The Seasonal Read-Fall Edition

The following was a post that actually began early in the month of October, before all hell broke loose.  I decided to finish it belatedly to prove that I actually did have something planned, and also, hey, it was almost done, and deleting it didn't seem the thing.  Maybe it will do some good here.  Otherwise, consider it housecleaning.

For the longest time, I used to celebrate Halloween by reading a horror or suspense novel.  I do have a few on my shelf that might fill the necessity, but I'm wondering if I am even into the holiday that much anymore.  It does have the advantage of happening in the middle of my favorite season, but my real enthusiasm for the holiday has waned, I guess.  I will probably take my son out for some trick or treating, since we are in a good neighborhood for it, but he's not that into it yet, doesn't really get the significance of it other than the candy, so my chances of living vicariously through him are a bit slight.  Maybe someday, that will change, but not just yet.

The obvious impulse has always in the past been to read a horror novel, or dark fantasy.  I remember going through a good portion of The Stories of Ray Bradbury when that collection was first published, and Stephen King, Dan Simmons, and Peter Straub books have filled the coveted Halloween slot in the past.  I have a few stray books on the shelf that might fit, if I were to go that way this year, but the mojo isn't quite there as it once was.

I still will read a horror book on occasion.  This summer, I read Justin Cronin's The Passage, mostly to see if a writer with 'literary cred" (U of Iowa Creative Writing Program, acclaimed mainstream work, shortlisted for PEN awards, stuff like that) could really add something to the genre, and the answer was, not really, at least in this case.  It was entertaining enough, but it was just another genre fiction, neither better or worse than the average tale written by a journeyman horror writer.  The insights were no deeper, the deaths no more poignant, the situations no more existential.  Maybe the prose was slightly better than the norm, and maybe it was a bit more tasteful than the normal horror book, but then, taste is not necessarily a positive in the genre.  It's rather like being the most polite wrestler.