvator (Coil) 1986
Tusk (Fleetwood Mac) 1979
Days of Open Hand (Suzanne Vega) 1990
Dead Can Dance (Dead Can Dance) 1984
Like a Virgin (Madonna) 1984

Saturday, July 1, 2017

2017 Reading List Monthly Update: June

Books read in June of 2017:
-
"CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
"Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
"France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
"Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
"This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
"Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
"Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
"Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
"Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17
-
2017 Reading List Total:
-
1. "Strange Eons" (Robert Bloch) 1-3-17
2. "Les Diaboliques"  (Barbey D'Aurevilly) 1-4-17
3. "Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 1-7-17
4. "Heir to the Empire" (Timothy Zahn) 1-21-17 *
5. "The One Tree" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 1-24-17
6. "Peru" (Gordon Lish) 1-24-17
7. "Monsieur de Bougrelon" (Jean Lorrain) 1-26-17
8. "A Pilgrim Stranger" (Mark Samuels) 1-27-17
9. "Dark Force Rising" (Timothy Zahn) 2-6-17 *
10. "White Gold Wielder" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 2-9-17
11. "Ontological Graffiti" (Michael P. Bertiaux) 2-19-17
12. "In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1" (Samuel R. Delany) 3-2-17
13. "Forbidden Colors" (Yukio Mishima) 3-4-17
14. "Agents of Dreamland" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 3-4-17
15. "October" (Quentin S. Crisp) 3-8-17
16. "The Last Command" (Timothy Zahn) 3-14-17 *
17. "The Secret Glory" (Arthur Machen) 3-15-17
18. "All Gall is Divided: The Aphorisms of a Legendary Iconoclast" (E.M. Cioran) 3-16-17
19. "Holidays From Hell: Fourteen Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 3-29-17
20. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" (Robert E. Howard) 3-31-17
21. "Kiddiepunk Collected 2011-2015" (Editor: Michael Salerno) 4-1-17
22. "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" (Louis Sachar) 4-5-17 *
23. "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" (Leonora Carrington) 4-6-17
24. "A Cat Named Swan" (Holly Hobbie) 4-7-17
25. "Ecce Homo" (Friedrich Nietzsche) 4-9-17
26. "The Night Land" (William Hope Hodgson) 4-16-17
27. "Stranger Than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer) 4-21-17
28. "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (Caitlín R. Kiernan) 4-28-17
29. "Tropic of Capricorn" (Henry Miller) 5-3-17
30. "The Autobiography of Arthur Machen: Far Off Things/Things Near & Far" (Arthur Machen) 5-6-17
31. "The Cutest Girl in Class" (Quentin S. Crisp/Justin Isis/Brendan Connell) 5-11-17
32. "Down Below" (Leonora Carrington) 5-13-17
33. "Art Sex Music" (Cosey Fanni Tutti) 5-17-17
34. "Moriah" (Daniel Mills) 5-20-17
35. "Sarabande" (Andrew Champagne) 5-29-17
36. "CCRU Writings 1997-2003" (Various/Nick Land) 6-2-17
37. "Masks in the Tapestry" (Jean Lorrain) 6-6-17
38. "France: Fin de Siècle" (Eugen Weber) 6-8-17
39. "Doom Patrol Volume 1: Brick by Brick" (Gerard Way) 6-11-17
40. "This Is Memorial Device" (David Keenan) 6-16-17
41. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" (C.G. Jung) 6-19-17
42. "Tony Greene Era" (Kevin Killian) 6-20-17
43. "Providence Act 2" (Alan Moore) 6-22-17
44. "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" (Denis Johnson) 6-29-17

 *= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

My Top Ten Films

(arranged in no real order)

A Clockwork Orange (1971) Director: Stanley Kubrick
I'm aware that 2001 is probably the better and more groundbreaking film (and indeed, it is a masterful film), but A Clockwork Orange was the first Kubrick movie I ever saw (I think it was back in 1998 or so that I first saw it), and thus I feel more nostalgic towards it. It's certainly a much funnier film, though. Probably one of the rare cases where the film is better than the book (see also Fight Club, possibly Psycho and No Country for Old Men). It has a lot of classic and memorable scenes, an iconic Malcolm McDowell performance, and the costumes, set design, and art direction are simply incredible. I really love its depiction of a near-futuristic dystopian England, and unlike many science fiction films of that era it doesn't seem that dated to me, perhaps because it doesn't focus too much on technology: it just has a lurid, surreal, dreamlike vibe that I dig. But one of the main reasons why I rank this film so highly is because I really love the music in it (this will be a common theme for many of the films in my top ten), in particular Wendy Carlos' Moog synthesizer compositions of various classical pieces (though some of her work on there is original as well: see for example "Timesteps," that monolith of early experimental electronic music, though sadly only a small portion of it appears in the actual film). It's no surprise that a lot of the original pioneering synthpop bands were very fond of this movie.
 
Barton Fink (1991) Director: Ethan & Joel Coen
Sometime in the late 1990's, shortly after I began getting into the work of Quentin Tarantino, I became very interested in the whole indie movie craze sweeping through Hollywood at the time (and let's face it, the 90's were a great decade for indie films), and I began seeking out other indie directors, eventually discovering the work of the Coen Brothers. I first saw this movie in the spring of 1998, and it was the 3rd Coen Brothers film I ever saw: since then, I have seen it many times (in fact, I have whole portions of the film's dialogue committed to memory). I rank it in the top 3 of the films of theirs that I've seen, with Miller's Crossing a close second. Maybe because it revolves around the angst of writing and the life of the mind or something. After doing 3 films in a row dealing with crime and criminals, here the focus was more on the horror atmosphere the brothers first mined with Blood Simple (though again, there are some crime aspects at work), and this is also their first film to focus on Jewish themes to some extent. For a film set in Hollywood (and I must say it does a very good job evoking a sense of time and place), the film has a creepy and squalid Eastern European art-house vibe that calls to mine Kafka (though Joel Coen has denied him as an influence), alongside films such as The Shining, Eraserhead, and Polanski's Repulsion. Although all of the acting performances are great (especially John Goodman... also, John Mahoney does a funny impersonation of William Faulkner), the real star of the film is the fictitious Hotel Earle that serves as the movie's principal setting. Designed by Dennis Gassner (who was also the production designer of Miller's Crossing), the Hotel Earle is a very evocative place, with its endless hallways, malevolent mosquitoes, decaying décor, peeling wallpaper, and eerie sound effects. Although the film has some very funny scenes and dialogue, it's more interested in creating a dream-like, symbolic-laden sense of surrealism: oddly enough, the back cover of the DVD edition I own of the film makes it sound more like a zany comedy!
 
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) Director: Mary Harron
Another film I saw in the spring of 1998, at the height of my obsession with 90's indie films. I first read about this film in Entertainment Weekly's 1997 yearbook, where it was picked as one of the 20 best films of the year. The review hyped up (among other things) "Harron's re-creation of the Warhol Factory," which made me very curious as I had never heard about the Factory at that point: indeed, I knew very little about Warhol himself, aside from the fact he did all those Campbell's Soup can paintings. So in some ways watching the film proved to be a very eye-opening experience.
At the time in which I first saw this film I was somewhat interested in feminist politics and found the story of Valerie Solanas to be of interest: I even purchased and read her SCUM Manifesto shortly after seeing the film. I don't think all that much of her anymore, but I can thank this film for getting me obsessed with the whole 1960's NYC Warhol Silver Factory scene (to say nothing of Warhol and his art in general). Speaking of which, though I've seen many actors portray Warhol over the years, I can say that Jared Harris, by far, is the best one to portray him. There's a lot of great period detail to make you feel like you're right there in 1960's NYC, and the recreation of the Silver Factory, as EW noted, is very spot-on (it probably helped that Billy Name provided some assistance to the film). Also of note is the soundtrack, which combines period music of the era with trendy 90's indie bands (such as Luna, Wilco, Pavement, Bettie Serveert and Yo La Tengo) doing covers of songs from that same period (in fact, Yo la Tengo makes an uncredited appearance in the film as the Velvet Underground). It's just a shame they couldn't get the rights to any actual VU music.
 
Reality Bites (1994) Director: Ben Stiller
I first saw this film in the spring of 1998 (noticing a trend now?). Shortly beforehand I had seen the film The Truth About Cats and Dogs (a delightful romantic comedy, highly recommended) and had fallen in love with Janeane Garofalo, and I wanted to see another one of her films. I had also just finished writing a novel ("Arthouse") where I envisioned the main character looking like Winona Ryder, so I wanted to see one of her films as well. With Reality Bites, I figured I could kill the proverbial two birds with one stone. In any case, it was this film that led to my becoming a big Winona Ryder fan.
I don't suppose that you could call this in any way a "cool" or "hip" movie (in fact many of my hipper alternative friends see it as the epitome of lame), yet there's something about it that I really like that I have trouble putting my finger on (aside of course from Ryder and Garofalo). It really screams "The 90's/Generation X" I guess, and there's something comforting about watching these young people agonize over what we would now think of as trivialities: here things like 9-11 and terrorism in general seem very far away. In my mind it seems to make a nice, more realistic companion piece to the Ben Stiller Show, partly because Stiller is the director here and it uses most of the main cast of that show (only Bob Odenkirk is MIA), and partly because I first saw the Ben Stiller Show that very summer, a mere few months after first seeing "Reality Bites." There are some funny scenes, and I really like a lot of the Houston landmarks that appear in the film (I also quite like the art design of the main characters' apartment). Soundtrack IS pretty lame, though, with a few exceptions.
 
Seven (1995) Director: David Fincher
I first saw this film sometime in the late winter/early spring of 1999, 1999 being the year in my life in which I was most fixated on the subject of serial killers, especially fictional treatments on the subject (give me a break, I was only 18/19). I seem to recall that I was reading The Silence of the Lambs around the same time as I saw this film, and read Red Dragon not too long afterwards. In any event, I think I can claim that Seven (or, if you prefer, Se7en) is by far my favorite serial killer movie. The concept of the film (a serial killer whose crimes are inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins) is pretty slick, and for a big budget mainstream Hollywood film there's something oddly uncompromising about its commitment to its downbeat pessimism and its constant sense of gloom (reflected both in the aural rot of the film's sound design and also the macabre visuals and rain-drenched sets). I also enjoyed its literary references (with nods to Dante, Chaucer and John Milton, among others) and its sly allusions to various visual artists (the stack of identical cans of spaghetti sauce found in the closet of the victim of Gluttony calls to mind Andy Warhol, for example).
One of my favorite things about the film is the experimental montage that serves as the title sequence, the music for this montage being Coil doing a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer." I had never heard music like that before, and found myself obsessed with it: so I can thank this film for not only getting me into Nine Inch Nails and Coil, but also industrial music in general. Now that I think about it, I believe that Gravity Kills was on the soundtrack as well, and the Bowie song that appears during the end credits is from his Outside period (thus, that short-lived span of time that saw him flirting with the industrial rock genre).
 
Ghost World (2001) Director: Terry Zwigoff
I forget when it exactly was that I first saw this movie... probably around the same time I began exploring the work of Dan Clowes, but I forget when exactly that was as well... 2003 perhaps (I seem to recall it was around the same time I first started reading Alan Moore, so probably the summer of 2003). Ghost World is an odd film for me, in that I always hype it up and rank it quite highly, while always forgetting just why it is I do so... until, that is, I watch it again and I'm reminded why! I know Thora Birch was pretty big at that point (she was also in American Beauty a few years previous... whatever happened with her career, anyway?) and she's very good here, but her performance is somewhat overshadowed by Steve Buscemi, who is VERY good.. probably my favorite role of his (with his Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs a close second). The film is a mostly well-done adaptation of Clowes' graphic novel of the same name (it probably helps that Clowes wrote the screenplay as well), and it also incorporates bits and pieces from some of Clowes' other comics ( I especially adored the Feldman cameo). In the end it did a good job of capturing the quirkiness and odd random moments and encounters of Clowes' work in general.
 
Jackie Brown (1997) Director: Quentin Tarantino
Of course, my uncritical adoration for Tarantino's films is well-documented. Reading his Pulp Fiction screenplay (in June of 1997, almost half a year before I saw the actual film) had almost as big of an impact on me as a writer as did other seminal books such as Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire and William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It basically showed me that not all dialogue had to be plot-plot-exposition-plot, that you could be meandering or have characters talking around subjects rather than talking directly about them... and of course, it was my gateway drug to the world of 90's indie films. Shortly after seeing Pulp Fiction (in November of '97) I saw Reservoir Dogs,"and around the same time (January 1998) my mother took my brother Tom and I to see Jackie Brown in the theaters, thus making Jackie Brown the first Tarantino film I ever saw on the big screen: I have since seen every one of his other movies in theaters, with one inexplicable exception (Inglourious Basterds).
It's really hard for me to pick a favorite Tarantino film as I pretty much like all of them, though obviously some (such as Reservoir Dogs or Django Unchained) are better than others (Hateful Eight, Deathproof). But I've always had a nostalgic soft spot for Jackie Brown, which I think is one of his more overlooked and underrated films (it perhaps doesn't help matters that it had the unenviable role of being a follow-up to the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed Pulp Fiction). An old issue of Film Comment magazine back in the day praised Jackie Brown's flat lighting, its soft color scheme, and the patient camerawork, all of which created a heightened sense of an exhausted/tired workday reality (in contrast to the hyper-kinetic mayhem of some of his better known films). In some ways it's Tarantino's most restrained, realistic and mature film, and he never really made another movie quite like this one: it just seems very grounded in the real world. One of my favorite aspects of the film is the friendship between Pam Grier and Robert Forster's characters, which seems like it will bloom into a romantic relationship, but never quite reaches that point: the scenes that deal with Forster's awareness that he's slowly falling in love with Jackie are tremendously affecting and touching. Also, of all of Tarantino's films, I would say that this one probably has his best and most cohesive soundtrack.
 
Do The Right Thing (1989) Director: Spike Lee
I first saw this movie in a film course I took during Fall semester of my Freshman year at Rhode Island College (the precise date was October 20th, 1998, a Tuesday: I know this because I made note of it in my academic planner). I've seen a few other Spike Lee films since (namely He Got Game and Summer of Sam) but none have really captivated me as much as Do The Right Thing. To be honest, Lee's spat with Tarantino in the late 1990's might have played a part in my antagonism towards him and his work in general (granted, the homophobia accusations that he's never quite been able to shake didn't help matters).
But Do The Right Thing is obviously a masterpiece of a film, with a great cast and very effective use of music. Much of the controversy it garnered at the time came from people being worried that the film might inspire racial violence, or being disquieted by the actions of some of the characters, but I think the most unsettling thing about it is its implication that everyone is racist and bigoted in some way (there's a really powerful montage where a number of different characters from various races speak directly to the camera and unleash the most vile racist diatribes imaginable)... and yet, people still coexist. And although it turns into a tragedy in its final act, there's no denying that at the same time it's a very funny movie, and I do think there's a lot of admirable empathy on display here: many of the characters are caricatures to some extent yet they also have their good sides and (aside perhaps from the police officers) you get to know them as people as the film goes on. One of the most interesting artistic choices Lee made (to me at least) is that the ultimate victim isn't really a very likable character (though maybe I'm biased because I don't like people who blare music in public), and Danny Aiello's character, though something of a bigot (though not to the extent of one of his sons), isn't really THAT bad of a guy, all things considering. I suppose the character I most identified with was Ossie Davis' Da Mayor. Many of the film's characters see him as nothing more than an old drunk and an Uncle Tom-type figure yet despite this he has a certain Old World dignity and charm that I can associate with... in saving the life of a child from being hit by a car he's also one of the few characters in the film who performs an act that could be considered heroic.
 
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Director: Wes Anderson
I first saw this film around the time it was released on DVD, so I'm guessing it was sometime in 2002. It was not the first Wes Anderson film I saw (that would have been Rushmore), but it was the second. Like with Tarantino it's really hard for me to pick a favorite Wes Anderson film (certainly The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and The Grand Budapest Hotel could qualify for such an honor as well), but I usually go with this one.
Perhaps it's due to the film's literary air: I like how the narrative is framed as if it were chapters in a book, and I also like how most of the characters in the film are published authors of one sort or another (indeed, one of my favorite aspects of Anderson's films are the fake books that often appear in them... and how I wish they really existed!). I enjoy the whimsical and idealized depiction of a fairy tale New York City on display here. I certainly like the soundtrack, which features cuts by such artists as Nico, The Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, and others. And it's a very funny movie as well. Much like I said about Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, I think this is another film where a lot of empathy is on display, though I get that vibe from many of Anderson's films... I like how he presents the audience with a number of self-absorbed and flawed characters who, somehow or other, manage to usually achieve some manner of redemption or improvement in their lives. But most of all, I love the film's attention to little details (another thing I think Anderson excels at), in particular the Tenenbaum house, which is just a beautiful collection of sets: I love how the Criterion DVD came with a giant map and diagrams of all of the rooms in the house showcasing all of the little details (this was drawn by Anderson's brother, I believe). The house is practically a character in its own right!
 
Les Misérables (2012) Director: Tom Hooper
My introduction to the world of Les Misérables was, of course, the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis: the narrator of that book, Patrick Bateman, is (somewhat ironically) obsessed with the Les Misérables musical. This inspired me to buy the original cast recordings of the musical (both the original Broadway cast recording AND the original London cast version: like Bateman I preferred the British version). The Broadway version came with a synopsis in the CD booklet that explained the story, but because it was written in such tiny print I never bothered to read it... instead I would just listen to the songs and try to figure out the story through the lyrics over the years. Then, in 2011, I was able to catch a performance of the musical itself at PPAC in Providence, and while waiting for the show to start I finally read a synopsis of the show in the program book that I was given. In 2012 I saw the movie that I'm about to write about now, and in 2015 I finished reading the original Victor Hugo novel (which I highly recommend, by the way... a truly great book). So I guess you could say I'm a big fan of the entire Les Misérables phenomenon in general. Hell, years ago through eBay I even was able to get my hands on an original vintage Broadway Theatre Les Misérables playbill from 1986.
Anyway, I saw the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables on February 19th, 2013: I think it may have been the last week or so that it was in theaters. The main reason I put it off so long (aside from the fact that generally I don't like going to movie theaters) is that I was worried it would suck. But to my surprise I really enjoyed it. The production, costumes and sets were very nice, and I thought the cast as a whole was pretty good, with Hugh Jackman especially effective as Jean Valjean (Aaron Tveit's Enjolras was pretty good as well). It stayed pretty true to the musical and even threw in some nice nods to the Hugo novel (which I wasn't aware of at the time, because as I noted earlier, I didn't read the novel until 2015).
My other big worry about seeing it in theaters was I worried about getting "emotional" in public. I've long found the story of Les Misérables tremendously and profoundly moving (as melodramatic as it is), and when I had seen the musical the previous year I had gotten a little teary-eyed during the epilogue. But I figured the theater would be dark, who would really notice anyway? And for the most part I was able to get through most of the film dodging that bullet (had a close call during Anne Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream" number, though). And I was doing good righttttt up until the end, until the film got to Valjean's death scene. That damn lyric "To love another person/Is to see the face of God" kills me every time: it doesn't help matters that in the film it's co-sung by Colm Wilkinson (the original Jean Valjean!) as the spirit of the Bishop Myriel, the man who first set Valjean on his path to grace and redemption. Yeah, I won't lie, when the ghost of the Bishop appeared to usher Valjean into the afterlife, that got to me: after the film was done I had to duck into an empty stall in the nearest men's restroom until I had composed myself. And I wasn't the only one!