book news, Home

The R.I.P. Newsletter

49 Comments

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
~ Shakespeare, Macbeth

Wow! It has been an amazing 2 month period of shared reading. Allow me to begin the eulogy of the 2006 Readers in Peril (R.I.P.) Autumn Challenge with the most heartfelt Thank You that I can convey over this impersonnal medium. The number of people who participated in this challenge with reckless abandon has me in awe. Whether you dove in for the full challenge or were only able to commit to a few stories of an R.I.P. persuasion, I am thrilled that you joined in. Thank you so very, very much.

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man
far better than through mortal friends.
~ Dawn Adams

As I turned the page on my Simon Marsden calendar (you may remember this from a recent Friday Favorite) the above image ushered in November. Upon seeing it I was struck with how perfectly it represents both the purpose and spirit of the R.I.P. Challenge. The opening of any book is akin to walking through that doorway into the unknown. Opening up a book that falls into the R.I.P. Challenge parameters is akin to walking through that doorway into a creepy, eerie unknown!

The genesis of the challenge came from the fact that mere weeks before this past September began I had happily stumbled upon the world of book bloggers and I felt the immense bond of numerous kindred spirits as I read through your various raptures on the joy of books. At the same time I felt my desire to start reading tales of a gothic bent coming on even earlier than it normally did. It was my hope that by making this challenge I could not only get some people to read similar books and generate conversation but that I would also find a storehouse of creepy, atmospheric tales that I did not know existed. My hopes were met in overwhelming fashion. As I look back on it, starting this in September allowed me to revel in this time of year eventhough I feel that much of October was somehow stolen from me.

I know that this type of reading was not everyone’s forte, but I am so excited that so many of you tried new things. My hope is that you discovered new favorites along the way and that any prejudices you may have had towards this genre have been altered by your immersion in thrilling tales. Whether you read short stories or lengthy novels and whether or not you completed the challenge I am proud of everyone. I completed my challenge in September. I read 4 of my original 5 choices and then substitued one of my bonus books for the 5th. All in all I did some fantastic reading because of this challenge.

Isn’t it amazing that so many of us (anywhere from 60-80 individuals according to my rough estimation) were reading books of a similar vein at the same time? It just boggles my mind. Even more interesting is how many of us devoured The Thirteenth Tale at roughly the same time because of our mutual blog discussions.

All good books are alike in that they are truer
than if they had really happened
and after you are finished reading one
you will feel that all that happened
to you and afterwards it all belongs to you;
the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse,
and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.
~ Ernest Hemingway

Early on I had promised a reading list and I compiled a bunch of this as the challenge first began. If you read anything else not listed here please leave it in the comments and I’ll add it so that we can have a comprehensive list. If there are duplicate titles in my list please let me know as well, I looked over it until my eyes blurred so I may have missed something. Its an impressive list and gives me many, many books to read in the future:

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker
2. The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker
3. Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories, edited by Roald Dahl
4. The Haunted Looking Glass, edited by Edward Gorey
5. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
6. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
7. The Wyvern Mystery by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
8. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
9. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
10. Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
11. Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
12. The Perfume of the Lady in Black by Gaston Leroux
13. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
14. Abarat by Clive Barker
15. The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
16. In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu
17. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
18. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
19. Winter Moon, by Lackey, Lee, and Murphy
20. Vulcan’s Soul Trilogy, Book 2, by Josepha Shwartz and Susan Shwartz
21. The Reluctant Miss Van Helsing by Mina Webber
22. Magic Street by Orson Scott Card
23. Everybody Comes to the Nightside (contains 3 novels), by Simon R. Green
24. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
25. A Study in Scarlett by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
26. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
27. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
28. The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice
29. An Unpardonable Crime by Andrew Taylor
30. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
31. Blood and Gold by Anne Rice
32. Haunted House by Charles Dickens
33. The Silver Wolf by Alice Borchardt
34. A Whisper In The Dark by Louisa May Alcott
35. Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson
36. Murder Most Scottish, an anthology
37. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
38. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials by Frances Hill
39. Vampires: The Greatest Stories, a compilation of stories
40. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
41. Ghost Stories by Henry James
42. The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
43. The Green Man by Kingsley Amis
44. Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
45. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
46. From Hell by Alan Moore
47. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
48. Trangressions by Sarah Dunant
49. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
50. The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
51. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
52. The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
53. The Blood Doctor by Barbara Vine
54. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
55. Behind A Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott
56. Prodigal Son (Book One in Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein series)
57. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
58. The Golem by Gustav Mayrink
59. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
60. Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
61. A Haunted House, Virginia Woolf
62. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
63. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
64. Dragonwyck, Anya Seaton
65. Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
66. Death’s Acre, Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab The Body Farm by Dr. Bill Blass and Jon Jefferson
67. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
68. Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen
69. Out of the Shadows – L M Montgomery
70. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
71. The Rings of Saturn by W.G.Sebald
72. Little Face by Sophie Hannah
73. The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
74. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
75. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
76. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
77. Affinity by Sarah Waters
78. The Ruins by Scott Smith
79. The Snow Garden by Christopher Rice
80. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
81. Heir to the Shadows – Anne Bishop
82. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
83. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
84. The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
85. Le Horla by Maupassant
86. The Wild Asses’ Skin by Balzaac
87. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
88. Sleep, Pale Sister – Joanne Harris
89. Strangers – Taichi Yamada
90. Who Killed Zebedee? – Wilkie Collins
91. The Monk – Matthew Lewis
92. Perfume – Patrick Suskind
93. The King’s General – Daphne Du Maurier
94. The People’s Act of Love by James Meek
95. Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
96. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
97. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
98. The Monsters: Mary Shelley & the Curse of Frankenstein by the Hooblers
99. Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels
100. The Haunted Woman (1922) – David Lindsay
101. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings, by E.A. Poe
102. Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
103. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
104. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
105. Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
106. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
107. Ghost Writer / John Harwood
108. The Night Country / Stewart O’Nan
109. The Haunting of Hill House / Shirly Jackson
110. Nazareth Hill by Ramsey Campbell
111. The Haunting of Lamb House / Joan Aiken
112. The Vampyre by John Polidori
113. Guilty Pleasures by Laurel K. Hamilton
114. The Gothic Tradition (Cambridge Contexts in Literature)
115. Never Let Me Go by Kashuo Ishiguro
116. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
117. Possession by A.S. Byatt
118. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
119. Goblin Market and other poems by Christina Rosetti
120. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot
121. Adam Bede by George Eliot
122. The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner
123. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
124. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
125. Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp
126. The Haunted Man & The Ghost’s Bargain by Charles Dickens
127. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
128. Beowulf translated by R.M. Liuzza
129. Six Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe
130. Without Blood – Alessandro Baricco
131. The Collector – John Fowles
132. Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
133. Malice Aforethought – Francis Iles
134. The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne du Maurier
135. The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
136. Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin
137. Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
138. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
139. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
140. Innocents Aboard by Gene Wolfe
141. The Savage Tales of Solmon Kane by Robert E. Howard
142. Hellboy – The Bones of Giants by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola
143. The Unicorn – Iris Murdoch
144. Tales of Unease – Arthur Conan Doyle
145. The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
146. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
147. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
148. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director’s Cut by Jhonen Vasquez
149. Annotated Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft
150. Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
151. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pyme by E. A. Poe
152. The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick
153. Cell by Stephen King
154. The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin by Robert J Begiebing
155. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
156. Blindness by Jose Saramago
157. Strange Happenings by Avi
158. The Spectre Bridegroom: A Traveler’s Tale by Washington Irving
159. The Ghost Book of Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax by Charles Lindley
160. The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
161. Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris
162. Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter
163. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
164. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
165. Lemony Snicket’s Book 13–The End
166. The Unburied by Charles Pallisar
167. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
168. Grange House by Sarah Blake
169. The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling
170. The Ghost Writer by Robert Harwood
172. In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe by Fuqua
173. In a Strange City by Lippman
174. The Poe Shadow by Pearl
175. The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Marlowe
176. Horror: The 100 Best Books
177. Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
178. The Witching Hour – Anne Rice
179. Phantoms – Dean Koontz
180. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
181. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
182. Horror at Fontenay by Alexandre Dumas
183. Warlock by Oakley Hall
184. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Thanks again for all of your participation in the challenge. If you finished please let me know in the comments as well. And thanks for the patience of those who have yet to receive their contest winnings from the beginning of the challenge. They are on the way. Thank each and every one of you for the new friendships formed and for your thoughts and inspirations over the past few months. I am a much richer person for it.

I look forward to doing this challenge again next year. I have some new and interesting ideas for the 2007 R.I.P. Challenge and would welcome any that you might have as well.

If you have done any kind of R.I.P. wrap-up post on your blog please leave me a link in the comments and I’ll add it to the newsletter here:

A Work in Progress
A High and Hidden Place
A Garden Carried In The Pocket
A Life in Books
A Reader’s Journal
Ex Libris
In Spring it is the Dawn
Pages Turned
Maggie Reads
Fond of Snape

Someone has mentioned a Christmas challenge and I have an idea for a very short, easy challenge that I will unveil closer to Thanksgiving. It will be something that will be unintrusive to any reading you may already be doing.

When I look back, I am so impressed again
with the life-giving power of literature.
If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of
myself in the world, I would do that again by reading,
just as I did when I was young.
~ Maya Angelou

Congratulations everyone, you should be very proud of your accomplishments!

49 thoughts on “The R.I.P. Newsletter”

  1. If you’re going to quote Shakespeare you might try this one from MND…”This falls out better than I could have devised.” You challenged us to read, and read we did! Someone gave me a copy of The Dante Club (listed above)…hmmm, I might have to give that one a try soon. This was a great idea and I’m happy I participated. I look forward to the next challenge!

  2. I’m glad you participated too Suzanne and even braved trying some fiction. Good job!

  6. Although I didn’t read the R.I.P. Challenge, I’ve enjoyed reading about it on various other blogs. Can’t wait for the xmas one, I’ll definitely be joining in!

  7. Carl, thank-you for doing this challenge. I enjoyed myself. Like you, I was blown away by the numbers that participated. Looking forward to next year’s challenge.

    Thanks again.

  8. Thanks so much for this, Carl. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait until next year’s challenge! In addition to the reading I did (which I loved), I now have a terrific list of books/stories to add to my TBR and lots of new friends to share my reading with!

  9. Congratulations on such a successful campaign for reading! 🙂 I’m sorry that I did not participate but I scare rather easily – something that I should work on getting over. The last book that I read that gave me the chills was More Than You Know by Beth Gutcheon and that was enough to last me for a year or two. But I did love reading everyone’s blog and seeing how they were coming along with the challenge. I actually ordered a book that was read by Ex Libris (Something Wicked This Way Comes) because it didn’t seem to be too scary.

    I’m glad that you created this challenge and I look forward to participating in your next one. Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday, so if you do decide to create a Christmas challenge, count me in! 🙂

  10. Wow. I am impressed! Look at how many different titles people came up with! I will have to print out the list! Many thanks for organizing this–it was fun! The word on the (blog) street is what new challenge you are going to come up with! 🙂

  12. Thanks for the challenge, Carl. It’s been fun and I hope you’ll lead us all in another round of the same challenge next fall.

    I don’t think Oakley Hall’s Warlock and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are on the list yet.

  13. Thank you for the fantastic challenge Carl! I love gothic novels but it has been a long time since I read so many back-to-back. It took me back to the Gothic Novel class I took in college which was one of the best experiences of my academic life. I finished the challenge (though not all the books read were in my original 5) and I am still going strong. I can’t wait for next year…I am already thinking about what to read. And count me in for a Christmas challenge as well!

  14. Thanks again, Carl, it was great fun. I appreciate the list — saving, so I can tackle another 5 projects next year.

  15. It was a lot of fun! I only read one book on my original list, but I did manage to read five that fit the description almost better than my original pick. I even read three books that were out and out ghost stories and I’m a big scaredy cat.

  17. It is quite a list and will come in handy next year! I want to know which book on your list you didn’t read.

  18. I saw on the list someone read Lisey’s Story…how was it?

    LOVE the picture, Happy Mask 🙂

    I’ll post a little something about how pitiful I did in the challenge tomorrow LOL! Sorry!

  19. My goodness Carl, do you have a job? Just kidding! Coming from Jenn See’s mom you’ll get the joke. I commented on the Helein page. Excuse all typos having “a pity party” because I miss my girl so much and may have had l glass of wine too many. Nah! Cyn

  20. I was just thinking about Jenn See this morning Cynthia. I hope you know that she is definitely not forgotten. I actually started this post way back when the challenge began so it was just a matter of putting my final thoughts together with the pics to get this one up and going.

    JenClair, the only book I didn’t read was The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker which I have read on numerous occasions and love. I got so sidetracked with books I hadn’t read that I just didn’t get to it. It is also more of a cold weather read for me and it is just now getting cold here.

    Glad to hear people are interested in a Christmas Challenge. Challenge is really the wrong word because its not really going to be challenging, just something we can do together as a group.

  21. Great wrap-up, Carl! I didn’t read the original five books I’d planned on reading; I substituted Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves” and Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone” for two of my original RIP books. In the beginning, I was afraid I wasn’t going to finish the challenge, or that I’d lose interest in it altogether. Then I stopped thinking about it and went about my normal reading habits, and when I finished “House of Leaves,” I realized I’d finished the challenge. Needless to say, I was proud of myself.

    I’m really looking forward to the next challenge.

  22. Great wrap up! And that’s quite a list. Thanks again Carl, for a fabulous challenge. It got me reading books I may not have gotten to in ..well, who knows. I’m already looking forward to next year!

  23. Thanks Carl! It was loads of fun and I read books I would not have read otherwise. Looking forward the the second annual 🙂

  25. woo hoo! Christmas challenge !! I am sooo game for that !!

    This Hallowe’en thing was a lot of fun.

    Stretching book limits and reaching to further literary heights makes this bibliophile more than happy.

    LOVED the list you posted !

  27. Carl, while I didn’t participate I wanted to stop by and congratulate you on a most fruitful challenge. It was mighty fun to watch, and I truly wish I could’ve been a part of it (damn thesis).

    Cheers!

  28. I feel extremely guilty that I never read more from my reading list, but it’s still sitting on my bedside table, and I will tackle it. That’s a threat. 😉

  29. That’s an amazing list – thanks for the challenge, Carl, it’s been great! Although I was a bit confused over Dracula – did you ever receive my email?

  30. What a great, interesting list. While I hadn’t officially signed on to the challenge, I really enjoyed following other people’s adventures, and I did read a few things that qualify. Certainly it made me keep my eyes open for books that might qualify; I made an awesome discovery: Horror at Fontenay, by Alexandre Dumas.

    I’m looking forward to some kind of Christmas challenge.

  31. Thanks so much for inspiring me to read books I may have overlooked suring one of my favorite times of year. It helped me get into the spirit of things and was a great way to inspire more reading (always a plus!).

    We were so inspired that we started a Winter Challenge over at Overdue Books. See what you started? You are an inspiration!

    Thanks again.

  32. I’ll be joining yours Michelle, it is a challenge that coincides with something I was doing already so I’m very excited about it!

  33. I was curious so I went back to count how many books/stories out of the 184 listed (thus far) that I have read…the answer is a measley 27!

    How about anyone else, how many of those have you read?

  34. What an awesome list! Thanks for inspiring me to read some gothic books even though I didn’t officially participate in the challenge (I didn’t think I’d have time, what with my classic challenge). I read 3 gothic books and will most definitely partake in next year’s challenge. Kudos to you, Carl.

  35. My last book didn’t arrive until MONDAY. 😛 Stupid post office held it up for two whole weeks!

    Still, though, this was super fun. I’ll keep an eye out for 2007 candidates! 😉

  36. Yes, thank you for the challenge Carl! Even though I only managed three of my titles, plus two bonuses I thoroughly enjoyed it and managed to read two classics I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages. And you should absolutely field a Christmas challenge… I was contemplating undertaking something a little bit similar myself. 🙂

  37. I didn’t participate in the RIP challenge, but I wish that I had found the time. Unfortunately, between teaching school and going to grad school, I don’t have as much time as I might like to read. However, I did enjoy reading about the challenge on this blog and others. Also, your wrapup post is such a great tribute to the power of reading. I might steal a couple of the quotes you have here and post them in my classroom.

  38. Carl,

    It was a wonderful challenge which definitely took me beyond my customary reading material. I read my fifth selection just under the wire on Halloween night, but I haven’t yet posted my wrap up. I expect to do so in the next week or so. This was the first blog reading challenge that I participated in, and now I’ve signed up for two more. No doubt I’ll sign on to the Christmas one as well. Clearly, you’ve started something here!

  39. 292I’ve read about the same number as you Carl — 29 — and frankly, I’m shocked to know I’ve read that many.

  40. I enjoyed participating in your first RIP, even though I only read four on my list – life interferred. I’m excited about a Christmas one.

  42. I have done a summing up of mine. If you click onto the Category RIP on the right hand side of my blog up will come all my posts and the summing up is first

    Already looking forward to 2007

  43. Hiya! Just finished the Hound of the Baskervilles and thank you very much – I wouldn’t have read this had I not had the challenge! I am not sure yet if I will continue to finish the others on my list now or by Halloween 07, but I’m glad I could participate!

  44. I had so much fun, and if it wouldn’t have been for YOU, I wouldn’t have read the books on my challenge list! Thank you, and I can’t wait to see the Christmas Challenge!

  45. My November 17th post is my wrap-up, Carl. Just as in your life this week, work took over my life so I’m running a tad late. I’m looking forward to a Christmas challenge.

  46. Pingback: Stainless Steel Droppings » Once Upon a Time…the end draws near
  47. Pingback: Stainless Steel Droppings » Something R.I.P.ing This Way Comes
  48. Pingback: Stainless Steel Droppings » R.I.P. II….It’s official!!!

Comments are closed.