iceguy303

All,

I have started reading Stephen King's Danse Macabre. In his appendix he listed the following books that have made a significant contribution to the Horror Genre between the 1940's -80's. The titles with asterisks are stories with additional significance.

What my question is to you is: Have you read any of these books and if so, what is your take on them. Did you like the book? No? Why?

I have searched google for this list, but without luck I was relegated to type it out. My goal is to read every one of these on the list so that as I continue to write, I have a better chance of making the story successful. Enjoy and I look forward to hearing from you.

• Adams, Richard
  • The Plague Dogs
  • Watership Down*
• Aickman, Robert
  • Cold Hand in Mine
  • Painted Devils
• Ayme, Marcel
  • The Walker through Walls
• Bainbridge, Beryl
  • Harriet Said
• Ballard, J.G.
  • Concrete Island*
  • High Rise
• Beaumont, Charles
  • Hunger*
  • The Magic Man
• Bloch, Robert
  • Pleasant Dreams*
  • Psycho*
• Bradbury, Ray
  • Dandelion Wine
  • Something Wicked Comes this Way*
  • The October Country
• Brennan, Joseph Payne
  • The Shapes of Midnight*
• Brown, Frederic
  • Nightmares and Geezenstacks*
• Bryant, Edward
  • Among the Dead
• Caird, Janet
  • The Loch
• Campbell, Ramsey
  • Demons by Daylight
  • The Doll who Ate his Mother*
  • The Parasite*
• Charnas, Suzy McKee
  • The Vampire Tapestry
• Cortazar, Julio
  • The End of the Game and Other Stories
• Crews, Harry
  • A Feast of Snakes
• Dahl, Roald
  • Kiss Kiss*
  • Someone Like You*
• Daniels, Les
  • The Black Castle
• Donaldson, Stephen R.
  • The Thomas Covenant Trilogy (3 Vols.)*
• Maurier, Daphne Du
  • Don’t Look Now
• Ellison, Harlan
  • Deathbird Stories*
  • Strange Wine*
• Farris, John
  • All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By
• Finney, Charles G.
  • The Ghosts of Manacle
• Finney, Jack
  • The Body Snatchers*
  • I Love Galesburg in the Springtime
  • The Third Level*
  • Time and Again*
• Golding, William
  • The Lord of the Flies*
• Gorey, Edward
  • Amphigorey
  • Amphigorey Too
• Grant, Charles L.
  • The Hour of the Oxrun Dead
  • The Sound of Midnight*
• Grubb, Davis
  • Twelve Tales of Horror*
• Hallahan, William H.
  • The Keeper of the Children
  • The Search for Joseph Tully
• Herbert, James
  • The Fog
  • The Spear*
  • The Survivor
• Hjortsberg, William
  • Falling Angel*
• Jackson, Shirley
  • The Haunting of Hill House*
  • The Lottery and Others*
  • The Sundial
• Kersh, Gerald
  • Men Without Bones*
• Kirk, Russell
  • The Princess of all Lands
• Kneale, Nigel
  • Tomato Caine
• Kotzwinkle, William
  • Dr. Rat*
• Kozinski, Jerry
  • The Painted Bird*
• Leiber, Fritz
  • Our Lady of Darkness
• Le Guin, Ursula
  • The Lathe of Heaven*
  • Orsinian Tales
• Levin, Ira
  • Rosemary’s Baby*
  • The Stepford Wives
• MacDonald, John D.
  • The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything
• Malamud, Bernard
  • The Magic Barrel*
  • The Natural
• Marasco, Robert
  • Burnt Offerings*
• Marquez, Gabriel Maria
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Matheson, Richard
  • Hell House
  • I am Legend*
  • Shock II
  • The Shrinking Man*
  • A Stir of Echoes
• MacDowell, Michael
  • The Amulet*
  • Cold Moon over Babylon*
• McEwen, Ian
  • The Cement Garden
• Metcalf, John
  • The Feasting Dead
• Murdock, Iris
  • The Unicorn
• Oates, Joyce Carol
  • Nightside*
• O’Connor, Flannery
  • A Good Man is Hard to Find*
• Peake,Mervyn
  • The Gormenghast Trilogy (3 Vol)*
• Pynchon, Thomas
  • V.*
• Rampo, Edogawa
  • Tales of Mystery and Imagination
• Ray, Jean
  • Ghouls in my Grave
• Rice, Anne
  • Interview with the Vampire
• Roth, Philip
  • The Breast
• Russel, Ray
  • Sardonicus*
• Samson, Joan
  • The Auctioneer*
• Sansom, William
  • The Collected Stories of William Sansom
• Sarban
  • Ringstones: The Sound of his Horn*
• Siddons, Anne Rivers
  • The House Next Door*
• Singer, Asaac Bashevis
  • The Séance and Other Stories
• Smith, Martin Cruz
  • Nightwing
• Straub, Peter
  • Ghost Story*
  • If you Could See Me Now
  • Julia
  • Shadowland*
• Sturgeon, Theodore
  • Cavair
  • The Dreaming Jewels
  • Some of your Blood*
• Tessier, Thomas
  • The Nightwalker
• Theroux, Paul
  • The Black House
• Tryon, Thomas
  • The Other*
• Whitten, Les
  • Progeny of the Adder*
• Williams, Thomas
  • Tsuga’s Children*
• Wilson, Gahan
  • I Paint What you See
• Wright, T.M.
  • Strange Seed*
• Wyndham, John
  • The Chysalids
  • The Day of the Triffids*

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If I was being executed by injection, I'd clean up my cell real neat. Then, when they came to get me, I 'd say, "Injection? I though you said 'inspection.'" They'd probably feel real bad, and maybe I could get out of it. -Jack Handey

Sam Winchester

You want my opinion on every single one of them? I'd be here 'til Christmas. I stopped reading once I didn't see any Koontz. No King either?

Sam.

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iceguy303

Thanks Stewart. I will check out those links . I spoke to my wife about the book list and she truly loved The Haunting of Hill House. I think that is the next one on my list. I have read I am Legend, Interview with the Vampire, and The lottery so far, but as for the rest, I have heard only a few of the titles. I dont know if you have read Danse Macabre, but it goes into a great number of books that I have found very interesting. Even though I am a huge movie fan, I could do without his coverage on past horror films.

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If I was being executed by injection, I'd clean up my cell real neat. Then, when they came to get me, I 'd say, "Injection? I though you said 'inspection.'" They'd probably feel real bad, and maybe I could get out of it. -Jack Handey

Truth-Teller

They're good.

But some are downright boring.

Mike C

Interesting list, because a lot of them aren't horror. It's nice to see that King acknowledges the influence of other genres.

Ballard is certainly significant, though more as a literary SF author than horror - though some of his stories certainly fit the 'nightmare scenario' mould; High-Rise, for example, was a believeable inturpretation of an adult version of Lord of the Flies.

Bloch's Psycho and Bradbury's Something Wicked... are horror standards; required reading if you write the genre. Ditto Herbert's work. But Donaldson's Covenant trilogy? Interesting reading, but just how much bloody guilt can you take? It's depressing, and not in a good way.

Ursula LeGuin is excellent, but by no means horror. Likewise Marquez's Hundred years of solitude; it's a landmark in Magical Realism, not horror.

The list's too long for detailed comment, but skipping to the end, John Wyndham - nice to see him get a mention. Highly influential in SF circles and beyond, I'd also add The Kraken Wakes to that list.

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Mike C

Quite a blanket statement - how many of them have you actually read?

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Sam Winchester

Didn't really read the thread. Sorry. Besides, the only horror I've ever read is Koontz and King. I'm more action-adventure.

Sam.

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seigfried007

The list was also 1940's to 1980's- in other words, a lot of these books are hard to find, out of print, and might not have been published over here en masse when originally published.

I did find the variety very interesting becasue, as Mike mentioned, many of those works weren't horror. I noticed a few names, but I've read very few of them (haven't run into many of them at all and didn't know they came highly recommended).

I'm not as big a fan of Koontz and King, interestingly enough, Read some Clive Barker too and if you like Koontz and King, you might like him. However, like most 'horror' lately, it's little but disturbed sex and some interesting scenery even though several of the premises are incredibly thought provoking/frightening (read the Body Politic).

Mike, I found Lord of the Flies plenty horrific enough--all the more so because it involved children. It's rates quite high on the list of Most Disturbing Books I Have Ever Read. I've read a fair bit of its literary critiques and papers various scholars have written on it and the more I find, the more disturbing that book is for me, though, granted, I have a history with boys such as that book describes.

I've heard a great deal about Watership Down and have been warned not to read it because it was so traumatizing to other people I knew. I've got the gist of it and it sounds pretty darned... well, disturbing (but influential and interesting most certainly).

I've heard a great deal of praise for Day of the Triffids but have never found a copy to read myself.

Oddly enough I'm more familiar with more of the classics: Poe, Lovecraft, Stoker and Schelley. I've read quite a bit of Poe, but haven't gotten ahold of any Lovecraft yet though he's definitely on my to-read list. Frankenstein and Dracula are staples and classics with good reason (I more of a Frankenstein fan though).

War of the Worlds, while sci-fi, I suppose would also fit on my list of great horror. It's so difficulat to beat its opening lines-probably the best first page ever written in fiction. Just a friggin' awesome tale. I never got to read the end of it as my copy was lost or destroyed and I haven't gotten around to finding another one though I've seen both movies and listened to the 1978 musical version (which was doubly wonderful and comes highly recommended. My father used to torture my younger brother and I with it and it--and it's fabulous art--are pleasantly frightening still for me)

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BOURBON

303 - later in DM King recommends Siodmak. If you read none of the above, read him. Donovan's Brain is one of the most influential and really disturbing. If you like it... Hauser's Memory, Gabriel's Body and The Third Ear make for incredible reading. BB

Katastrof

Seig - Lovecraft is a definite must read. I'm reading a collection of some of his short stories, and they are wonderful. Some are even spooky, and I rarely get scared from a book, let alone a short story. And his description is some of the best I've read.

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strangedaze

This list is more than slightly fucked. Roth's novella, The Breast, is about a guy who's transformed into a breast. Horror, or wet dream? Kozinski's Painted Bird isn't really horror either, though it's definitely rife with atrocity.

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iceguy303

I have Peter Straub's Ghost Story and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House coming in the mail. I am really looking forward to diving into them. Thank you for everyone's opinion here. I will tune in when I have them under my belt. Regards and Happy Easter.

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http://detroit2dc.blogspot.com/


If I was being executed by injection, I'd clean up my cell real neat. Then, when they came to get me, I 'd say, "Injection? I though you said 'inspection.'" They'd probably feel real bad, and maybe I could get out of it. -Jack Handey

iceguy303

I will certainly keeping these titles in mind. Thanks for the suggestions.

__________________
http://detroit2dc.blogspot.com/


If I was being executed by injection, I'd clean up my cell real neat. Then, when they came to get me, I 'd say, "Injection? I though you said 'inspection.'" They'd probably feel real bad, and maybe I could get out of it. -Jack Handey

Tiamat10

Something Wicked Comes this Way (isn't it Something Wicked This Way Comes?) is one of my favourite books of all-time. I adore Bradbury's prose, though I didn't find it particularly scary.

The Lord of the Flies (and people may well hate me for this) is one of my least favourite books ever. If I hadn't had to read it for school, I would have stopped reading after chapter 7. I won't say why though, on the off chance someone here hasn't read it but wants to.

Orsinian Tales is a collection of short stories, most of them good. I wouldn't call any of them horror though.

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