RIP V - a time to get scared

RIP V is finally here! (*Edited to add:  for those who don't know, this is an annual ghost story/scary story book reading challenge hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings.) I think that as soon as one is over, I start piling books for the next year's challenge, because I love this challenge so very much.  And it's very simple:  read any gothic, supernatural, mystery, thriller, scary book that you want, between Sept 1 to Oct 31 2010.

Well, I have more than one book on my pile! Frankly, it's kind of scary:  I thought I had 8 books saved for RIP V.  When I went to the bookshelf to see what I could pull that would be interesting, I discovered I had 17 books!!  17!  and I had three out of the library already that qualified.  That's 20.

Fabulous bloggers are already adding to my list:
Then I went to see what some of you are reading for the challenge (because you can never have too many books lined up, you know!) and discovered on Geraniumcat's Bookshelf that my favourite scary writer who writes supernatural mysteries, Phil Rickman, has a new book out!   Well, that just made my day.  I am so excited now. I love, love, love this series.  Merrily Watkins is an Anglican dioscean exorcist, which means she gets called in for anything unworldly that happens in the diocese of Herefordshire.  Spooky?  Guaranteed.  Scary?  Absolutely. Thrilling?  Murder?  Blackmail?  A teenage daughter who flirts with paganism compounds Merrily's life, and allows for a wide breadth of philosophical and religious discussion that is fun and interesting, and adds depth to this series.  Do ghosts exist?  In Ledwardine (the village Merrily lives in),  in Herefordshire, in the Midlands, yes.

In Herefordshire, so close to the Welsh border, Rickman uses local legends and myths, supersititions, as well as what is known in ghost research and studies, to create a believable atmosphere in which the supernatural occurs with frightening regularly in this area.  Sometimes it is explained away, and sometimes, as Merrily learns, there is evil, seen and unseen.  How she hangs on to her faith in the face of the unbelievable, is one of the strengths of this series. So I, my dear readers, who has somehow not seen this book even though it's been out for almost a year in paperback, am rushing to buy it.  That makes 21 on my list!

All right, let's get serious, considering that two, Drood and Under the Dome, are over 600 pages each, I'm not going to read more than 10 books at the very most for this challenge.

So I will be reading 10 books in this pile between now and October 31:

Drood - Dan Simmons
Under the Dome - Stephen King

To Dream of the Dead - Phil Rickman
Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Darkest Room - Johan Theorin
My Soul to Take - Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Uninvited - Tim Wynne Jones
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens
Urban Shaman - C.E. Murphy
Soulless - Gail Carriger
Staying Dead - Laura Anne Gilman
Greywalker - Kat Richardson
Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill
The October Country - Ray Bradbury

Horror movie night
Now, I have also managed to fulfill the part of the challenge: "Peril on the Screen" already  part of the challenge, since my sister came over last night and we had horror movie night.

  We watched Ginger Snaps, a Canadian made werewolf movie that is very good and gruesome and funny, and one of my all-time favourite scary movies, the original Nightmare on Elm Street.  It was as scary as I remembered, and I think I scared my sister more with my jumping and screaming!

What are you reading?
So now I am in the mood for 8 weeks of ghosts, nightmares, vampires, mysteries, dread figures in black, and chills.  Are you?  What are your choices for this reading challenge?


Uh-Oh, I forgot about these:
Oh, and I have to add that Geraniumcat also is reading Thursbitch by Alan Garner, which is out of print now.  I'm going to try to find a copy somehow. I'm also looking to pick up these two:   Alexandra Sokoloff's The Unseen (not released in paperback yet, and this looks so very good), and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.   I read Alexandra Sokoloff's The Harrowing for RIP 3, review here., which is one of the best horror novels I've read this decade.  (The best one is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill - review here, which is a ghost story par excellence).  I've been waiting a while for The Unseen  to come out in paperback, and somehow I've missed the first printing, or it never came out in May as it was supposed to.  The Little Stranger of course, so many of you have already read, and I was waiting for this challenge to pick it  up in softcover.  Time to visit the bookstore! 

So I guess I should add that the list above is by no means written in stone!

There are so very many good, frightening, creepy stories out there; do you have any favourites that you like to read?