Secchan's Corner: Books, a lot of books!

Last time I posted anything about books was when I had read Stjärnklart by Lars Wilderäng (unless you count the Dragon Age comics as a book) and I thought it was about time I blogged about something. Since my life nowadays is mostly work and computer games I decided to make a book post! Since Stjärnklart in in the middle of June I've read five books :)

By Blood We Live is a short story anthology of vampire stories by various writers. The only reason I bought this anthology was because it said Neil Gaiman on the cover. Normally it takes a long time for me to read anthologies, but this one I finished in a week. You know when you read anthologies and there are always, always some stories that you love and some stories that you just want to end because you just don't like them? This wasn't true for this anthology. I loved every single story in this book! But, of course, I have a few favourites among them anyway.
• Snow, Glass, Apples, by Neil Gaiman. A dark take on Snow White. I love his twists on classic fairy tales. The Sleeper and the Spindle is his most recent, but this was amazing as well. Turning Snow White into the villain and the Evil Queen into the victim.
• The Master of Rampling Gate, by Anne Rice. Of course the queen of vampire stories put forth a master piece. A classic gothic vampire tale. Loved every bit of it.
• Under St. Peter's, by Harry Turtledove. So blasphemous. Absolutely wonderful.
• Child of an Ancient City, by Tad Williams. An Arabian take on the vampire legend. Different, but definitely amazing!
• Endless Night, by Barabara Roden. Another classic version of vampires, which in my mind had a sort of Lovecraftian feel to it. But that could be just because this tale and At the Mountains of Madness take place in Antarctica.
• The Vechi Barbat, by Nancy Kilpatrick. A tale that makes you wonder. I'm still not sure what really happened in this story or who's actually the vampire, but the ambiguousity of the story makes it one of the best ones in the book.
• Blood Gothic, by Nancy Holder. A tale where the vampire is just a figment of imagination, but still so very real to the main character.
• Sunrise on Running Water, by Barbara Hambly. Vampires can't cross running water, but this one gets on the Titanic.
• Necros, by Brian Lumley. There's a twist, and it's a good one. Modern vampire tale, but with a sort of classic bogeyman take on the vampire.
• The Wide, Carnivorous Sky, by John Langan. The only pure horror story of the lot with a military twist. It was strange, but extremely captivating.
• One for the Road, by Stephen King. Since it's King this was also a kind of horror-ish story, and also a side story to Salem's Lot. Felt like it had some of American Gods in it, but maybe it's the other way around :P

Inmurade by Lena Ollmark is a Swedish children's horror novel. I expected plain, easy-to-understand, and predictable characters. I didn't get any of it. I liked this a lot. It was simple and explicit at the same time, and it reminded me of those Swedish horror story anthologies I used to read when I was little. Ghosts of children and a sad tale of a blizzard that took lives just after the end of World War I. Can't wait for the next part, this one ended in a cliffhanger!

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs is the second book in Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children. It wasn't as good as the first one (sequel's never are), but that twist at the end had my eyes falling out. It was perfect! And so unexpected! And I loved it! And I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!

Creepypasta by Jack Werner is... I'm not sure whether to call it a non-fiction volume since it collects a bunch of tales from the Internet and presents them so that even people who don't spend all their free time online will understand their circumstances, or if it's a horror story anthology... In any case it's a book filled with urban horror stories from Creepypasta and they are collected into a book, in Swedish, by a Swedish journalist. I had read a few of these before. Like the stories about Slender Man, JVKN66Z.ESP, the Rugrats one, The Soviet Sleep Experiments, and SCP-173, and they weren't as scary the second time. The one that really got to me however was Anansi's Goat Man Story. It scared the hell out of me! (Probably wasn't a good idea to read it in the middle of the night) I rushed through the dark hallway to the bathroom afterwards, scared to look into any of the open doorways on the way, terrified that I'd see a slack-jawed, passive face staring back at me. Actually, the entire Goat Man chapter was hell on my nerves and I'm surprised I was able to sleep without nightmares that night.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second part in The Hunger Games trilogy. I read the first book last year and was pleasantly surprised, so I decided to continue the series and bought the second book. I only got around to reading it now, but damn! Loved it. I see what people love about this series. Now I really want to get my hands on the third book and find out how everything ends! This is it! I'm a fan!