I think I forgot just how much I used to love to read. I've thrown myself at the television, anime and manga, the internet, and video games, and while there are indeed good stories in those media, I've neglected what originally gave me my lust for a damn good story in the first place.
I got Dad to take me to the bookstore today so I could look for books that have been reccomended to me by some of the good folks at
lkh_lashouts. As much as I complain about
Anita Blake: Vampire Humper Hunter, the only other supernatural fiction that I've read is one or two Anne Rice novels that I never finished and Stephen King. I really would like to delve deeper into the genre, partly because it's so interesting to me and partly to see what has and hasn't been done, so I know whether or not I want to write for this genre and what I can try. And I need something to replace my former addiction to AB:VH that isn't full of clicheed emo-tastic vampires and eye-bleedingly bad smut.
Apparently Peter David's
Howling Mad is out of print, and while it was on the computer, Anette Curtis Klause's
Blood and Chocolate was nowhere to be seen. I did find
The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, but they didn't have the first novel in stock, so that was out. I'm going to go to the library and see if any of these books are in, and if not I guess I'll go check online. In the end I bought volume one of the Blood Books by Tanya Huff (
Blood Price and
Blood Trail), and
Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I really hope I was right in thinking that the Harrison book is the first in the series, because it looks fairly interesting and I don't want to have to go back to the store to return it, or spoil myself on anything else in the series. Dad also got me a moleskine notebook, and it's fairly spiffy. :D
I'm about two chapters into
Blood Price, and so far I really like it. Huff's style is descriptive, but not overly so, and she's managed to avoid info-dumping. The premise seems promising, but I think it's too early to make any judgements on that. I'll just have to read further to see how she pulls it off.