BS: Scariest book y'ever read.

Subject: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Peace
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 11:26 PM

This is prompted by the "Favorite 50's horror film..." thread. If I was limited to one book that scared the bejeebers outta me, that would have to be Dennis Wheatley's "The Devil Rides Out." I read it late at night when I was supposed to be asleep (the ol' 'flashlight under the covers' trick). I recall not being able to reach my hand out from the covers to turn the light on because I KNEW there were 'things' in the dark. BAD things. Y'ever read a book like that?

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: MarkS
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 12:17 AM

Has to be the H P Lovecraft novella, The Color out of Space. Lovecraft was master of gothic horror. This one still gives me the shivers!
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 12:21 AM

"Y'ever read a book like that?"...well, kinda..

"Silent Spring" Rachel Carson

"The Population Bomb" Paul Erlich

...'scary' has different connotations for different people.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 09:26 AM

"Key Greenhouse Gas Data 1990-2003" (released at the Montreal Climate Conference. That is really scary.

Otherwise "Dracula". It is still terrifying, the best part being the way in which the shadow of the vampire spreads bit by bit through the letters of the unwary victims.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: polaitaly
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 09:37 AM

The scariest story that I ever read is " The turning of the screw " by Henry James. I still have goosebumps when only I think of it.
paola

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 09:49 AM

I've read many horror and occult stories but the scariest book I ever read was ' Geralds Game ' by Stephen King, it's scary because unlike the rest of          it could happen.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 09:54 AM

A three way tie, I guess: The Dunwich Horror bu H.P. Lovecraft, Ghost Story by Peter Straub and The Haunting by Shirley Jackson. And, the movie The Innocents, based on Turning Of The Screw is on my list of scariest movies, Peace.

Maybe I need to go back and read Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farms.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:23 AM

I don't know about scary but one of the most disturbing books I've ever read was 'The Red Dragon' by Thomas Harris - the first 'Hannibal Lector' book. This is closely followed by 'Nifft the Lean' a fantasy novel by Michael Shea.
The ghost story writer, M.R.James wrote some very scary short stories, many of which have been adapted for TV, by the BBC, over the years. One of the scariest is called 'Lost Hearts' and involves necromancy and human sacrifice. A couple of years ago I was driving south on the A15, through Lincolnshire, and realised that I was driving past an old deer park - now full of sheep and old trees. This park was adjacent to a village called Aswarby and I found the whole area fascinating in a gloomy sort of way. I later learned that the park had once contained a Tudor era manor house (now demolished)and that this house had been the fictional setting for 'Lost Hearts'!
The next year I went back to have another look. I turned off the A15 to have another look. There was no other traffic and I was driving slowly into the village, along a broad road lined with lime trees and horse chesnuts. Suddenly I heard a scraping sound and turning to my right I saw a foreign looking boy (a gypsy, I think) floating along by the car and scratching on the drivers window with long. bloody fingernails - aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!



Actually, I made that last bit up.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:26 AM

not exactly a book....... but.... The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Flash Company
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:48 AM

ah yes, The Nine Billion Names of God, I've met computer salesmen like that!
If you can find it, try My Bones and My Flute by Edgar Mittelholzer.
It is described by the author as 'A study in mounting horror', and , oh boy, it is all of that!

FC

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:52 AM

I hear that, BillD. For that kind of scary, it was Helen Caldicott's "If You Love This Planet". I am trying to get my hands on "The New Nuclear Danger" by her. Not that I need more sleepless nights.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 11:12 AM

"Cujo" gave me the creeps. Why did I read it? Well, it was sitting around there where I was working at the time. I always feel unclean after reading Stephen King.

Generally speaking, I avoid books that scare me. I don't need more fear.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: MMario
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 11:15 AM

The Book of Mormon.

hands down has to be the most absolutley scariest book I have ever read.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: bobad
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 11:24 AM

I recall finding one of Poe's stories "The Telltale Heart" as being pretty scary but will have to dig into my memory bank to remember if others were scarier.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Micca
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 11:56 AM

I have always had an affection for this one Right Here

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Wyrd Sister
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 12:04 PM

Ayn Rand 'Atlas Shrugged'. It scared me that people could think like that. It didn't help when the person who lent it me became an MP and (I think) worked in the Treasury. Breathing a bit more easily now the Tories are out (although Tony Blair PM = I'm Tory Plan B is my favourite anagram)
'Horror' books I don't touch - do you have the curtains open so you can see nasty things when they appear or close the curtains and just KNOW they're there?

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 12:24 PM

In terms of the more usual idea of being "creeped out" by a horror story, I agree that "The October Game" is way up there. I get a little different reaction from Stephen King, that I think is best exemplified in part of "Needful Things". A little boy blows his brains out in front of his younger brother; King indicates that he writes stuff like that as good escapist fun; the reading public seems to buy that, en masse; that's frightening.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 01:07 PM

Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House". And her short story, "The Lottery."

In the nonfiction area -- "Effects of Nuclear Weapons" in either the 1957 or 1962 editions.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,irishsergeant
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 04:48 PM

Stephen King Pet semetery

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 05:41 PM

The Koran. They really are a bunch of fanatics.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 05:44 PM

The Old Testament. Every kind of bizarre atrocity you can imagine is in there. Matter of fact, it's a holy book to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. No wonder they can't get along with each other.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 05:53 PM

Stephen King, 'The Stand'

For spine chilling I also like any of Phil Rickman's books about a CofE female vicar working as an exorcist in the Welsh Marches. Good plots and often based around a real event.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: lady penelope
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:23 PM

I've got to admit that the one book that gave me total serious wiggins was 'It' by Stephen King.

I already had a thing about clowns before I read it and the book just went on to push all my personal buttons from childhood.

I didn't read it till I was 23, but it still took me months to be able to go downstairs at night in the dark again.........

Other than that - I agree, scary does mean drastically different things to different people.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 07:57 PM

Only one short story really did that for me. "The Colors Out Of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft.
Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:04 PM

After posting the above mention of Lovecraft's story, I went back to read the thread. And there it was, "The Colors Out Of Space"----right in the second post to this thread! A few years ago I bought a Lovecraft collection that had "Colors" in it---and I gave it away before I re-read it.--- The memory of it was so strong that I never cracked the book.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: maire-aine
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:06 PM

I read the dust jacket of a Stephen King book, and that was scary enough for me.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,AR282
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:14 PM

Straub's "Ghost Story," Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth," and Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket."

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:37 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:39 PM

The Exorcist

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 09:27 PM

Dang. Didn't mean to give a blank post. Honest question here: How many of you can fall asleep with a leg outside the covers and hanging over the side of the bed?

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: bobad
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:16 PM

One foot on the floor - a popular technique to get the room to stop spinning after over-indulging at the punch bowl.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:56 PM

It works for these guys!

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,amergin
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 11:25 PM

On The Beach by Nevil Shute....

Effects of Nuclear Weapons as mentioned above...

The Plague by Albert Camus....

And the Band Played On.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: bobad
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 11:25 PM

More likely to be seeing one of these guys.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 16 Dec 05 - 12:43 AM

The only book I recall being frightened by is The Amityville Horror. I've read lots of Stephen King, Richard Straub, Dean Koontz et al, and have yet to be really frightened by any of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 16 Dec 05 - 11:19 PM

DRACULA!!!

Between 8th and 9th grades - the librarian questioned, "Does you mother know or approve?"

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 05 - 02:04 AM

That's ok, Greg...I got such questions like that when trying to check out such rique books as 20,000 leagues under the sea....

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 17 Dec 05 - 03:34 PM

I'm surprised that nobody has yet come up with John Wyndham's tour de force, "The Midwich Cuckoos". Not for it's premise that the children were implanted by aliens, but for the fact that the greatest threat to us might be the evolution of telepathic humans who would be almost forced, by survival needs, to supplant us by any possible means.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: richlmo
Date: 17 Dec 05 - 09:25 PM

Had to be,"The Exorcist". I was a grown man and it still scared the crap out of me.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 03:55 AM

The facts of life.

I don't know who wrote it. I think it was published by some medical people and my mother gave it me, when she thought I was 'old enough to know'.

It started off with a reassuringly pleasant disussion about birds laying eggs and flowers scattering pollen, and then brutal realism intruded and it posed the question, have you ever walked along behind a bulldog?

And suddenly, I though shee-it!....I've got one of those!

My life has been downhill all the way ever since, and I am still recovering from the trauma.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 11:15 AM

1st choice - Dracula (already mentioned above)
2nd choice - Rosemary's Baby, Ira Leven...it all seemed sooo normal.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Micca
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 11:51 AM

I think "Dracula" also, but it has a LOT do do with the circumstances under which I first read it!!!
You are on a ship, anchored in the Thames Estuary,perhaps 1/4 of a mile from shore stuck waiting for 48 hours to go alongside for major Engine repairs, for this reason the ship is without power of any kind, No engine and NO Electricity. We have an Oil Lamp riding light and oil lamps and electric torches in the wheelhouse. You are the AB on anchor watch, alone in the wheel house, making sure she doesnt drag anchor. Ships in this situation are full of small natural sounds, creaking of rigging, the wind in rigging and bottle screws etc, that are usually masked by engine noise, on the 12 midnight to 4 am watch and reading "Dracula" when you reach the chapter about the ship and Whitby.......!!

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: jillfiddle
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 12:28 PM

You're all right ... but have you read Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black'?

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,Cluin
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 02:51 PM

I saw the movie and it spooked me out. Got a few actual chills.
And it was the middle of a summer afternoon.

Stephen King is a great story telling but nothing he ever wrote approached horror for me. Except one... a novella called "Apt Pupil". That one touched something.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 05:19 PM

"The Lurking Fear" and "Pickman's Model," both short stories by H. P. Lovecraft

Lock all the doors and windows. Except for one, so you can escape if you have to. Then click HERE. But if you do have to escape, don't try to run and hide in the basement. You never know what might be down there. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,Cluin
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 09:53 PM

This one.

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: LilyFestre
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 10:13 PM

Ann Rice....the first book of vampire series....it's the only book I've ever had to put down because it freaked me out...the details were just over the top for me.


Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 11:02 PM

I find H.P. Lovecraft very, very amusing. Hilarious at times.

Cluin - So that's what masturbation does to people! My gawd! How did I ever survive past 20?????????????

LOL!

What were those people smoking anyway?

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 19 Dec 05 - 12:20 AM

The Exorcist did not scare me. I hated it, though, because of the way it exploited things that real people really do believe.----And it was done just to make more $$$$$$$$$$$$$. There were folks sitting next to me who actually thought they were seeing actual depictions of the scary aspects of the religion they had grown up with. Watching a girl spin her head around a few times and spew green pancake batter from her mouth was just sort of funny to me.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Scariest book y'ever read.
From: yrlancslad
Date: 19 Dec 05 - 02:28 AM

1984, back in the late 50's. I was in love for the first time and horified at the end of the book when the lovers meet again and theres nothing left of their love.That happened to my first love and I in the 70's, the rest of the book's happening right now!