A Dark and Mysterious Challenge

I wasn't going to do it. I read the description. I said no. I forgot about it for a few days. And along comes Nymeth at things mean alot...and her persuasive lists of books I want to read. She said I knew I wanted to join, and dagnabit she was right. So here I go again with another challenge...

The R.I.P. Challenge! There are three levels R.I.P. The First, Second, and Third calling for 4, 2, and 1 books respectively. There is also the Short Story Peril offering participants the chance to read and review short stories in the Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. Dark Fantasy. Gothic. Horror. Supernatural. genre.

Not only do I have a problem with signing up for challenges, I also seem to be incapable of not completing the most difficult of the levels, so I of course am going for Peril the First, meaning I need to add four more books to my to read list. I also want to participate in the Short Story Peril.

Luckily I don't have to commit to a specific list of books, but I do have a few I'm thinking of.

1. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: I'm currently reading this, so it's almost a cheat, but I think it fits quite nicely into this challenge. First, it's a mystery, a sort of medieval times whodunit. Second, it features monks, scary labyrinthine libraries, heretics, murder, and a building called an Aedificium. Very gothic. Finally and possibly most important, we have the Devil, witches, black cats, and hallucinogenic drugs. More gothic.

2. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: Again, it's almost a cheat because I have to read this soon as I'm teaching it this month. I read it about ten years ago, so it's a re-read as well. It fits the conditions as well as it is a mystery: who stole the Moonstone? Just like Name of the Rose, it features typically gothic settings, such as breezy castles with dark corners. And of course we have more hallucinogenic drugs.

3. Sookie Stackhouse books: I joined the Sookie Stackhouse challenge with the intention of reading the whole series. Unfortunately I was not impressed with book number one and really considered dropping the whole thing. But everyone's been saying to stick with it and now this challenge is giving me the impetus I need to try the second. It seems rather appropriate, what with the vampires and everything.

4. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick: I've wanted to read this for awhile and now I have two challenges which are motivating me to finally pick it up. Featuring an undercover cop, scary insane-asylum type rehab, and of course hallucinogenic drugs, A Scanner Darkly seems appropriate for this challenge.

Short Story: Nocturnes by John Connolly: This will be a re-read for me, but I plan on going through it more slowly and taking it story by story instead of doing the all-out speed reading of my first foray into the book.

Now I really need to get to reading....


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Challenge Completed: October 2, 2009
Books Read: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, Scary Stories 3 by Alvin Schwartz, Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole