Cosmic Horror January

This month I’m reading some Cthulhu Mythos stories and watching movies inspired by H.P. Lovecraft for an event I discovered on Twitter called #CosmicHorrorJanuary. It’s a good way to get around to reading some of the Lovecraft books I’ve collected over the years. 

The first horror book I ever read was The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror by H.P. Lovecraft from Scholastic Books. Next, I bought a number of Del Rey Lovecraft paperbacks with covers by Michael Whelan. Although I was more of a science fiction & fantasy fan in my school days I was also briefly interested in horror and weird tales. I remember liking "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and "The Color Out of Space" but having a hard time with Lovecraft’s writing style. I didn’t seek out any other authors and my interest in horror fell by the wayside. That would change many years later when I got into horror movies. Eventually I rediscovered Lovecraft. 

I had a different experience when I read At the Mountain of Madness and the collection The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales when I was older. I still found Lovecraft wordy at times, but I really enjoyed the stories and the concepts, and I became a fan. 

For Cosmic Horror January I’ll be working through Lovecraft’s Cthulhu stories as well as reading some Mythos stories by other authors from various collections. I’ll post my thoughts throughout the month. 

I just realized that I'm posting this on the fifth anniversary of my blog. My first post was on January 6th, 2019. Time flies.