Horror Aficionados discussion

I wouldn't be able to pick books, but maybe authors would be a better choice since we could argue about what books would make up the passport check list.

This is a hard list to come up with. What about:


Salem's Lot
The Stand
Dracula
The Shining
The Rising
Hell House
The Exorcist
The Girl Next Door
The Road
The Tomb
Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ten books is a hard thing to do. I agree authors might be easier. But i'm going to think on it, and get back to you later.

William has a pretty good list

Though I think it needs a terrible book on it - something to show we suffered for our status... that we were willing to sit through vile garbage to sort out the gems from the dreck.

For awful, how about The Lair of the White Worm? I couldn't make it through it and it is a short one!

Yes William, that was really bad. Although I think I'd have classed that as Gothic, like Castle Otranto and so on.

here mine 1 survivor 2 American psycho 3 endless night 4 books of blood 5 suffer the flesh 6 flesh Gothic 7 after midnight 8 apeshit 9 Halloween 10 psycho

Some of these are classic horror, some aren't but stayed with me long after I read them. There are many more I could have listed, but these are some favorites. They're in no particular order.


1) The Stand
2) World War Z
3) Surivor
4) Naomi's Room
5) Boy's Life
6) The Haunting of Hill House
7) Infected
8) The Cannibal Within
9) The Ruins
10) Off Season

Let's try a different sort of thread! I saw it on a Fantasy board and I LOVE the way they do it. 10 is s tough number for anybody to come up with, and doing a list like this works pretty darn tooting well.

Thanks, Jerry. Ten of my faves.

I started that other thread, but I am also going to give this one a whirl!

Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons
Swans Song - Robert McCammon
Psycho - Robert Bloch
The Best Of H.P. Lovecraft - H.P. Lovecraft
The Bridge - Skipp And Spector
Collected Ghost Stories - M.R. James
The Girl Next Door - Jack Ketchum
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
John Dies At The End - James Wong
The Bighead - Ed Lee

I put Lee in the end there since this list is supposed to show all the different styles, right? I'm not as fan of his really, but there is no doubt that book REALLY threw the gauntlet down and dared the future authors to pick it up.

With Bighead Lee threw down the gauntlet and I almost threw up. I can't get that disgusting book out of my head!

1-The Stand - Stephen King

2-IT - King

3-Watchers - Dean Koontz

4-One Door Away From Heaven - Koontz

5-The Thief Of Always - Clive Barker

6-The Talisman - King & Peter Straub

7-Dragonlance Chronicles - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

8-Insomnia - King

9-The Husband - Koontz

10-The Gunslinger series -King

Thats harder than you think it's going to be!

Interesting topic. Agree with most titles listed. I would include Succubi by Edward Lee (now don't groan and roll your eyes, Tressa lol)...

I'd say he did his job...but that's just ME! :P

Tressa wrote: "With Bighead Lee threw down the gauntlet and I almost threw up. I can't get that disgusting book out of my head!"

Chris, have you read The Summer I Died? I think you'd enjoy that very, very much. But don't look for an old lady with a colostomy bag, she's not there. But lots of other fun things are! :)

I have heard it mentioned here before....I will look for it (although no colostomy bag sex is a tad bit disappointing lol)...

Thanks to Tressa, I can't get "bighead" out of my head either, and I didn't even read the book! just her description and review. ugh! I have backwoods in my bag to read next, but keep putting it off.

Annna, please read Bighead and tell me what you think.

LOL!!!

What are you laughing at, psychopath? I want an honest opinion.

Ummm, okay. I hope to have another Lee convert very very soon!

Anna works in a hospital. I'm sure Bighead won't gross her out if she's had the same experiences as my nurse sister. You just might have a convert after all.

Oh, goodie! ;) I am hurt that you think of me as a psychopath...unless you mean psycho/acolyte for Edward Lee, then, okay! :P

If you're a psychopath then so am I because I enjoy some of the same books and movies as you do. You know I luv ya, Chris.

I know and you rock, too, Tressa! By the way....that's an excellent Koontz book you're reading...my favorite of his!

Woke up this morning at 3:30 for some reason, so I went to lie on the couch and read Strangers. It is a good book and I didn't want to put it down. I don't know anything about it, so I have no idea what's going to happen to these people.

Tressa wrote: "Annna, please read Bighead and tell me what you think. "

I'm waiting for "bighead" (that doesn't sound right...) from paperbackswap, I'm about 7 on the list for the next one

Anna, good for you! Hope it happens soon....I take it this'll be your first Ed Lee novel? If so, it is pretty hardcore...just an FYI...

It's so funny, but I just finished a hardcore book called The Summer I Died. It had a castration in it, flesh burnings, appendage loppings. You name it, it had it. But I enjoyed that one.

There's just something about Bighead that turns my stomach. I still think of him slurping that stuff out of the girl's bellybutton and I want to hurl everytime I recall it. I'm bending over my waste basket as I type.

Okay, well, I need to Represent here lol...so I will post my list later today or tomorrow...

Pet Semetary by King
The Shining by King
'Salem's Lot by King
Watchers by Koontz
Phantoms by Koontz
Succubi by Edward Lee
The Dark by James Herbert
Ghoul by Brian Keene
"Pine Deep" trilogy by Jonathan Maberry
Cabal by Clive Barker
The Travelling Vampire Show by Laymon
Goat Dance by Douglas Clegg

I know I listed three King novels and two DK ones but I felt that these novels heavily influenced me as a horror reader and writer...and some of the newer authors' books I listed I felt are my favorites so far and had the biggest impression on me.

Seth, I'm a big fan of Siddons' The House Next Door.

Chris, I recently listened to The Shining on audio and am blown away all over again at what an amazing story that is. I haven't read it in so long and the movie sort of muddled its greatness in my head over the years, but it is a perfect, well written, terrifying ghost story. King was truly at the top of his game back in the Carrie/Salem's Lot/The Shining/The Stand days.

Agreed. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Under the Dome a few days ago. I'll read it soon...early buzz is that it will blow King fans away...

Tressa wrote: "Seth, I'm a big fan of Siddons' The House Next Door.

Chris, I recently listened to The Shining on audio and am blown away all over again at what an amazing story that is. I haven't read it in so ..."

Hay Tressa, what did you think of Watchers? It must have been good for you to start on Stangers. :o)

Lori, I haven't read Watchers yet. I'm still on Strangers. Can't seem to find the time in the evenings to read as much as I want. Too tired or too much to do.

My bad. I thought you started Watchers first. Well i'll get back to you when your finished with Stangers.

1.Carrie - King
2.I am Legend - Matheson
3.Hell House - Matheson
4.Salem's Lot - King
5.Books of Blood - Barker
6.Night Shadow - Lisiewski
7.The Bad Place - Koontz
8.Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre - H P Lovecraft
9.The Best of Edgar Allen Poe
10.The Dark Tower Series - King

Great choices, Charles!

I put this list together for another thread, but I'd want my horror passport stamped with these as well:

The Shining by Stephen King
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
The Books of Blood by Clive Barker
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Fear of Gravity by Brian Keene
various short stories by Thomas Ligotti
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Some of the early stories in The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers

I've read a lot of Keene's books, but have never heard of Fear of Gravity. Might check that out.

Tressa, it is his short story collection, only available in hardcover but probably out of print by now. I bought mine years ago shortly after reading The Rising and becoming a Keene fan...

Chris wrote: "Tressa, it is his short story collection, only available in hardcover but probably out of print by now. I bought mine years ago shortly after reading The Rising and becoming a Keene fan..."

Tressa and Chris, my copy of Fear of Gravity is a paperback edition from Delirium Books. But it does look like it may be out of print now. Only available from third party sellers on Amazon.

At least you have a copy...although perhaps Leisure will reissue it in massmarket since Keene is one of their top authors in the horror line...I was fortunate enough years ago to buy my hardcover from Shocklines, back when I first discovered Keene...