Horror Aficionados discussion

in the near future HA secret agents will infiltrate and take over a book store near you

lol This would allow to me to experience my undercover agent "La Femme Nikita" fantasy in real-time. Well, sorta. :)

I really wish we had a Borders here in Alabama. (At least, if we do have one, I am not aware of it)

Bandit wrote: "Jason wrote: "It's a good thing I don't own a store like that, because I'd spend all my money and time there too."

yeah, but we'd all come over and hang out with you :)"

Now that would be cool! :)

We must stand up and fight for our rights to fright!


Corny, I know...

Jason wrote: "We must stand up and fight for our rights to fright!


Corny, I know..."

sounds like a beginning of an anthem :)

We need to start a campaign!

LOL I want the t-shirt.

yeah, and stickers

Buttons!

The shop with the best horror section in the UK is Forbidden Planet as you have a broad mix of classic, contemporary and new names there. I'm never very impressed with Waterstones as the selection is usually dominated by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and then a few others sandwiched in. Additionally, I noted they are now rebranding King's horror novel as thrillers, which I don't think bodes well for the future.

G.R. said: "Additionally, I noted they are now rebranding King's horror novel as thrillers, which I don't think bodes well for the future."

Yes, when arguably the biggest star of the genre is being steerede clear of being labelled a horror guy, there's a problem... but ask anyone who reads (not justr horror) what King writes and they'll say 'Horror'... I love the passion in this thread!

Armand Rosamilia

My B&N doesn't have a horror section either, some are found in fiction, some in science fiction and fantasy. But even in Borders where they were seperate the selection was pathetic. Big names like King, Koontz, Saul, Straub, and also alot of books I would consider vampire romance series. I'm getting authors from all of you that I've never heard of.

G.R. wrote: "Additionally, I noted they are now rebranding King's horror novel as thrillers, which I don't think bodes well for the future. "

King's books have always simply said "fiction" on the spine. The never said "horror" (or whichever appropriate subgenre).

There are soooo many places to get good lists of horror -- here, Amazon Listmania, many reader sites (like theauthorsspeak.com and many others) -- frankly, I prefer to make up my own list from those rather than having book store clerks come up with their own filing system. Obviously many books stores don't "get" the genre breaks, and hence the thriller/horror/sci-fi mash-ups. That's my two cents. ;)

Of course, most preferable would be a chain of creepy local Jason White Boo(k) Cellar stores...

I like when bookstores have a shelf for employee recommendations. I loved doing it when I worked in a book store, although I don't think anyone ever bought my suggestions!

Were they all anthologies, Scott?

I doubt it.

This has been a pet peeve of mine for years. So many other genres get their own sections but Horror is ignored. You see this online just as much when you look at online bookstores. Horror is rarely listed.

Borders has been good about giving Horror it's own section but, as Traci mentions, It's usually big name authors. And anthologies.

But...Borders is out of business now and selling off it's stock as fast as possible.

B&N is a cool store with a huge selection, massive scifi and fantasy, but finding horror is such a chore that I often don't bother unless I am looking for a specific author/book.

I like to browse bookstores but can't stand disorganized stores or ones that push a certain type of book while denigrating others.

I think it goes back to people (literary snobs) who don't consider Horror, Fantasy or Science Fiction (or many other genres to be legitimate literature. They tend to believe in a High Culture and a Low Culture. Horror, Fantasy or Science Fiction are at the bottom of Low Culture according to most of them. They tend to frown on escapist fiction completely.
Good for them, they have no idea what they are missing and I don't miss their snide comments!

I have a hard time finding anything at BN....It seems I walk all around the store at times looking for the book I want or need. One time I had to ask where a book was cuz I looked everywhere. It was in the romance section....really? I did not think to even look there because it was not romance.

Even Amazon doesn't have a horror section for books. You have to plod through the mysteries and thrillers.

Exactly what I was talking about. It's nearly impossible to look through ALL the fiction at B&N, frustrating really.
And don't get me started on Amazon! They are who I was thinking about when I mentioned online stores. Out of all the catagories they use-

Books Categories

Amazon Student
Arts & Photography
Audiobooks
Audible Audiobooks
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Calendars
Children's Books
Christian Books
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Crafts & Hobbies
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Politics
Professional & Technical
Puzzles & Games
Rare & Collectible Books
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Self-Help
Sports
Teens
Textbooks
Travel

Horror is ignored. If they can list all those, what's so hard about listing Horror?
Instead they group Horror with Science Fiction & Fantasy. Not totally bad but it should at least be listed along with those in the main list.
Grumble, grumble, ...

We should fight this, somehow. Not sure how, but horror needs to stop being overlooked!

Never been a problem for me, stores usually have a nice little horror section...I just get annoyed when they mix, horror with sci-fi/fantasy.

Amazon does have a section for horror. You have to click on Literature and Fiction, then Genre Fiction, and then Horror.

There are four Amazon subcats for horror:

horror/occult
horror/anthologies
horror/dark fantasy
horror/ghosts

via:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/...

My local bookshop has a decent horror section. The funny thing is that they put V.C. Andrews in there with it. Never thought Flowers In the Attic to be horror.

That's where I usually see them too. One bookstore put her in the YA section. I know a lot of YAs sneak them but I don't think they're written for them!

I'm always seeing V.C. Andrews in the horror section at the thrift stores, too. I agree those books aren't horror at all, just general smutty fiction.

That is where all the VC Andrews are in my UBS too....horror section. I have never read any of those books.

I guess because they have black covers?

Jenn, I read the first three back when I was a teen. It was the forbidden thing to do back then. They're not so bad, but the rest of them look like garbage.

Good to know Tressa.....I have plenty on my tbr list before adding those!

Those V.C Andrews are always in the horror sections around here, too. I guess they have no idea where else to put them...

*points to recycling bin*

What are you talking about, Scott? Those Andrews books are brilliant! Highly underrated!

Scott wrote: "*points to recycling bin*"
lol, loved this, both for the joke and; I had a woman I was date freak out on me when I said I had recycled some books. Don't get me wrong, I have given away, traded in, and sold plenty of books over the years. I'm sure those books deserved a chance at becoming better books. Still, she was surprisingly mad, and chewed me out saying that I could have donated them. I'm pretty sure the books still deserved it though.
The V.C. Andrews books should be in thriller. The movie for Flowers in the Attic gives me the willies. I will never read the books, way too creeped out already.
It does suck when horror gets spread between Sci-Fi and Fiction sections. General Fiction can be a little messy already, but there is some great genre stuff in there of course, i.e. J G Ballard, Joe Lansdale. I do wish that Sci-Fi and Fantasy would get separated as well. The Borders I go to has an okay horror section, it was a little bit bigger, separating allot of the hardcover and softcover from the paperbacks, but it got overtaken by expansion of two other niche sections. There's a Western shelf next to the Horror, I find that amusing. The Thriller section is too far from the Horror section, but it keeps the True Crime section from being next to the Horror section, which I think just looks bad.
I've bought plenty of books new, and still might, but probably only a few. Most likely I'll just mail order uncommon books that wouldn't be on the self anyway, or digitally, which has changed how much I've been reading anyway.

Brett wrote: "This has been a pet peeve of mine for years. So many other genres get their own sections but Horror is ignored. You see this online just as much when you look at online bookstores. Horror is rarely..."

I'm not bothered that Horror doesn't get much mainstream respect. It gets plenty of respect in forums like this and from the people who love it. I'm way past seeking approval for the things I like. B&N and Borders have mostly bowed to the masses looking for the latest bestseller du jour, and that's cool with me. Let them all go there. Don't need them. Genre Lit is kind of like having that great bar (or club, or hangout, whatever) to go to that hasn't been discovered and ruined by all the DB's from big-box land swooping in and ruining it by playing Huey Lewis & the News on the juke.

I was out of town and had an opportunity to go to Half-Priced Books. To my surprise, they did have a horror section. Not a very big one but better than nothing. I still found some horror hardbacks mixed in with mystery.
I came home with The Killer Inside Me. Did anyone read this?

The Killer Inside Me was our June group read. This thread contains spoilers, but you may want to join in when you finish.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

We read Killer Inside Me this June for our group read, Tracy. I loved it, myself.

Here's the discussion:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

Woops, I was getting the addy for this when you posted, Tressa, so I didn't see it. LOL

We are two excellent mods.

You are, anyway! :D

Thanks, guys, I should have seen that discussion -Duh! *smacking forehead* I will probably wait to check out the thread until after I read it (don't want any spoilers to, um, ..spoil it for me. lol.)

It's a big group, Tracy. Totally understandable that you missed it! :)

Jason wrote: "You are, anyway! :D"

I bet you've never accidentally deleted someone's comments...not once, not twice, but thrice over the years.

I've accidentally deleted my own more than once when I went to go and edit it. Does that count?

No.

Damn!