More darkness - it's R.I.P. VI!

It's been feeling pretty autumnal here for some time and the chickens go to bed earlier and earlier each day. I'd be feeling cheated of a summer except for one thing - Carl's R.I.P. Challenge. I've been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks now, and hoarding books until the auspicious day. Although I have to admit I've been keeping my impatience at bay with some pre-peril reading.

My book pool has been growing during the anticipatory period, and now shows signs of getting out of control (well, there's a surprise). So I'm going for:

which requires me to:

‘Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (my very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between.’

One thing which will be different for me is that I shall mostly be reading on my Kindle this year. This might make it even more of challenge because, although I reckon that I can reader even faster than usual on it, I get tired more quickly, and bedtime reading tends to be an hour or so of Quoodle-reading, followed by 30 minutes' wind-down reading a "proper" book. On the other hand, I may get so absorbed that I don't notice, and I do find when I'm travelling, and only have the Kindle with me, that I cope quite well. Another difference is that I plan to embark on a series re-read and see how far I get - I'm feeling quite excited about this.

And the last new element is Carl's read along of Jim Butcher's Storm Front (I've already told younger son I'm reclaiming it for the two months) and Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things.  I'm warming up for the latter by re-reading American Gods - the end is in sight, which makes me sad, it's a near-perfect book for me.

My book pool is:

In book form:

• A.S. Byatt, Ragnarok - I'm really looking forward to this! Should complement American Gods nicely.
• Martin Edwards, The Hanging Wood - a new Hannah Scarlett book, lovely, who could resist?

On Quoodle:

• Phil Rickman, The Merrily Watkins series. Starting with the first...I'll probably only manage a couple, but I've got three lined up.
• Jon Rosenberg, The Digital Wolf. I liked his first book, and have been saving this one.
• Frances Hardinge, Gullstruck Island. Love her writing.
• Connie Willis, Blackout. Ditto.
• Phil Rickman, The Bones of Avalon.
• Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind. Still on the TBR list.
• Alan Bradley, A Red Herring Without Mustard.
• Patricia Elliott, Murkmere.

I think that's enough to be going on with, especially as Carl's very nice about rules and allows us to add things as we go along. However many I get through, the difficulty is always finding time to blog about the books, so I don't really do very well on challenges - but I'll be happy having my reading focused for me, enjoy a binge on dark matter, and write about them whenever I can. And I always enjoy finding new things to add to the TBR list. I think this year I'll start a separate list of recommendations from other R.I.P. readers - ready for 2012?!