Hammer for Halloween

Yes, Halloween is a very special time of the year.

What to Read Instead of the New Stephanie Meyer Book

To those who received a spam message from my email account yesterday, apologies. I blame it on my possessed computer at school...

Negativity is a big draw. I know from personal experience: the largest number of hits to this blog in a single day occurred when I posted a nasty note. Go figure.

I don't like negative, despite the marketing potential. Really. It's been my goal to keep things smiley, but WHAM, there it was all over Amazon.com: The Short, Second Life of Bree Tanner: (wait for it...) An Eclipse Novella.

Right. Hold me back before I buy fifteen copies. At the risk of alienating all the preteen girls who are obviously my potential fan base, I present:

Five Books to Read Rather Than The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

1-3: Three Vampire Tales (New Riverside Editions)

You can snag three great classics of vampire literature in one volume. If you claim to be a vampire aficionado and haven't read Dracula, I wag my finger at you. In fact, I've handed many of my students (who have devoured the Twilight books) a copy of Dracula and they couldn't finish it. Bah.

Pick up Three Vampire Tales, and you also have Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu and The Vampyre by John Polidori at your fingertips. Say you like the romance in Twilight? Who is sexier than the female titular character in Carmilla?

4. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Yeah, I didn't like the movie either, but this book puts the whole "vampire" thing in crazy perspective. Do you like bonafide twists in your endings? Brace yourself for the final denouement in Legend. Nothing is creepier than Neville's neighbor, the now-a-vampire Ben Cortman, shouting "Come Out, Neville!" all night long.

5. Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon

Did I mention romance? I mean, Some of Your Blood is a romance at heart, right? Not to mention one of the few books I actually put down at the end and felt a legitimate chill in my gut. Sturgeon takes the reader on a crazy ride in this one. Find a copy (if you can...I think it's out of print again).

And those of you who vote "at least they're reading" when they read Twilight, well, fine. And my track & field team is practicing on six-inch high hurdles.

Top Five Draculas

I watched a horrible old Hammer film last night, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, but it made me misty and nostalgic for old, crusty horror.

Today's Top Five Friday^TM: The top five actors to play Count Dracula, as decided by me.

1. Bela Lugosi - no competition. Lugosi had the accent, the charm, the eyes. From Dracula (1931):

2. Christopher Lee - Along with Terence Fisher, Lee was the man behind Hammer Films resurrection of the famous vampire on film. And he had blood on his fangs...something Lugosi was never allowed back in the '30s. Watch The Horror of Dracula and see that blood in bright red technicolor.

Man, I Was a Weird Kid...

Thanks to K.C. Shaw for starting another meme. This one is simple: childhood book memories.

I have sooooo many happy memories of books as a kid, but I'll pare it down to three.

1) The Crestwood Monster Series



We had these books in my K-3 school library. I always had one in my desk. Personally, I think they made me the monster lover I am today. All the big names had a book: Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, even a generic mad scientists book and one about giant bugs. Each volume was basically a summary of old movies (Universal and otherwise). We still have a few copies at the Lawrence Public Library.

2) Mickey the Microbe

Maybe my memory fails me, but I'm pretty sure the eponymous Mickey was a microbe traveling through a young boy's body, exploring all the parts, and reporting his adventures. My third grade teacher read this one to us, and I can't seem to find anything about him on the web. (It seems Mexico has a Mikey Microbe character who promotes health.) I vividly remember the day Mickey crawled up the nasal passage--sort of spelunking in snot.

3) Hidden Places

My third and final warm fuzzy is the hidden reading spot. In fourth grade, it was at the back of the room, tucked to the side of the coat rack. I could actually worm my way out of sight, balancing on a box of playground balls, and read in a little secluded cave. I've always enjoyed cramped, dark places for reading, despite my general claustrophobia. I've always needed to shut off all distractions to really engage in a book, and I still love it today.

I think I'm going to stop by the library on the way home today...