In Which We Discuss Danse Macabre

As part of my quest to read all of Stephen King's novels, I've just finished Danse Macabre and I loved it.  It's a non-fiction account of King's favourite horror movies and novels throughout the fifties to the eighties, and his thoughts on the horror genre as a whole.  There's a long list of recommendations at the back, which I certainly intend to look at.  I'm quite sold on Ira Levin - I've already read Stepford Wives, and King did a great job of pushing Rosemary's Baby.

King also devoted a brief paragraph to his wife's first novel, Small World which was newly released at the time of writing.  He didn't say more, as he felt he would be slightly biased.  However, that did remind me of the idea I had of reading his wife and childrens' novels at the appropriate points in the time line.  So, here is Tabitha King's bibliography;

• (1981) Small World
• (1983) Caretakers 
• (1985) The Trap (also published as Wolves at the Door)
• (1988) Pearl
• (1993) One on One
•  (1994) The Book of Reuben
•  (1997) Survivor
•  (2006) Candles Burning (with Michael McDowell) 

That isn't including short stories, non-fiction or poetry.

Considering what an effort this is turning out to be - I didn't expect it to take a year to get 10% through! - I don't think I will make the effort to seek out all of Tabitha, Joe or Owen King's novels, though I may read the first one of each when they appear. 

I actually am reading Small World at the moment.  It's pretty interesting.  I'll give it its own post when I'm done.  Oh, and I've got Rosemary's Baby and Cujo reserved at the library.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that King frequently mentioned his son Joe Hill in Danse Macabre.  Joe Hill was born in 1972, so he would have been nine-years-old when this was published.  Naomi King and Owen King were born in 1970 and 1977 respectively, so they were eleven and four at the time.  When Carrie was first published in 1973 Naomi would have been three while Joe was a year old.  Owen would have been born a month before The Shining was published, a he would have been a months old when Rage was released.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 4/52

Wow.  I've been twenty-six for a month already.  That's gone quite fast.

Most of these books were new to me, though some had been sitting in my unread pile for quite a while.  Feather Boy has been in there for about a year, and I'm so glad I left it in there.  I considered donating it to a charity shop so many times.  It's aimed at either children or young adults, and I really liked it.

Everyday Bento is a nice beginners guide to creating pretty bentoes for children, although there's no reason not to scale up.  It includes specific directions for making a few designs which is nice, although it doesn't tend to reuse things like picks very often, so if you wanted to make them as specified there'd be quite a huge initial outlay.  Good for ideas though.  It goes more into modern bento designs rather than bento theory.

Bad Science is a book I've read before.  It's basically a long rant by Ben Goldacre over common mistakes in how science is reported in the media, along with calling out specific people who spread inaccurate information along with why exactly it's inaccurate.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is another one that's been on my unread pile for over a year.  I bought it for my kobo ages ago, and I'm quite pleased to have gotten round to reading it now.  It reminded me a lot of Shanghai Girls which was the first book of Lisa See's that I read, and which I really enjoyed.  It continued the theme of two women who are close, and yet who misunderstand each other.  I also liked learning about Nu Shu, which was a secret script used by and known only to women.

Finally, Danse Macabre.  I read it as part of my Chronological Reading Project, and I loved it.  It's non-fiction, and covers horror through the fifties, sixties and seventies.  King discusses his favourite films and novels, and how he felt they contributed to the genre, as well as his thoughts on the genre itself.  It includes recommended reading/watching lists at the end, and I'm pretty sold on them.

This was a good week!