Spooked!

I love Barbara Michaels’ paranormal books. Her novel Ammie Come Home was the first adult mystery I ever read, and WOW did it make an impression on me. Four decades later, I still read this book occasionally. (Which I did only a couple of weeks ago.) It was made into an ABC Movie of the Week titled "The House That Wouldn’t Die," starring Barbara Stanwyck. (Okay, it wasn’t as good as the book, but it was pretty scary to a kid like me.)

But even more scary was another ABC Movie Of The Week titled, "Daughter of the Mind." A séance was held, during which the spirit of a little girl dipped her protoplasmic hand into a wax melter (her mother was an artist who worked in the lost-wax process) and there was the solid proof--complete with fingerprints--that the dead little girl was trying to contact her parents. Well, that was the premise, at least.

If I saw the movie today, I’m afraid I might find it was totally STOOOOOPID. But all these years later, I still remember it with a shudder.

But the scariest move (okay, maybe after "Alien") I ever saw was yet another ABC Movie of the Week, "The Night Stalker," a tale of vampirism in modern-day Las Vegas. (Oh, how I mourned the recent death of its star, Darren McGavin.) I rented the tape about 15 years ago, and I was still FREAKED by the film (originally made in 1972). I have a copy of the movie on a Beta tape, but (damn!) no longer have a Beta machine to play it on. So…yesterday I ordered the DVD.  Hey, hit me with a 2 x 4--I suddenly feel nostalgic.  (And I'm hoping the box set of the TV show The Night Stalker will magically appear on my birthday....)

I remember a LOT of other wonderful ABC Movies Of The Week, starring the likes of Sally Field, Jan Michael Vincent, Stockard Channing, and many others. I watched those movies with religious furor. Nothing like it attracts me to the tube these days.

Instead, I read. But sadly, I’m in the minority. If you’re bored by TV, visit your local bookstore or library. You’re sure to find something really good.

What have you been reading/watching?

On Being Lazy . . .

I grew up in a house where one parent loved to read and the other didn't.  (Guess who I took after?)  We always had scads of things lying around to read:  books, newspapers, magazines, boxes of cereal.  We went to the library often, bringing home more books, books-on-tape, records, etc.

I can remember my dad yelling at my Mom: "Are you reading AGAIN!"  So it is that I often feel lazy if I just sit around and read. (There, I've said it out loud!)

I've spent most of the last few weekends sitting around reading, and let me tell you, it is WONDERFUL!!!  I've been averaging at least two books a week.  This is more reading than I've done in 20 years.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm not working full time any more.

This weekend I read "If Angels Burn" by Lynn Viehl.  It's a semi-erotic vampire thriller, which isn't my usual choice of reading material. "If Angels Burn" is the first in a trilogy and now now I have to get the other two books.  (And I sure hope she resolves what's going on with John and Alex and Michael by the last book, because it looks like Book II is about someone peripheral to the plot in Book I.)

We were going out to the grocery store and I was waiting for hubby, so I grabbed "Angels" and was sitting on the side of the bed, trying to sneak in another page or two and suddenly it was deja vu.  I was expecting Mr. Ivy to yell me at for reading.  Of course, this is not something he would ever do...but it was kind of weird anyway.

And now I'm reading a library discard (at a cost of 33.3 cents), "Lake Wobegon Summer 1956" by Garrison Keillor.  Now I'm not a Prairie Home Companion fan.  I've tried to listen, but there was a little bit too much of "olde time religion" for my taste.  But hubby laughed so much reading this coming-of-age book that I had to have a go at it, too.  (I'm on chapter 4 and have done a good bit of laughing myself.  Although some library patrons (who rated the book in the back) were very disappointed.  "Too much raunchiness!" etc.  Makes me want to read more!)

I know, I'm supposed to be doing laundry and I'm feeling miserable.

I think I'll just dip into Lake Wobegon for a few minutes...maybe that'll cheer me up.

HGTV Magazine?

Yes, just what we all need--another time sink.  It's not enough that I'd live in front of my TV 24/7 watching Spice Up My Kitchen, Divine Design, Rental Property and International House Hunters, now they want me READ all about the shows I've missed (like Neighborhood Curb Appeal, ad nauseam) in HGTV Magazine.

And you know what:  I'll do it!  Just let me sign up for it.  Now.  In fact, yesterday!

I've actually dumped a lot of my magazine subscriptions.  These days I'm only getting Victoria, Tea Time, Celebrate, Romantic Homes, and yes, I've sighed up (after a long absence) for yet another subscription to This Old House.  (And for some inexplicable reason, I'm getting Country Living again . . . but I never asked for or paid for it.)

Actually, that seems like quite a few magazines, doesn't it.

Hmmm.

What magazines do YOU read?