A visit to the october country — 2016

He spends the week before trying to control his anticipation.

Adding books to his bag, spending long minutes staring out into the increasingly gray weather, fingering the ticket on his desk to the point that it looks foxed and well-used. He wishes to be there, to set out for that “fated migration” and find himself again.

He checks the list, almost a book for every day, more books than he could ever read in a month even by his standards. He will bring them all anyway. To line the shelves and make him feel at home. To fill his bag on travels abroad and afar. To bring him comfort during a busy month, even as he realizes he may spend less time in the Country than he hopes.

Satisfied, or as satisfied as he can be, he lingers and waits and holds his breath. And as the clock in their bedroom ticks towards then past midnight and she shifts next to him, well-ensconced in slumber, he hears a friendly voice say again: “Your ticket please, sir.” 

He looks up to see the conductor there - and then he is away…

The 2016 October Country Reading List

  • The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone

  • The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

  • Universal Harvester, John Darnielle

  • The Grownup, Gillian Flynn

  • The Wicked and the Divine, Vol. 4 - Rising Action, Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie

  • Crooked, Austin Grossman

  • My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Grady Hendrix

  • Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, Joe Hill

  • The Fall of the House of Cabal, Jonathan L. Howard

  • Mr. Splitfoot, Samantha Hunt

  • The Vegetarian, Han Kang

  • A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver

  • Crimson Shore, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

  • Fifty Feet of Trouble, Justin Robinson

  • A Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay

  • Neon Green, Margaret Wappler

  • Thunderbird, Chuck Wendig

  • The Devil in America, Kai Ashante Wilson

  • The Prisoner of Hell Gate, Dana Wolff