Book Blogger Hop - Spooky

The Book Blogger Hope is a meme over at crazy-for-books. A question to answer every week resulting in book bloggers getting to know each other better.

“What is your favorite spooky book (i.e. mystery/suspense, thriller, ghost story, etc.)?”


Strangely enough I was asking people for scary book recommendations the other day. I used to devour horror books in my early teens and it didn't matter if it was Halloween or not. My favourite scary books back then were dominated by Stephen King. To this day some of those old ones remain my favourites. The Stand I loved in particular although I don't think it was one of his spookiest. Not so long ago I re read some of them and I think the spookiest is probably The Shining. I think the fact that the family is snowed into a hotel on their own with no communication links sets it off.


Some of my favourite classics are fairly spooky too. Rebecca by Dapne Du Maurier probably doesn't spring to mind when it comes to spooky but it definitely has a suspense/mystery side to it. Plus Mrs Danvers is one of the creepiest characters I have ever come across. The more obvious ones are Dracula by Bram Stoker and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's been years since I have read Dracula but I loved it then. No vampire book has ever quite matched up to it. Frankenstein didn't really scare me. If anything I felt a lot of sympathy for the monster. There was one scene though that I did find spooky. Frankenstein and the monster come across each other at sea. Somewhere near Russia I think and the scene was so well described it gave me the shivers every time I read it.


The last book that scared the hell out of me was another classic, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I read it last year for Halloween. There is just something about ghost stories that scare me to death if done well and this one was done well. The fact that children were involved just makes it creepier and these were seriously creepy children. I swear I had to sleep with the light on after reading that.


I would class all of these as a favourite. I don't think I could pick just one but I am always looking for others. Any recommendations? What's the scariest book you've read?

Book Blogger Hop - Longest Book

This is a book meme over at Crazy for books. The idea is to answer a question and then go round seeing how others answered it.

“What’s the LONGEST book you’ve ever read?”
(Note: I’m putting one caveat on this question. You aren’t allowed to say the Bible, Torah, Qur’an, or other religious/spiritual text.)

In all honesty I don't really keep note how long books are so I couldn't tell you which one is the longest. This year I read "Shantaram" by Gegory David Roberts, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy and "A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin. All very different books and all fairly long. I have read longer than those though. Any Stephen King fan will know that he has written some Tomes in his time some of which breach the 1000 page mark. I think the longest was "The Stand" and my edition had over 1300 pages. I can't say that I noticed the length as I loved every page of it. I think the length would only bother me if I was intimidated by the book in the first place. I have to say that I much prefer the book to be longer than to have tiny print as happened with "A Clash of Kings" by George R. R. Martin.

Edited - according to goodreads the longest book I read was Lord of the Rings at 1500 pages but since it was split in three I don't think it counts. Next was It by Stephen King at 1376 pages.

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Book Blogger Hop - Book Titles

This is a book meme over at Crazy For Books. This wee
ks question is;

“Let’s talk crazy book titles! Highlight one or two (or as many as you like!) titles in your personal collection that have the most interesting titles! If you can’t find any, feel free to find one on the internet!”

I think I pay less attention to the book title than mostpeople. I very rarely have an opinion on them one way or the other. They only actually annoy me when the link between the title and the book is extremely tenacious. I do like funny book titles though and some humour titles have stood out for me in the past. They have encouraged me to look at the book. However, my favourite titles actually come from books that I would never read. I love those Mills & Boon titles. I think they are hilarious. I used to deal with those books and my friends and I would get a kick out of reading out that months favourites. I've picked out a few so you can see for yourself. Of course I understand that not everyone will find them funny.

These are just a few and there are funnier ones out there. I tend to find the best ones have 'rake' somewhere in the title.

What's your favourite titles?