alt.gothic.booklist

"Hi. I need a good book to read.
Can anyone recommend anything?
"
- typical newbie post from alt.gothic

The Alt.Gothic.Booklist was created to house book recommendations
by and for the readership of the Usenet newsgroup alt.gothic. Initial
recommendations have been culled from a number of polls on the topic
in the newsgroup itself. Preference has been given to books which
have been recommended by more than one poster.

Sections are arranged mostly according to where you would find
these books if you went to a large bookstore. While we can argue
that Clive Barker's novels are often more fantasy than horror,
every bookstore I've ever been to kept him in the horror section.

Do you think books are missing from this list?
Have we left something out?
Write to me about it!
Be sure to include your email addy, URL (if you have one),
and the correct title and author of the book (check your spelling!).
Tell me why you like the book: I know you like it, and I know you
think it's wonderful, or else you wouldn't be recommending it.
Write a few sentences about the book's basic premise and the author's
skill. I will often use recommendations with no description, but I won't
credit them. I reserve the right to correct any technicalities in your
description (spelling and so on). I also reserve the right to not use
any given recommendation, specifically if you are the only person
recommending a book that I've heard several other people slag,
or if you are recommending a book that I think you might hesitate to
recommend on the newsgroup.

One major note: I am NOT accepting submissions for poetry or drama.

I don't think Shakespeare needs to be recommended on this page;
everyone has most likely read at least a little Shakespeare in school,
and if someone is remotely educated, it's something they'll get to.
I would be extremely surprised if someone who has *never* read
*any* Shakespeare were to find this list useful. If you haven't
read Shakespeare, do go read some now. There.

Poetry, I feel, is too subjective, and available in too many different
editions. I think if someone is looking for poetry,
they know what they like, or they will find it through an anthology.
Please don't write to me howling that I've forgotten Sylvia Plath,
Lord Byron, Keats, Shelley, Eliot, Yeats, Sexton, etc etc. They
haven't been forgotten, they just don't really have a comfortable
place here. If you're interested in poetry, my advice would be
to go to a large bookstore or library, grab a stack of anthologies,
and start flipping through them.
This list is for prose works only.

If you think something is here that should not be... well, I don't know
what to tell you. There are books on this list which I personally found
mediocre-at-best, but they're here because many people from a.g.
liked them. Please don't mail me to tell me that some book on the
list sucked, and you want it taken off; I won't do it. Just try to
ignore it, and find something else here to read. :)

frogs and fishes from Thessaly

gothbooks@hotmail.com


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