I’m a HUGE fan of horror books and books about paranormal creatures and powers. My love for the paranormal, for the dark and unusual, led me to come up with this idea for a book/reading challenge. Do you love books about Vampires? Everything by Clive Barker? Own the entire Stephen King collection? Do you collect cute books about teenage witches or vampire boyfriends? Devour books full of thrill and gore?
If so, this challenge is for you.
The 666 challenge is called so because the requirements are this:
1.) You must choose 6 of the categories below.
2.) For each category, you must read 6 books for each.
3.) You must read at least 6 different authors. Variety is the spice of life, isn’t it?
Do you have to read 36 books, though? No. Some books can certainly be put under multiple categories. For example, Twilight has both vampire and werewolves, so that can be put under both categories.
If you want to see what an example of your post page would look like, just view here.
Sound simple enough? If not, of course you can leave a comment and I would be more than happy to clear things up for you.
Categories
The horror categories are as follows, though not limited to. You must pick SIX different categories to read books about. If you have an idea for a suggested category, simply leave me a comment with it. Keep in mind it has to have something to do with horror, thriller, the supernatural and/or monsters.
- Vampires
- Werewolves
- Witches/Warlocks
- Human’s with special powers (like psychic, telepathy, telekinesis, etc).
- Creatures from other worlds
- Horror creatures/Monsters
- Ghosts/Poltergeists
- Paranormal creatures/events
- Killers/Stalkers
- Demons
You are free to come up with your own categories (you can even suggest them in the comments). Above are just some of my suggestions.
Books can be in more than one category. They can also be fiction or nonfiction. Yes, a book about haunted places in the US will count as as a book about ghosts, for example.
Rules
- You must read 6 books in 6 categories by at least 6 authors
- Books must be horror, thriller, or supernatural.
- You cannot include audiobooks, journals, comic books, or manga. You can include ebooks.
- Keep a running book count/completed list.
- If rereading a book, you have to have finished it at least a year ago.
- Books can overlap categories.
- You can use books for this challenge that you are reading for other challenges.
- This challenge will run January 1, 2009-December 31, 2009.
To join
So, do you like the sound of things?
To join, just fill out the form below and you will be automatically added to the participants list.
The list of participants in the 666 Horror/Paranormal Challenge are…
For more information about the horror/thriller/supernatural book genre, here is a collection of links to help you choose books:
What is Horror Fiction?
Horror Book List
Horror Fiction @ Wikipedia
Supernatural Fiction @ Wikipedia
Thriller Fiction @ Wikipedia
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Just to be clear, I will be reading 36 paranormal books? Not that this isn’t doable, but just want to be clear. 6 subgenres of paranormal, 6 separate authors and 6 books in each paranormal subgenre? Or..is it 6 books total?
@ -V- – If you want to read one book for every 6 in a category, you will be reading 36 in total. However, some books can count in more than one category. For example, if you read Twilight, you can count that under both vampire and werewolf. In actuality, you can read a book that would fit in every category you choose and count for all of them.
Wow, this one sounds right up my alley – can’t wait to get started. Now I just have to come up with my list, lol!
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I’m in!!! Sounds great…I just :heartbeat: paranormals.
This is in truth at least 36 books???
@ Lindy – No, at most 36 books. Some books can fit under multiple categories. You can read six books that fit into all six categories each by six different authors and complete the challenge.
That is sure more than I can handle iwth so many other challengves, I like a diversity of books. 6 would have been nice.
Lindy – No, at most 36 books. Some books can fit under multiple categories. You can read six books that fit into all six categories each by six different authors and complete the challenge.
@ Lindy – Six books is all you essentially need. If each book fits into all categories and they are all by a different author, all you need is six books.
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I’m in!
And I’m very excited, although a bit sad that the no audiobooks rule means I can’t use my copy of Mister B. Gone in the challenge.
Does anyone know of any good ghost books that isn’t the “true haunted houses” kind?
Okay, I have a question. I’ll definitely join (just have to post my blog post), but aren’t psychics also humans with special powers?
@ Kathrin – Yes.
But, I put psychics down before I expanded the ‘category’ and didn’t combine the two. I should do that now.
[...] there are many different challenges out there in the w3. Another reading challenge I found was the 666 Horror/Paranormal Challenge hosted by Morbid Romantic. Though this sounds extremely interesting to me, I’m not quite sure [...]
Just to clarify–does fantasy count as supernatural fiction? Would, say, Lord of the Rings fit for creatures from other worlds, or paranormal creatures?
@Lisa- I would say that some fantasy would count and definitely Lord of the Rings. As long as the fantasy worlds/ideas contain elements of the supernatural such as the occult.
I hope it’s not too late to sign up for this, it looks like just my sort of thing and I just read The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop which I can count towards it.
Oh I forgot to ask, do anthologies count if you read the whole collection? I was thining of the Men of the Otherworld collection by Kelley Armstrong or something with Laurell K Hamilton for example.
@Rhinoa- Yes, anthologies would count.
[...] Horror / Paranormal Book Challenge Posted on March 11, 2009 by persephonesgarden Hosted by Morbid Romantic, this challenge started shrieking at me the moment I saw it. Hence, I’m taking up the [...]
Love the challenge!
I’ll be adding it to my sidebar on my writing blog and my pop culture blog.
I was thinking of having either a wizard or fae category as my final one. Would this be ok? I was thinking of reading some more Harry Dresdan books and I have lots of twisted fairy tale type books with your not so fluffy fae in them.
@Rhinoa- Oh yeah, a wizard of fae category would be just great. Go right ahead and use them if you want.
I love this challenge !!!
Theses are the kind of books I read anyways !
It’s kind of late to join but I need about 30 more books to finish 100 this year and it would be fun to put them in these catagories since I read those kind of books anyway.