Miss Blaine

I do this constantly. Specifically with some of my classics; I own seven copies of 'The Secret Garden' by Francis Hodgson Burnett... and don't even get me started on my Bradbury collection. Also, I found a condensed, illustrated kid's version of H.G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds'... I'm so excited for my son to read it! I bought... seven new books today, and brought ten home from the library... I also slammed through two Goosebumps (they make me happy, shh!), finished 'Bombshell' by Jimmie Robinson, and started 'Lost Boys' by Orson Scott Card. Productive!

Oooooh, that sounds interesting; I love those movies. Where would I find this?

I've seen the series (still catching up on the 5th season episodes, of course) and I've read the first one of the books... Darkly Dreaming Dexter? I don't remember too much of it, though, definitely need to pick it up and give it another go! The TV series is all around pretty awesome... the third season was a little lackluster, but the fourth season ROCKED. The ending was literally one of those "OMG, seriously?!?!" moments... really good. =)

I'll say that there's two that are pretty deadlocked for scariest book ever... was that a pun? Anyway, It by Stephen King, but not for the reasons that most people think. It wasn't the idea of a murderous child-eating clown that was really an epic space monster, or anything like that. There's a part in the book where King talks about a stepfather killing his younger stepson with a recoil-less hammer... you know, no matter how hard you hit something with it, it won't bounce back... the mental image still haunts me to this day of that particular scene... and I read some screwed up stuff, but that part just... ugh. Shudder. Tied with that is actually just a short story written by a local nobody named Mike Marsh... he's never been really published or anything like that, and he actually died about three years ago. But before he did, I got my hands on a copy of a three story collection he home-printed in 2002. The second story in it is about twin brothers, their incestuous relationship that spanned four or five years while they were in their teens, and one of the brothers' mental problems. I later found out that he based it off of his own brothers, who were accused multiple times of being lovers. Anyway, most of the story takes place in the one brother's head; he's on multiple drugs for his laundry list of disorders, and half the time he's not sure what's real and what's not. The other half of the time he's sure, but it's backwards; the real is fake to him, and the imaginary is true to him. It's scary and sad and lovely, and by the end of it I was so shaken and miserable that I couldn't sleep for two days. It wasn't a terror factor; it was simply so depressing it was scary how badly I hurt after it. I've only ever been able to get through it one other time. Since the second time I read it, that little bundle of half-pages has been hidden in the back of my old German textbook from high school, so I don't have to think about it.

A Shepard's-Pie-Burger... best burger I've had in years. Also deep fried pickle chips and a Boston cooler. Thanks big brother who lives next door and cooks WAY too much food every time he walks past a kitchen!

Whoa, wait a minute... am I the only one who was disappointed? I've read the first couple of installments of the original graphic novel... it took less time, and I didn't fall asleep twice through them, like I did with this episode. I think that, considering the huge cultural movement that the zombie genre has spawned, they could have done a lot better. It seems to me that after everything, this level of cliche is almost insulting. And okay, I know it's a TV series and not some huge big budget movie, but the CGI blood sprays were comical at best. The characters are cliches, the basic premise is a cliche, even the opening scene has been done so many times it literally made me facepalm. I just don't understand, I guess. Especially being a huge horror fan, this was just one long, sleep-inducing borefest for me.

Hello everyone! I'm Blaine. I'm a 24 year old mother of a wacky, way-too-smart seven year old bookworm... which he got from me. I hail from Michigan. I'm unsure as to what to say about myself, but considering this is a book forum, I figure I can just detail my reading habits and see where that takes me. I am, above all other things, a horror fan. I love everything from psychological thrillers to flat-out splatterpunk. I read true crime novels (I've got a thing for serial killers, especially if it's cannibalistic serial killers). I'm also a huge monster fan. Zombies are a big one for me, though werewolves with always make top spot... and that's a lifelong love affair. My mother's actually got a letter to Santa I wrote asking for him to make me a werewolf when I was six. I've never gotten over it, either (thanks a lot, Lon Chaney Jr.). I'm really off on vampires, though, unless it's a drastically unique twist on the genre. Author-wise, let's see... Calrton Mellick III and Caitlin R. Kiernan stick out for me (Caitlin's in my top three favorite authors ever list) and I've been getting into Edward Lee, Richard Laymon, and Brian Keene lately. Also, since it's technically horror, my son and I have a little secret... we've spent all summer and fall collecting Goosebumps books for him, and Fear Street books for me. A little throwback to growing up, they're silly and sort of campy, but they've got fond memories attached to them, and it amuses me that I've had to buy a whole bookshelf just for R.L. Stine. Our goal is to complete the collection completely by October 2011. Aside from horror, I like mysteries, especially noir detective novels, and I'm a big science fiction fan, although I'm ashamed to say I've somehow managed to skip most of the 'classics'. I will always hold a very dear place in my heart for Ray Bradbury... his short story 'Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed' was the first science fiction anything I'd ever read, and I've been pretty hooked since. I love Orson Scott Card, I just finished the Rama series, and as far as I'm concerned, Brian Lumley's 'House of Doors' is one of the best sci-fi/horror novels ever written. I'm toeing the waters of cyberpunk, as well, and it's looking promising. Rudy Rucker's coming up on my 'authors to read' list, and I'm pretty excited to get to him. Some of my favorite novels also happen to be young adult stuff; 'The Dark Angel' trilogy by Meredith Anne Pierce is one of my favorites, and I just finished 'The Hunger Games' trilogy and that's definitely going to get read to pieces. I like Garth Nix's 'Sabriel', although the continuation of that series sort of disappointed me. Also, I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of George R. R. Martin... not just the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series, my copies of which have been read to tatters, but his other works as well. He wrote one of the few vampire stories I enjoyed, although for the life of me I can't remember what it was called... 1920's... steamboats... nope, can't remember. Really, though, I'll read just about anything anyone hands me; from Jodi Picoult to Terence McKenna, Anna Quindlen to Reginald O. Crosley. I'm not picky in the slightest; I read for the joy of reading. I like to be scared, and grossed out, and made uncomfortable, but I also like to laugh and fall in love and cry. I get attached to my characters (and while I'm reading a novel, yes, they're mine). Well, now that I've typed my hands into a cramp, I'll go now... so, again, hello everyone!