Random books from jseger9000's library

100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz

Members with jseger9000's books

Member connections

Friends: AlanDraven, beeg, bibliorex, bobmcconnaughey, booksalemanager, CandiBelle, daddygoth, edgeworth, gothic_cowgirl, greenfuzzydice, heina, herstorian, Huge_Horror_Fan, JeremyCShipp, jonhovis, KentAllard1, kswolff, Lunar, MikeKo, NickCato, Pulpfan, RabidPete, rstuckey, silversurfer, stefferjo, TheBentley, unorna, wdprescott, Xiguli

Interesting libraries: bibliorex, Huge_Horror_Fan, NickCato, RabidPete, remlub, TheBentley

LibraryThing authors: Brian Keene (BrianKeene), Keith Francis Strohm (KeithStrohm), Charles Holdefer (Krolik), Chandler McGrew (McGrewc), Joe Hill (joehill), Nate Kenyon (kenyonn2000), Jonathan Maberry (maberry), Nicholas Nicastro (nicastrobooks), Pam Lewis (peemolewis), Stephen Leigh (sleigh)

RSS feeds

Recently-added books

jseger9000's reviews

Reviews of jseger9000's books, not including jseger9000's

Helper badges

view larger

Member: jseger9000

CollectionsYour library (1,950), Currently reading (1), Read but unowned (4), All collections (1,954)

Reviews91 reviews

TagsHorror (469), Science Fiction (457), Fantasy (234), 1st in series (186), Leisure (136), Thriller (72), Western (67), Novelization (62), Omnibus (47), Mystery (46) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Groups75 Books Challenge for 2009, Atheism and humanism, Atheist Fiction, Atheists review books, Banned Books, BBC Radio 3 Listeners, Bestsellers over the Years, Book Fiend, Brights, Combiners! — show all groups

Favorite authorsIsaac Asimov, Stephen Baxter, Raymond Chandler, Arthur C. Clarke, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert E. Howard, John Irving, Garrison Keillor, Stephen King, Bentley Little, Colleen McCullough, Michael Moorcock, Jean Shepherd, John Steinbeck, Peter Straub, Amy Tan, Tennessee Williams (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresBarnes & Noble Booksellers - The Woodlands, Half Price Books - North Oaks Center

About meI'm currently reading: I've recently finished:

Books first, since this is a book site after all: I love scary stories and have a real soft spot for first time authors. I buy way too many books to reasonably read (especially since I consider myself a slow reader). I only read one book at a time. Otherwise I feel like I'm short-changing the author.

I like to carry my books with me everywhere I go (and I'm a cheap bastard), so I prefer good old mass market paperbacks. I will pick up trade paperbacks if that is all that is available, but avoid hardbacks.

I am perhaps a little too verbose in my reviews. I write like I talk. Can't help it.

In order to support my obscene book buying habit, I maintained a seasonal position at Barnes & Noble. Please put books away if you aren't going to buy them!

Other stuff: Born and raised in California, but cheap real estate brought me to the suburban hell that is The Woodlands, TX (a few miles outside of Houston).

I'm kind of a boring person and at times think I could be happy as a hermit. I'm a left-leaning atheist, which makes me a pariah whenever politics or religion come up in public here in Dubya's home state.

Like everybody else, I enjoy books, movies and music (books most of all). In all three I've noticed that I can enjoy Great Works and crap. But I always have some sort of justification for the crap I enjoy.

As for movies, I love horror movies (especially John Carpenter's stuff) and anything by Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg or Sergio Leone. I'm also a big fan of Godzilla or any of the other Toho giant monster movies. For me it just doesn't get better than a man in a rubber suit knocking over buildings, unless it's two men in rubber suits fighting and knocking over buildings. Yeah, baby! That's the good stuff!

I won't bore you with my fav music.

Create your own visitor map!

About my libraryA book with no rating means I haven't read it or it's been so long that I should re-read it. That's most of my books!

I try to feed my head with decent literature, but a quick scan of my library shows that really I'm a horror junky who loves a generous dose of hard sci-fi and some historical fiction on the side. My latest addiction is pulpy, schlocky westerns.

I really enjoy American lit from the first half of the twentieth century. Steinbeck is my very favorite author, but I also love Fitzgerald and Hemingway. I've tried some Faulkner and Sinclair Lewis and some others, but so far no one else has moved me the way those big three have.

My true love is horror stories. I think it stems from my interest in folk tales and urban legends. I really go for stories of the supernatural invading everyday life. I don't like endless series about weepy, erotic vampires in black lace. I like my horror stories to have strong characters. They seem to make the supernatural hi-jinks easier to swallow. My favorite writers are Stephen King (except the Dark Tower books. I tend to skip those), Peter Straub and Bentley Little.

I read a lot of fantasy as a kid, but I think I grew out of it once I discovered Arthur C. Clarke and hard sci-fi. I've tried picking up some fantasy since then, but it just doesn't have the magic it once did. (Except maybe for Michael Moorcock...) I do still like reading stuff from the pulp days. Fritz Leiber goes sadly unrecognized as a fantasy grand master. Love Robert E. Howard's stuff. He seems to be the antithesis of what fantasy is nowadays.

I love sci-fi in the 2001 mold. Near future stories set within the solar system about encounters with aliens or alien artifacts. Usually very technical descriptions of life in space with pretty flat characters. Steven Baxter is my favorite current writer. I also love Isaac Asimov and as mentioned Arthur C. Clarke.

Shogun introduced me to the wonder of historical fiction. I especially have a soft spot for ancient Greece and Rome. Some of my favorites are Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, Colleen McCullough's The Song of Troy and Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa books.

I've only listed books here if I currently own them myself. (My better half has a slew of Dean Koontz books for instance, but I don't consider them 'mine' so they aren't listed.)

Homepagehttp://www.librarything.com/picsizes/c9/e6/bba14949f42163af8

Also onAmazon, IMDB, LiveJournal, MySpace

Real nameJames Seger

LocationThe Woodlands, Texas

Emailjseger9000comcast.net

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/jseger9000 (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jseger9000 (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (506), Awards (278), Characters (6005), Places (1266)

Member sinceMay 11, 2007

Currently readingPet Sematary by Stephen King

Most recent activity

jseger9000 reviewed, rated:
Horrorween by Al Sarrantonio

(read review)

jseger9000 added:
Deviant by Harold Schechter

jseger9000 added:
Russian Amerika by Stoney Compton

jseger9000 added:
Starfarers by Poul Anderson

jseger9000 added:
Wetbones by John Shirley

jseger9000 added:
Vampyricon: The Priest of Blood by Douglas Clegg

I saw we were both reading it as well. Your Gary Braunbeck thread piqued my interest in reading more of his books again. I think your review was spot on. The book was very well written (as was Mr Hands) and he has the ability to invoke a great deal of emotion for the plight of his characters. Although I rated it a bit higher, dark fantasy isn't my favorite genre either. For me, his books have the same effect that Tom Piccirilli books have in that they are very well written but a bit too lyrical. I'm not sure if that's the right term, but I sometimes feel I'm not grasping the symbolism although I'm enjoying the read.

posted by timdt at 6:56 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2009

Am I to understand that you are a stephen king fan but you have not *gasp* read the dark tower series??!!

posted by erinbearlina at 10:02 pm (EST) on Oct 2, 2009

Hey---glad you enjoyed the review. Gary's one of the best in the field.

posted by NickCato at 11:01 pm (EST) on Sep 16, 2009

Thanks for the welcome! I may very well join the Christine read in October. Just now I finished up the first Repairman Jack--very nice, I've been shelving them for a million years, but only recently thought to pick one up--and begun Under the Dome, which I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of. So far, awesome.

As to your comment about work crap leading to more reading crap--right there with you. I'm in the book business (Borders), and we are so up against it with our new corporate structure and [anti]philosophy that when I'm not at work I just want to read one thriller after another.

But it's better than drugs for the health, and a little more cost effective.

Talk to you in the group!

Becky

posted by BeckyJG at 11:29 am (EST) on Sep 15, 2009

PS Just read a handful of your reviews, as well. Nice work!

posted by BeckyJG at 1:13 pm (EST) on Sep 13, 2009

Hi there!

Dropped by because I'm thinking of joining the 2010 Flavor of the Month group read, and you're the guy who posted the list.

Love your profile comments--I think we may be reading soulmates after a fashion, because I feel the same way about the Great Works/crap dichotomy, as well as the justification for the crap. Hey, it's all good in one way or another.

Anyway, hope to chat over at Constant Readers now and again.

Happy reading (and collecting!).

Becky

posted by BeckyJG at 1:03 pm (EST) on Sep 13, 2009

I understand completely. The book is available on Amazon.com for about $10, but since I’m hoping for a review, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to expect you to buy a copy :)

posted by cmtusa at 11:12 pm (EST) on Sep 3, 2009

Noticed you liked Out by Natsuo Kirino, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in reviewing my new novel and posting your comments here, as well as a few other book-related sites. Thought you might like my book since it's also gritty, a bit violent, and a bit dark :) I could e-mail you the novel in an e-book format if you'd like (I'm out of physical copies at the moment). Here's a link to a summary (and a sample chapter) in case you'd like to read more about the novel before you commit.

http://christophertusa.com/

Thanks,

Chris

posted by cmtusa at 9:21 pm (EST) on Sep 3, 2009

Thanks!

posted by KentAllard1 at 3:18 am (EST) on Aug 25, 2009

Thanks for commenting on my review, and picking up that typo - I've been making a hell of a lot of them since I was exiled to this wretched country and have to use a tiny netbook for all my writing.

posted by edgeworth at 1:51 am (EST) on Aug 23, 2009

> I just wanted to say that Reviews Reviewed is quickly becoming one of my favorite groups. Thanks for starting it.

Praise is always welcome, of course :) but I don't deserve all the credit, I wouldn't have done it without encouragement. I floated the idea for a group of this sort here in Go Review That Book and a few others made suggestions and gave the necessary encouragement. Until recently, after I'd been on LT for a while, I hadn't tried to write reviews, so I reckon I need some help and RR is where I get it.

posted by jimroberts at 4:40 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2009

Hi, jseger! Thanks for your note. I have a beautiful picture of one of my sons sitting (what looks to me to be) too close to the edge. And as he goes back to the Grand Canyon whenever he gets the chance, I'm afraid to ever look at that book. Right now, he is in Alaska, backpacking at Denali, swimming in the Arctic Ocean, and who knows what other mother-worrying activities. I just always breathe a sigh of relief when he's back at school!

Hope you're having a great vacation!

countrylife

(For continuity) you said:

Hey, I'm on vacation and went to Sedona today. I saw a book very similar to the one you reviewed. It was called 'Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon'.

Not sure if you are really all that interested in a second book dealing with death at a national park, but it reminded me of your review.

posted by countrylife at 3:48 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2009

The Longarms are, I gather, variable in quality. The ones by James Reasoner, though, are supposed to be very good.

(I usually only check this profile when I mirror a review from my LJ here -- sorry I haven't responded earlier!)

posted by Pulpfan at 1:56 am (EST) on Jul 4, 2009

Copyright LibraryThing and/or members of LibraryThing, authors, publishers, libraries, cover designers, Amazon, Bol, Bruna, etc. | static: /