Friday, October 13, 2017

Book Sale 2017, October Fireworks, and Mystery Oreo.


Possibly more than anything else I adore how these final holiday laced months of the year allow us the opportunity to twist fairly mundane activities into something special. Watching a terrible movie in November for instance becomes a special cinematic turkey. In a similar fashion, the local library book sale can become a hunt for long forgotten horror literature which will give an additional chill to October nights. That exact book sale has been a part of my Halloween festivities for years now. Sometimes I bring home such a massive haul I can easily base a whole post on it. Other years however, it's tough to find even a few worthwhile titles. Add to that a missing in action mystery box, and I find myself at loss for good blog material this week. Still; when life gives you lemons, you hastily toss together a grab bag article and hope nobody minds.

Since the loss of our local used book store this past Summer cut off easy access to classic horror fiction, I entered this book sale with high hopes that I'd find some nice entries from Graham Masterton, Frank De Felitta, or hell, I'd even take Whitley Strieber in a pinch. Sadly despite the massive offering of books on display I hardly found anything of interest be it horror or otherwise. Suppose I shouldn't complain too much as I've still got novels from previous sales withering on the book shelf. Let's check out my slim pickings for this year.

Curfew: My first find of the night is the classic sort of oversized small town terror piece, complete with praise from Stephen King. Props should be given to whoever wrote the back jacket description as it was interesting enough to pull me in without giving offering a damn clue as to what it's about. Whole thing could be about man eating teddy bears for all I know. Looking it up online there seems to be some dribble about new-age mystics and evil spirits. Sounds good enough for me.

The Relic: Here's the one I'm most likely to read this month. I've watched the movie at least half-a-dozen times or so as I find it to be one of the more solid high-budget horror flicks of the 90's. From what I know, like most films based on books, the events on page are substantially different and potentially better. At least I know what I'm getting in to here.

Inheritance: All I've got to go on here is that it's some kind of revenge scheme thriller involving telekinetic children.

House of Menace: The description for this one is so vague that it may actually be a romance novel. It was late in the sale, and I was desperate. If nothing else the cover art makes for a good laugh. The house is so manacling it makes decent god-fearing folk gasp just by looking at it.

Scorpius: The only non-horror/thriller entry this year is one of the post Fleming, James Bind novels. I've never taken the time to read any Bond titles outside of the original series but I figured it's worth spending a quarter to find out if they're any good. I highly doubt this will provide as many eye-popping instances of misogyny and racism as the classic books so it probably won't read as much like a high class mad-lib.

While my poor luck at book hunting was a bit of a downer, there was something that capped of this week in style. As part of some initiative to inspire town pride and what not, the city decided to launch fireworks after the last home game of the season. Lucky for yours truly the football field is within my backyard skyline allowing a splendid opportunity to sit back with some hooch and watch the show without ever leaving the comfort of my pajamas. Props to the town on this show. While not a massive event, they put far more money and effort into the proceedings than I would have imagined. My vantage point added the bonuses of water reflections and terrified ducks fleeing for their lives. Fireworks aren't something regularly associated with this season but if the town decides to continue this display as a regular event, I'll gladly stock up on beer and light a fire in the backyard every autumn.

When not out looking for smelly books or viewing pyromania, I've been participating in viewing a horror flick every night. Can't recall how many years I've been doing this, though I will say there's no plan to stop anytime soon. Part of the fun of the horrorthon is balancing old standbys with new goodies and the occasional oddball title. For me that means there's a larger than normal amount of movies arriving in the mail, or simply nabbed off the cheap rack at Wal-Mart. Within the past couple of weeks I've inducted a spread of titles ranging from the newest Chucky to the lackluster virtual reality opus The Lawnmower Man. Really looking forward to showcasing the latter to my nephew so he might finally understand why I snort whenever people bring up the topic of VR.

Fueling those light night fright flicks are these new Mystery Flavor Oreo Cookies. Actually I feel fairly confident in knowing what the flavor is. I won't reveal it here so as not to color anyone's expectations. If you're on the fence I will let it be known that they're fruity, and honestly kinda awesome.
It's sort of odd that Nabisco chose October to release these cookies as there's nothing objectively spooky or festive about them in any way. They could just as easily brought them out in any other season without issue, though I'm happy to have one more treat to make this month special.


And let's call that and end to tonight's ramblings as I still have to still in for the customary viewing of a Friday the 13th flick. Let's face it, the night just wouldn't be complete without watching a guy with a misshapen head terrorize the double-mint twins.  

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