Thursday, June 5, 2014

Guest Post by Kate - Why I'm a Midnight Book Girl



I love books.  I love all kinds of books.  I read a wide variety of genres, and I always will because I'm very much a mood reader.  Sometimes I need to laugh, or cry, or get caught up in a thriller so that I can get my mind off real life worries.  But I will always have a special place in my bookish heart for the horror books that turned me into a Midnight Book Girl in the first place. 

I don't remember my exact age when I read my first horror story, but I was still in grade school.  It was probably around 4th or 5th grade.  My dad left a copy of Firestarter by Stephen King in the upstairs hall bathroom.  There it was, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, beckoning me with it's firey title. So I grabbed it and started to read. It would be fair to say that I didn't grasp everything I was reading, and yes, the book did give me nightmares.  But I felt something spark inside me too, I was reading a grown up book!  I'd already heard of Stephen King, and had probably seen some movies based on his books by then (thanks to my older brother Patrick and his supply of horror movies to keep me in line when he had to babysit me).  The fact that Firestarter was also a horror novel only added to the excitement.  It felt taboo, but at the same time because the main character was a young girl, I was able to identify with her.  

You know, because I can set fire to things with my mind too. 

I have to hand it to my parents- they never put limits on what books I was reading.  Oh, my dad rolled his eyes a bit when I bought every single Sweet Valley High book, but because he was a very eclectic reader himself he never batted an eye at my choices (I can only assume that's because he never read a Jackie Collins novel so he had no idea the kind of smut I was reading in high school).  In fact, in 6th grade, when I re-discovered Stephen King, my dad and I listened to The Mist on audiobook whilst taking a particularly foggy/rainy drive from Virginia to Pennsylvania. 

What really got me hooked on horror was all the Christopher Pike books in the early 90s- my blog name was inspired by his book The MidnightClub.  From then on out I sought bloodier, scarier and creepier books.  I devoured John Saul, Cold Fire by Dean Koontz was read over and over again, and then there was always my first love, Stephen King.  I read some really bad horror novels too, but into every genre a little crap must fall, right?

Of course, nowadays it's not as common for me to stay up reading horror until the midnight hour.  But I'm still reading horror along with all the other genres I've come to appreciate.  Through Stephen King, I've found a lot of other great authors- Richard McCammon, Joe Hill, Richard Laymon (although, to be honest, his books have proven to be even more twisted than I can handle), Anne Rice, and tons of thriller and mystery authors.  I'm much pickier about my horror novels these days, and I tend to gravitate to the thriller aspect of horror, but I'll always be that sameMidnight Book Girl, reading Stephen King and scaring myself so bad that I have to sleep with the lights on. ;)

Visit Kate at Midnight Book Girl!

2 comments:

Felicia the Geeky Blogger said...

((((((((((( Huggles ))))))))))))))))))) Love you both!

I used to could only read horror when the sun was up! Now though I prefer reading it at night and getting scared :) Adds to the drama of the book!

Midnyte Reader said...

@Felicia-I can read Horror anytime, but yes, at night it's more fun!

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