What You're Reading in October!

[New Jersey State Library]

Hello! Thanks for joining us in the Online Book Cafe!

October! My goodness, it's October already - seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness, and all that - so please come on in and talk about what you've read recently, and what you're reading now.

October is my very favorite month. It heralds blessedly cooler weather, and it's an excellent time for reading spooky books, too. Do you theme your reading by holidays? Or would you read Lovecraft or Stephen King in the spring? Somehow, that feels all wrong!

So please, tell me what you're reading, what you love about it, and what you might change about it, if you had the chance.

[Paul]

I'm going back and re-reading one of my favorite fantasy books from 20 years ago, the original Dragonlance trilogy. So far it's been a very fun trip down memory lane. I really loved all these characters and read every Dragonlance book I could get my hands on (well, so long as it was written by Margret Wise and Tracy Hickman).

I just finished Powerless, a YA book about a teen without powers in a world where lots of people have superhero or super villain powers. I had a really hard time getting into it. I would highly recommend Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson for a much better experience and a similar premise.

I'm looking forward to reading some October spooky reads myself! Perhaps a collection of Lovecraft or something.

[Martha]

I love October too! It does put me in the mood to read something a bit more scary, although I'm not reading anything too scary at the moment. I am re-reading a nice graphic memoir called Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley. The drawing is great plus it talks about food, which I love.

I am also listening to an audiobook - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. It is very entertaining and speeds along quickly. I love the idea of multiple timelines and dimensions, so this is a fun one!

Finding time to read is a great question. It's hard! Thank goodness for audiobooks - since my commute is about 30 minutes I can get some audio style reading done as I drive to and from work. Also, thank goodness for my Kindle - it makes it so easy to read while at the gym on a treadmill. It almost makes me want to go to the gym, knowing I will be able to read for a while!

[Ned]

I was reading The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. It is the very October-ish tale of a man whose wife is killed on their wedding night apparently by an evil spirit who wants to claim him for her own! There is a wedding ring, a statue, and a curse. Then Keats, Byron, Shelley and some other Romantics show up as characters... great stuff. But the truth is that it was creeping me out so badly I had to stop reading it.