What is the scariest book you have ever read?

[BlueIris]

I'm wide open on categories. If it was a Danielle Steel novel, feel free to mention it here.

[opiate69]

1. House of Bush - House of Saud

And no, I'm not being snarky.. this book truly scared the crap out of me.
http://www.amazon.com/House-Bush-Saud-Craig-Unger/dp/1903933625/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1832531-6129443?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181425622&sr=8-1

[BarenakedLady]

2. It

Stephen King

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Oh, yeah, the clowns.

;)

[BarenakedLady]

15. Shhhh

Do not speak his name...

:scared:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

22. Who? Pennywise?

:P

[BarenakedLady]

23. Gahhhh

You said it...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

26. ...

:hide:

[BlueIris]

4. I read that in 7th grade and it completely warped me.

[unsavedtrash]

5. definitely

that book wrecked me.

[hatredisnotavalue]

18. I was pregnant reading It

and got so freaked out about clowns that I would never let my future children go near one. BTW, the reporter in the book is modeled and of the same name as my former boss, who was my editor when I was a reporter. He was King's roommate in college.

[BarenakedLady]

24. Cool!

:thumbsup:

[hatredisnotavalue]

29. I have met Stephen King several times and have been to his house

for cocktails for a Democratic fundraiser. He is just as normal as you and I. The thing I remember most about his house was that someone put tin foil over the burner drip pans on the stove to apparently hide the stains. Apparently he thought someone would care! Heck I was in Stephen King's house! I was more interested in his library, which funny was mostly paperback books.

As an aside, my SIL is the court reporter in Thinner which is on TV right now.

[graywarrior]

56. I was at a peace march with him a few months ago.

I run into him in Fryeburg a lot. He's casual and laid back, but nuts.

[Lisa]

155. I like that cool iron gate I've seen in pics of the place ...

... and that peace sign in Christmas lights that he and his wife put up. He sounds like a neat guy!

[Roon]

64. My Father's roommate had King as a teacher when he was in high school

he used to take the class to cemeteries for field trips.

[FloridaJudy]

94. I read Pet Sematary when I was pregnant

We'd had this really old tom cat, and he'd disappeared a few months previously. We figured he'd crawled off somewhere to die quietly, and had stopped looking for him. We left the cat door unlatched, just in case, but didn't expect we'd need it again.

So, there I was, six months pregnant, and I feel asleep reading Pet Sematary. I woke up with a feeling of pressure on my chest, and there was our old one-eyed cat perched on my chest staring at me. I don't think I've ever gotten up faster or screamed louder in my life...

That cat managed to squeeze out a few more good years before he finally did disappear for good, but I haven't been quite right since. Of course, if you ask my family, I've never been quite right.

[Lisa]

156. yikes!

You've got to admit, the ol' tom had perfect timing! Stephen King would probably be thrilled if he heard your tale of terror.

[ok_cpu]

147. 'It' would be my choice for book

but there's a story in 'Night Shift' called "The Boogeyman"

Whooo boy....

:scared:

[graywarrior]

34. And Cujo is right behind that one.

[racaulk]

48. And what about "Misery"?

That book scared the f*ck out of me, way scarier than the movie!

:scared:

[Left Is Write]

43. Definitely.

[LibraLiz1973]

59. they all float down here...

[RoyGBiv]

151. Yup ...

To this day, clowns freak me out.

Was driving home from work one day, just past dawn. It'd been a long ten hour, overnight shift. The McDonald's down the road that had been under construction for awhile had its grand opening that day, and as I rose to the top of the hill, I saw this giant clown head start to rise in front of me.

I almost drove off the overpass.

[bertha katzenengel]

6. _The Silence of the Lambs_

[BlueIris]

7. Yeah, that's wiggy.

Mainly because I think both Starling and Crawford's characters are much better fleshed out in the book.

[hellbound-liberal]

8. The Exorcist.

I read it after seeing William Peter Blatty on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It gave me nightmares! It probably didn't help that I had just started listening to Black Sabbath at the time!

[BlueIris]

14. Yeah, I finally read it after the 2004 election.

Looking for parallels...

[SeattleGirl]

16. Thats my pick too.

I had to sleep with the lights on after reading that book!

[devilgrrl]

105. I didn't think it was so much scary as I thought it was a good book...

great read though - huh?

[RedG1]

9. THE OLD TESTAMENT...

no text more barbaric than the Old Testament of the Bible

[Lethe]

60. i concur

very brutal, especially the genocide where they exterminate women and children

[swag]

114. How delightful that it is complete fiction.

[Montauk6]

121. Actually, all due respect, He comes off like a total jerk at times

Hey, call me blasphemer but you really start to wonder was it so much that "He so loved the world," or that "He so needed PR damage control"?

I mean, come on, that whole Abram-Sarai-God sting? I started feeling sorry for the pharoahs. So, stone me!:evilgrin:

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Maybe not scariest, but gore-iest,

Exquisite Corpse, by Poppy Z Brite :)

[Xipe Totec]

11. The universal encyclopedia of torture nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. My dear BlueIris!

It was actually a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, a well-known science fiction writer...

The story was called "A Walk in the Dark."

Even though it's been some years since I've read it.....it has stayed with me! :scared:

I recommend it highly....

I don't normally read science fiction.....but this one really did it for me...

:hi:

[BlueIris]

13. Thanks!

[NewJeffCT]

49. I'm an avid reader, and have read a lot of horror, but only 1 book has ever scared me

And that was due to some unusual circumstances many years back - I was reading "Salem's Lot" and at the end of the chapter, the main character was sneaking up to the house where he suspected some the vampire/vampires lived (I forget the exact circumstances)... but, the last line of the chapter was, "and he felt a hand on his shoulder."

and, just like that, the power went out in my house and I was all alone in pitch black.

Needless to say, it was a bit unnerving.

[elehhhhna]

17. The Stand by Steven King

[BlueIris]

20. The Stand has the distinction of being the one "popular" S.K. novel I hate.

[elehhhhna]

25. LOL! Its' the only SK I liked!

[RebelOne]

129. The Stand is one of the best novels that King has written.

I have read both versions.

[treestar]

19. Helter Skelter

I was a teen and remember sitting in the living room reading this and my hair standing on end!

[Ivan Sputnik]

21. Definitely the scariest non-fiction book

I've read. I also read it as a teenager, which my mother did not approve of. The book mysteriously disappeared after I finished it, and to this day I think my mother threw it away, but she swears she didn't.

[uppityperson]

42. Helter Skelter.Had to move bed away from window, sleep with lights on.

Older teen. Reading "night of the grizzly" about the young women getting eaten by brown bears in glacier, while I was a young teen camping with family in Yellowstone, that freaked me out too.

[Richardo]

I read it in college, just a very few miles from where it all happened...

...one incident occurred right at the intersection by my dorm room. (The Family almost kills a random motorist.)

Also, this was just 5-6 years after the murders.

[Red State Rebel]

27. The Stranger Beside Me

Finishing that book and realizing that at that time, Ted Bundy was still alive and in Prison in Florida. AAACCKKKK!!!! I lay awake that night just KNOWING that he was going to be coming for me any minute!!

[BlueIris]

28. Ohhhhh, man. You just made me flash back to being alone in a BIG

house at night in the late summer of '03 reading that book. Suddenly, despite the fact that no one was in the house except me and a pug dog I had been told couldn't climb stairs, (I was housesitting for friends) I hear footsteps coming up the stairs toward the bedroom I was in.

Heart stoppage. But it was only the pug. Who could not only climb stairs, but could really haul ass.

[Lisa]

158. housesitting -- there is a certain Gerald Durrell short story, "The Entrance" ...

... that I swear I will never read again if I am alone in someone else's house! It actually describes what happens when an unsuspecting person is asked to pet-sit at an isolated home.

I was watching my boss's dog and cat while they were out of town for a week, and had picked that book (The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium) off the shelf because I figured it would be about Durrell's family and animals, as usual. Did I ever get a shock.

[ElizabethDC]

37. Same here

except that I read a later edition, written after he had been executed, so I guess it wasn't quite as scary for me.

My mom made me read the book before I went off to college - she's from north Florida, and knew at least a couple of the people who Bundy killed there. She wanted me to read the book so that I would be extra vigilant (which I am) but I didn't sleep well for about a month after reading it.

[Left Is Write]

39. I said that book too -

I enjoy true crime books, and I'm a huge fan of Ann Rule's writing style. That book affected me in ways her other books did not, though. Probably because with every turn of the page, I kept seeing my own teenage daughter's face in my mind.

It was incredibly chilling, too, the descriptions of how these girls just disappeared, sometimes within mere feet of someone who could have saved them.

[MountainLaurel]

55. A few months ago

I was staying in a basement apartment in Seattle, with my grandfather-in-law, while on a business trip. Lying down there I suddenly remembered that at least one of Bundy's victims had been in a basement apartment in Seattle.

:scared:

[Redstone]

30. Blackburn, by William Kotzwinkle.

Redstone

[Joe Fields]

31. The bible...All those plagues...yuck!

[Spacemom]

32. The movie didn't scare me

but the book "The Amityville Horror" scared the crap out of me. I love Stephen King, and I've read all kinds of horror books, but that is the one book that I actually slapped closed and threw away from me because one part gave me the heebie jeebies so bad.

[pokerfan]

33. Misery

I don't believe in the supernatural so The Stand and It just didn't do it for me.

But sick, disturbed psychopaths I can certainly believe in so Annie scared the shit out of me.

Spoilers....








The chapter where she cuts his foot off with an ax and then cauterizes the stump with a butane torch. I had to put the book down several times.

[datasuspect]

35. United States Tax Code

byzantine regulatory mindfuck

[philosophie_en_rose]

40. The Uniform Commercial Code

Tax is remarkably straightforward compared to the multiple reincarnations of the code.

[BlueIris]

41. Yeah, that shite is pretty messed up.

[Coventina]

36. Fiction: That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Non-Fiction: Helter Skelter, already mentioned upthread.

I kept peeking into cupboards after reading the part about Manson squeezing himself into tiny spaces to hide.

[hedgehog]

132. What scared you about "That Hideous Strength"?

[Left Is Write]

38. It, The Stranger Beside Me, and The Guardian.

[bluethruandthru]

44. Ghost by Peter Straub n/t

[amitten]

113. I've got to agree. And I am a horror novel fanatic. n/t

[flvegan]

45. The Amityville Horror

I guess maybe because of my age. "The Exorcist" was a close second. Straub's "Ghost Story" is a nasty ass third, though.

[Rude Horner]

131. I agree

Don't let the lame movies based on the book fool ya. I read that when I was a teenager and it scared the socks off me.

[racaulk]

46. "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

It wasn't scary as much as it was suspenseful, but damn I couldn't put that book down!

The plot: Ten people are stranded on an island, in an old house, and were invited there by some mysterious party host. One by one, they end up getting murdered. Those that are still alive try desperately to figure out who the murderer is before they themselves are murdered. Paranoia and mayhem ensue.

I have a copy and I read it from time to time. A very good read if you're ever interested.

[BlueIris]

57. Yeah, believe it or not, I've already read that one.

I actually have an honors English degree and all that. I just thought I would start a thread on scary books so we could all have a fun discussion.

[MedleyMisty]

87. What?

It's Agatha Christie, not James Joyce. Christie is not high literature and even if she was, why the anti-intellectualism?

[MedleyMisty]

86. I first read it in second grade

My brother had to read it for senior English and didn't want to.

I told him the answers to his homework. I think he got a B+. :)

I didn't think it was all that scary, but I did think it was cool. And for some reason for years I thought that the only word I'd had trouble with was velocity, but I recently reread it and velocity wasn't in it, not even when describing the one character that liked to drive fast.

Memory is a weird and slippery thing.

[aePrime]

93. I was required to read that in junior high.

I hated that book. It was fine until the end, at which point I found it to be the very definition of deus ex machina. The out-of-the-blue ending ruined the whole book for me.

[AlCzervik]

47. Pet Cemetery and IT, i read both and there was no one home but me.

[Richardo]

135. Pet Sematary scared the crap out of me.

"It" no so much. :boring:

[Okiojira]

50. 1984 by (who else?) George Orwell

Finally read that thing in my late 20s; freaked me the fuck out!! I don't remember ever in my life reading any other book that actually caused me to adopt a horrorstruck facial expression so many times.

[XemaSab]

51. The Shining

But It was pretty bad too. :P

[mentalsolstice]

53. I second that!

After awhile, I had to put it down.

[murielm99]

66. I'll third that.

That book scared me so much I was afraid to go into the bathroom.

My husband was home when I was reading it, but he was sleeping. We were stranded in a blizzard, too.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

83. I'll fourth that

I was so scared I had to take my sister to the bathroom with me for a few days afterwards. I've read it like 5 times. Scares the shit out of me every time.

[montanto]

166. I'll fifth it.

[bikebloke]

52. Salem's Lot

When it first came out in paperback, way back when. At the place we were living, a tree branch would scrape the roof, plus a rat was digging outside the house where I had blocked its entry hole with rocks. So I had appropriate sound effects.

Maybe I've grown out the genre, but I haven't found a horror book I've enjoyed in a long long time.

[Tikki]

99. Yeah, I was much younger when I first....

read Salem's Lot....That book scared me so much that I found myself throwing
it across the room a couple times as I read it.


Tikki

[raccoon]

126. Same here. I read it when I first came out and for a while had to sleep

with a light on in an adjoining room.

[stanwyck]

137. A friend gave me this book, and I laughed

Oh, yeah, vampires. Like this is going to scare me. I told her I only get scared by stories that actually could happen. I was right out of college and living in an apartment which was part of an old Victorian house. I got so scared I was afraid to walk down the hall to my bathroom.
But this did begin my long love affair with Stephen King books.(which I had to hide since I have a masters in English literature.)

[Gatchaman]

54. The Shining

I will not read it again, and have seriously considered burning it.

[Digit]

58. The Entity

There was a movie, too, but the book was scarier.

[LibraLiz1973]

61. Gerald's Game

That shit could happen! So it scared me.
Pet Cemetary was scary (far, far scarier than the movie)
and Needful Things was much darker than the movie.

Stephen's sons books "Heart Shaped Box" is also pretty good!

[XemaSab]

77. The ending of Gerald's Game

I think she's in court and they've arrested the guy.... HOLY SHIT! :o

[LibraLiz1973]

85. exactly

that was really freaky. that and when she could hear the dog eating the husband

[Dervill Crow]

88. Not that the mark of the beast is for real, but there are 666 copies available on Amazon.com.

Thought that was interesting.

There will soon be 665 because I'm ordering it either there or half.com.

[terrya]

90. "Gerald's Game" was a very disturbing book.

Because, as you said, it's entirely plausible.

[Mad_Dem_X]

128. GG is up there on my list, too

The dog eating the husband...the weird dude standing in the corner...YIKES!

My sister tried to read that book but never finished it; she couldn't get past the scene were the wife cuts her wrists.

[Lisa]

164. I liked "Heart Shaped Box" too ...

Funny thing is, now that I've finished reading it, my reaction to seeing someone with scribbles over their eyes would probably be different now, than it would after I'd just read the first few chapters! I suppose Joe Hill was making a point about what scares us, and why.

[Fox Mulder]

62. 1984

It's scary to me because it could be our reality someday. :scared:

[Montauk6]

119. I did have mild nightmares after reading it the first time.

[Random_Australian]

63. I win for the weirdest book - Organic Chemistry, Fourth Edition.

(For first and second year university students)

What can I say? I was pretty firm in my belief that the world was not a statistical entity at the time...... and I was also 14. (Yeah, I picked up chemistry pretty early)

[Poiuyt]

103. By Morrison and Boyd?

That was my Bible for many years

[Random_Australian]

122. Can't remember now, but it was from about 1980.

Anyway, gotta go study chemistry again - exams soon.

I'm know so comfortable with my existence as a statistical entity that I tend to think in terms of statistics.

eg. "What did you think you got on that test?" asks a friend - "probably an 8 plus a 0,2 normal truncated -8,7" I reply. :)

[WindRavenX]

109. nnn0000oooo

Organic chem made me cry :cry:

[Random_Australian]

123. Organic chem is awesome. In fact, I'm going to go study it right now.

(And spectroscopy and optics and inner product spaces and arson detection techniques, but hey)

[WindRavenX]

141. god, o-chem KILLED my GPA

I mean, it just obliterated my GPA x(

[Random_Australian]

145. Well, I don't HAVE a GPA.

All I want is a distinction, is that so much to ask?

:)

And my marks are weighted on how good/bad everyone else goes too.

[TZ]

163. Organic Chem was the BIGGEST weed out course

when I was in school. It made me cry too! All I can say is that curves are AWESOME!!!!

[cemaphonic]

65. Cormac McCarthy has a few contenders.

Outer Dark, Blood Meridian and The Road are totally horrific, and McCarthy is a much more skilled writer than King or other genre authors.

[BlueIris]

78. I LOVE Cormac McCarthy. LOVE him.

Anyone who does not know who Cormac McCarthy is--GO FIND SOME OF HIS BOOKS RIGHT NOW.

[Wetzelbill]

110. No Country For Old Men

is pretty wild. He's an unbelievable writer. Highly skilled. Unique too. His style has adapted a lot too. He's an interesting writer.

[cemaphonic]

112. And the Coen Brothers' adaptation of it is coming this fall!

It just premiered at Cannes and sounds really great. I can hardly wait, since it is their first movie that wasn't a fixup since 2001.

The book is interesting too. Similar to Blood Meredian and The Road in that it almost seems like a genre piece at first, but goes of in a lot of unexpected directions.

[Sequoia]

142. That book certainly had me on edge.

[Eagle_Eye]

67. Yellow Rain by Sterling Seagrave

Yellow Rain - A journey through the terror of chemical warfare

[BlueIris]

79. Oh, holy shit, I forgot about Seagrave.

How could I have forgotten that?

[Orsino]

68. About the first half of Stephen King's It. n/t

[Heidi]

69. "War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race,"

by Edwin Black.

http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/

[Droopy]

70. You sound like you need to check out my Chomsky thread

;)

[BlueIris]

80. Thanks, Heidi.

I hate eugenicists.

[Droopy]

71. Pet Cemetary by Stephen King

[LARED]

72. Pet Cemetery, by SK

I read it when my oldest was the same age as the kid Gage(?) in the story.

[The_Wizard]

73. HOP on POP

Those damn kids... I could get through it. I'll wait for the movie.

[Mad_Dem_X]

76. LMAO!

I am a huge fan of Stephen King, so IT would probably be up there somewhere, but 1984 really scared the shit out of me.

[Bzzzz]

74. Intensity...n/t

[laylah]

75. Steven King's "The Stand"

Probably his most realistic book. I was living in Boulder at the time he wrote it. Even used to watch him from my desk at the now defunct, National State Bank, on Pearl Street Mall. He'd find a bench and sit for hours writing.

Yup, that book haunted me for a very long time.

[TK421]

81. I don't know about scary, but Clive Barkers "Weave world" freaked me out

[BlueIris]

84. OMG, Clive Barker is *demented.*

I've read his essays about himself and--ack! Long-term therapy.

[MedleyMisty]

82. 1984

It wasn't so scary the first time I read it, pre-Bush.

Now, though....

[ghostsofgiants]

89. "House Of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski is creepy as hell.

[cemaphonic]

91. Is it good?

I've seen it in bookstores, and it always looks intriguing, but also gimmicky. Is it interesting beyond the crazy formatting?

[ghostsofgiants]

92. Very.

The formatting is really fitting based on the story, actually. It doesn't read as gimmicky at all, at least not to me.

[BlueIris]

95. Okay, truly? I read that in March of 2005, and it was the only thing creepier than what was

going on with Terri Schiavo.

[ghostsofgiants]

97. Wait...

I'm not sure if that's an endorsement for the book or not, haha.

[BlueIris]

100. Well, for the record, I think "HoL" is mind-bogglingly brilliant,

but there is such a thing as TOO scary. I was mentally fucked up for a while after finishing it. I actually never know whether I'm doing a good thing by rec'ing it to someone.

[ghostsofgiants]

101. Okay, I get what you're saying now.

You definitely make a point, but I loooove creepy shit like that. I actually enjoy having nightmares most of the time, haha. I'm a weird kid, htough. :P

[northzax]

it's a guessing game, really

whether or not someone will like it. I didn't, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the talent and craft employed in it (and it is a little mindbending, especially if you end up with one of the really early editions with all the color...spooky.

[northzax]

106. it's a guessing game, really

whether or not someone will like it. I didn't, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the talent and craft employed in it (and it is a little mindbending, especially if you end up with one of the really early editions with all the color...spooky.

[crispini]

130. That's mine too!

Really creeped me out. I should get it out and read it again.

[Giant Robot]

160. Have not read it yet, but am curious about it

Here's a web based story that is neat in its use of the medium and in reading the feedback it has been compared to HoL many times. Its weird and creepy and messed up. Enjoy!

http://www.dionaea-house.com/default.htm

[nosillies]

96. American Psycho

One you've read it, you will never get it out of your head.

[Montauk6]

118. AMYBHOLE! So TRUE!!!!

It's my introverted personality but I don't like to show emotion when I'm reading in public; I try to suppress LOL moments, that sort of thing. I remember reading this book on the train and I'll NEVER forget how much and often I was grimacing as I was not believing what was being depicted in print.

[NashVegas]

149. That Didn't Scare Me, That Just Grossed Me Out

Ewwwwwwwww ....

[My Good Babushka]

98. I know he's already been mentioned- 'The Road'

by Cormac McCarthy

[BreweryYardRat]

102. Three of Simon R. Green's Hawk and Fisher novels have parts that spook the shit out of me.

Good, but very disturbing in places.

[flamingyouth]

104. Hmmm, off the top of my head...

The one that comes to mind is a book called "The Church of Dead Girls," by Stephen Dobyns, that I've read a couple of times. Very creepy and haunting. I think it's out of print, which is unfortunate, because it's quite a good read. I like suspense/mystery and read a lot of it.

[idgiehkt]

107. Michelle Remembers

about a woman who grew up being abused in a satanic cult

apparently it's been debunked but man it scared the shit out of me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Remembers

[BlueIris]

115. You want to be scared shitless?

Start digging around for info about the folks who created it.

Or don't. As I've told others on this board--if you should ever run into the "real thing" in all of the psuedo-authentic garbage surrounding the actual "Michelles"--there is no blue pill.

[idgiehkt]

116. what does that mean?

I don't understand your post.

[BlueIris]

117. Good. And nevermind. nt

[idgiehkt]

120. alrighty then.

I would have liked to have heard what you might have to say about it but if you are not comfortable with talking about it I understand.

[WindRavenX]

108. Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail--Jared Diamond

NT

[Inchworm]

111. 1984

I am sort of limited here.

:hi:

[leftofthedial]

124. Ghost Story

Peter Straub


scared the crap out of me

the movie was so so

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

134. I remember that having one good scare scene.

The flashback to the creepy guy and the school house. The rest seem rather middle of the road.

The movie... didn't that have Fred Astaire in it, of all people?

[MissMillie]

125. The Handmaid's Tale

yikes

[Connie_Corleone]

127. The Stranger Beside Me - about Ted Bundy.

[alphafemale]

165. Yeah, a friend of his wrote that didn't she?

That was creepy.

Can you imagine coming to the realization that your friend was a serial killer?

Damn.

[Rabrrrrrr]

133. Oprah and Carrot Top Picture Guide to Anal Sex

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

136. Lots of Stephen King here.

I'll add that Tommyknockers had its moments.

And parts of Bags of Bones, I thought, were terrifying.

[nonconformist]

138. It was a book about Henry Lee Lucas

I can't recall the title of the book, but I was a teenager when I read it. I couldn't sleep for days afterward, it really haunted me.

Honorable mention goes to The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule and Helter Skelter. Also a nod to Silence of the Lambs.

[liontamer]

139. nightmares and dreamscapes, stephen king short stories

His novels i don't find scary, but his short stories freak me out. A lot. Even now. :scared:

[BlueIris]

144. Yeah, I can agreee that King's short stories/novellas are FAR scarier than the novels.

[Mad_Dem_X]

159. Yeah, he does have a lot of freaky short stories

I can think of quite a few that have creeped me out, but listening to the audio tape of "1408," read by King himself, scared the shit out of me.

[BlueIris]

140. Congratulations, Lounge--this is my most popular thread ever!

I feel so loved.

[CatholicEdHead]

143. Baltimore Catichism

I was able to skim my mother's copy a few years ago after she found it buried in a box somewhere. It also brought back bad memories for her.

[yurbud]

146. Crime and Punishment freaked me out the first time I tried to read it

I was religious at the time which probably made it worse.

Oh, I read parts of AMERICAN PSYCHO. That was pretty intense.

For serious scary, read Eli Weisel's NIGHT. The stuff at the camps isn't as scary as the first 26 pages, when the nazis gradually escalate the persecution. At each step, the people freak out for a day or two--then they get used to it like it's always been that way. That was one of the things that really freaked me out at the beginning of the Bush years because I could see the same reaction--of course it's treason to question the president, hasn't it always been that way?

[Sabriel]

148. Hiroshima

Hersey's matter-of-fact narration gave me serious nuke nightmares for weeks. I think I flunked the test on it, too, because I kept dredging up mental images.

Nothing freaks me out more than non-fiction.

[InvisibleTouch]

150. "The Coming Global Superstorm" :

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Global-Superstorm-Art-Bell/dp/0743470656/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-5512430-4778318?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181612816&sr=1-1

Scary because the scenario is very very probable. I first read it a few years ago, during a late Fall when the conditions that night were similar to those described in the book - unnnaturally warm, lots of wind, and then a very sudden temperature plunge. I thought for sure it was happening already.

Turns out we may have a few more years, but still ... I wouldn't be surprised if this is what's coming.

[CatholicEdHead]

152. Read it, not creditable with traditional thermodynamics

There will be no massive storm.

[InvisibleTouch]

153. I'm not so sure we can glibly dismiss it.

Given that we still don't know exactly what caused the Ice Ages, for instance, and how fast the weather shifted, I think it's hard to say for sure what could or could not happen. We can take our best guess, but I think we're talking about a global feedback system that no one yet has a complete handle on. We do know from geological evidence that continental drift has changed ocean currents, which in turn affected climate throughout past eras. I think it's reasonable to assume that a change in salinity, as speculated in this book, would also affect ocean currents and in turn the weather they influence. There's some pretty well-documented information in the book - and also a fair amount of speculation, as the authors freely admit. Some of their theories are, to say the least, far-fetched, but I do think they're onto something. There may or may not be a single massive superstorm, but there will undoubtedly be tremendous changes in the years to come.

[Lisa]

154. Echoes in the Darkness

Mainly because it was based on a true crime -- I found it very unsettling that so many people seemed to have the feeling that the victim was in danger, long before the crime, but nobody intervened. Hard to know whether it was because she wasn't particularly popular, or because they felt that nothing that bad could possibly happen, or because they just didn't want to be seen as rocking the boat, if they went to the police with their concerns.

For books I've read recently -- I have to admit that "The Analyst", by John Katzenbach, was one that actually kept me awake after I'd finished reading it. The premise is that the main character is being pursued by a person, or persons, who seem to have a vendetta against him that he was completely unaware of. I couldn't help wondering how many of us, in the course of our work, might run into someone who for whatever reason decides that we are to blame for their misfortune. I had a co-worker once who was a bit like that, and I now suspect that most of the people she singled out as scapegoats had absolutely no idea that she saw them as a threat! (Luckily she never took it as far as in Katzenbach's book.) I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be targeted by my students (and in fact I've heard that my reputation is supposedly as a really lenient grader!) but one never knows. There was one guy who was particularly bitter, though it turned out that he had me mixed up with someone else. Not that he ever apologized.

[SoxFan]

157. Salem's Lot

Steven King's best novel, by far. When I was younger, I had a line of trees right outside my bedroom window, so the shadows were always right over my shoulder. I looked back more than once expecting to see an undead 10 year old...

Now, I haven't read this book, but I think it might be even scarier:

[Gormy Cuss]

161. "In Cold Blood" by Capote.

I read it as a 12 year old while babysitting in a house at the end of a dark country road.

[Silver Swan]

162. I have never been scared by a book.

However I have been disturbed by books. The most disturbing book I have ever read is "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski.