My Top 5 Favourite Horror Books of 2011

Another year comes to a close, my goodreads reading challenge saw me finishing the year with 20 books read. For next year I'm increasing that goal to 25 and at least 10 of those will be ebooks. Also hoping to get through a few more poetry collections as well.

These are my top 5 horror books of the year, not necessarily published in 2011.

1) Banquet for the Damned by Adam Nevill. My review and book details here.

2)The Road by Cormac McCarthy. My review and book details here.

3)The Ritual by Adam Nevill. My review and books details here.

4) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. My review and book details here.

5)The Rhysling Anthology 2011 edited by David Lunde. My review and book details here.

An honourable mention goes to Peter Straub's long story "The Buffalo Hunter."

What were your favourite reads of the year?

My Top 5 Favourite iPad apps - Part 2

Yep, there are technically 10 apps on my favourite gadget.

1)Feeddler Pro - Multiple blogs across multiple blog platforms all synced to one nifty app for the luxury of digital reading on an ereader.

2) Core Yoga - Great for starting a beginning yoga routine, good graphics with a virtual tutor. But be sensible and grab Yoga for Dummies for plenty of practical advice and tips if you've never done yoga before.

3) Pranayama - Deep breathing exercise on your ipad. Great for relaxation.

4) Kindle - I hate that it uses percentages instead of good old fashioned page numbers and has no way of sorting books into virtual shelfs but it's a necessary evil for ebooks. Plenty of free samples to download so you can always try before you buy.

5) AudioMemo's - Voice recording, simple and straight forward. I use it to practice reading my poetry aloud

Missed My Top 5 Favourite iPad apps part 1?

My Top 5 Favourite iPad apps - Part 1

I'm addicted to my iPad, not only does it double up as my laptop when I'm away from home, it's my portable library, poetry organiser and yoga coach. This is a 2 part post listing my personal 10 best apps.

1) Story Tracker - Acts as a database keeping records of all my written stories and poetry from word counts, markets, submissions made to rejections and acceptances. I'm patiently waiting for the desktop version to become available.

2) Toodledo - My task manager tracking to-do's across multiple projects. I love it. See my post on using a task manager here.

3)Ibooks - Although the ebooks in the store are pricy, there are free books and samples to download and allows for sorting into lists unlike the kindle app. I have lists for complete books, pdfs, samples and wishlist. I like the interface. Download it free from the app store.

4) Docs to go - I can produce word compatible files on the go and either sync to the desktop or email back to myself. Handy to be able to work on my fiction or poetry when I'm away from home.

5) Twitter - I actually prefer the twitter app to the browser, easier to add hashtags and followers handles to your tweets. Again, I can keep in touch when I'm away from home.

Some are free apps, some are paid apps. I'd suggest trialing free alternatives and demo's until you get a feel for how much use you will get from an app. It may sound good but there may be bugs or short falls that render it useless.

What apps or software are on your must have list?

other posts you may enjoy:
My Top 5 Favourite Blogs

My Top 5 Favourite Blogs

My top 5 favourite blogs in no particular order are:

Ghost Hunting Theories - Run by Autumn Forest. Always great fun and worth keeping an eye on for paranormal research and theories.

Spooky Reads - Great UK based blog for horror book reviews and occasional author interviews.

Poetic Asides - Run by Robert Lee Brewer. The poet's best friend, covers rules for many poetic forms, weekly prompts and yearly challenges.

Writer Beware Blogs - Anyone who exists to warn writers about publishing scams is ok in my book

A Round of Words in 80 Days - Run by Kait Nolan. Excellent motivational community of writers, keeps me firmly aboard the writing wagon.

So what are some of your favourite blogs?

Other Top 5's
Stephen King Books
Ghost Stories
Poems

My Top 5 Favourite Stephen King Books

Welcome to a new monthly feature "My Top 5" all posts will go up on the 13th of the month. Access this blog feature anytime by clicking on My Top 5 in the labels in the sidebar.


Top 5 Stephen King Novels:

These are my all time top 5 Stephen King Books. King has such a vast imagination that anything goes. In no particular order:


It - The past and the present were seamlessly integrated


The Shining - Great location, great character.


The Dark Half - Had huge appeal when I was using a penname


Nightmares And Dreamscapes - Fantastic short story collection. I loved the way King used two mundane objects in Chattery Teeth and The Moving Finger


Black House - written with Peter Straub, I completely fell in love with the main character.

What are your favourite Stephen King books?

Other Top 5's:
My Top 5 Favourite Ghost Stories
My Top 5 Favourite Poems

My Top 5 Favourite Ghost Stories

These days my fiction writing is pulling me towards the supernatural and in particular ghosts rather than your straight horror. I began thinking about what I would list as my all time favourite ghost stories, there's a hell of a lot of stuff I've read but have forgotten and some of my selections were read/seen so long ago that I'll keep this brief. In no particular order:

1) Scrooge (1951 British version, film) Based on Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol". A Christmas ghost story, I have to watch it every year.

2) Woman In Black (Novel by Susan Hill and a theatre production) Creepy, atmospheric and traditional.

3) Apartment 16 (Novel by Adam Nevill) An original modern day haunting that adds plenty of depth.

4) Haunted (Novel by James Herbert) Probably one of the first ghost stories I read.

5) The Moonlit Path (short story by Ambrose Bierce) Effectively tells an event from 3 different perspectives, each with a unique voice, each filling in the gaps for the reader.

So what are your favourite ghost stories?

Other posts you may enjoy:

Review - Apartment 16
Blogger Zombie Walk

My Top 5 Favourite Poems

My top 5 favourite poems are:

The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe
The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes
The Shape of Things (can't remember the authors name and unfortunately the anthology it was in is locked away in storage.)
Ulalume - Edgar Allan Poe
Sick Rose - William Blake

So what's everyone elses favourites? I need more to read.