Recommended Reading

Not only is the success of Andy Weir one of the greatest indie author inspirational stories out there. This book of his is truly one of the best science fiction novels I’ve ever read.

If you’ve only seen the movie, then you are missing out on some of the best parts of the story.

Plus, the ending of the book blatantly says that what happens at the end of the movie is impossible – which frankly really bugged the shit out of me in the theater.

This is probably the single most influential King book of his whole catalogue, when it comes to me growing into the writer I am today.

I read IT the first time when I was ten-years old, and then spend the next six months avoiding storm drains and clowns and that visceral reaction to words on a page, not only sent me suddenly reading every horror book I could get my hands on, it also firmly sowed the seed of eventually writing my own scary stories.

So… it’s not a book… But if you read a lot and haven’t already signed up this awesome program you’re really just throwing money away. The best thing about it is — at least for me — you get TONS of great Kindle books for free with your subscription and the authors (like me) still get paid based on how many pages you read. Talk about a win-win.

As a fan of Stephen King for most of my life, this series just blew my mind.

Now just in the spirit of full disclosure, there are some who don’t appreciate the first book, claiming it doesn’t quite stand on its own. But fuck that, I think it’s great, just like the rest of them (though you could probably skip #5 “Wolves of Calla” completely and barely miss anything.)

I’ll just pretend like the movie never happened. Just like the producers of it pretended like the books never had — seriously WTF happened there?

I just re-read this one a couple of weeks ago and frankly, it wasn’t nearly as scary as I remember it being. Of course, I was maybe twelve-years old the first time I sat down with it.

Regardless, it’s a classic and the psychological vs. theological debate the story hangs on is a fascinating one. In fact, it was an inspiration for a lot of the script of my indie zombie project Pretty Dead.

And, frankly it’s one of those books you really should have read by now, if you’re truly a fan of dark fiction…

I know, I know… It’s my own book.

But I find myself constantly rereading it while I write the next installment. And if some how you managed to get to this list without having read it first – well, it is my debut novel, shouldn’t you check it out?