jack_ryder: (Default)
jack_ryder ([personal profile] jack_ryder) wrote2006-07-13 06:42 am

Recommended Reading?

Both Carnies and Prismatic are on the AHWA Recommended list, which is as it should be.

The Lamplighter is also there, but what is interesting is the omissions from the International List:

There's no Ramsey Campbell, no Robert Bloch, only one Richard Matheson and it's not his Shock books. Poppy Brite, Ellen Datlow and Mary Shelley are the only women listed (slight edit - L.A. Banks - who I've never heard of - is probably a woman); no Lucy Taylor, Caitlin Keirnan, Kathe Koja or Anne Rice?

And an overabundance of Stephen King compare to the other authors. (Only Blue World listed for Robert McCammon? C'mon!)

I assume this list was compiled from the Southern Horror mailing list, but it only confirms my suspicion that many writers in the scene today aren't that interested in the genre's history (or, to be fair, are only interested in a certain type of horror - hence the inclusion of Jack Ketchum and Robert Laymon.)

[identity profile] lonewolf23.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, I never even HEARD about this list until I found out I was on it. Trust me, I'd have recommended more than a few books not on it. :)

[identity profile] jack-ryder.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd be interested in what you would recommend. I just thought the list showed a little historical ignorance on behalf of the compilers (or the post-modern conceit that taste is far more important than influence as far as recommended books go.)

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
PLEASE finish the Lamplighter. I want to read it again (and discuss it with you).