• Looking back now, it seems absurd to think that this even happened, but growing up at the time, the Satanic Panic was real. It makes me so sad to think of the innocent people who were victimized, both the accused and the children subjected to traumatizing "therapy", all to boost the egos and/or careers of amoral psychologists. The real horror here is the knowledge that it could all happen again, and quite easily. We just don't know what form the scapegoat du jour will take this time.

  • I simply must have this. Thanks very much for posting about it here. I'll be ordering a copy on payday.

  • If anything, there are certain genres I avoid. I don't care for "secondary world" medieval fantasy (ex. Lord of the Rings), and have a pretty low tolerance for dystopian or post-apocalyptic science fiction.

    My preferred genres are horror and crime/mystery, but I'm willing to try most anything else.

  • As a horror fan, I've read a lot of pretty disturbing books. I actually tend to enjoy the creepy-disturbing aspect of horror, so it kinda rolls right off me. I'd say the three that were most distressing are the following, only one of which is categorized as horror genre.

    Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. True human darkness and evil. Sort of based on real-life events, so there's not even the barrier of fiction.

    Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Probably could be classified as horror, even if it would upset the literati. Judge Holden is a pretty frightening figure.

    Blindsight by Peter Watts. Watts's fiction is pretty dark in general, but this one takes the cake. Very, very bleak first contact story.

  • Hey there. I'm a little late to the discussion, but I can recommend a few. I'd start with Ellen Datlow's two anthologies, "Lovecraft Unbound" and "Lovecraft's Monsters." Lots of good work in these two, especially Brian Hodge's "The Same Deep Water As You" and Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Houses Under the Sea", the latter being my personal favorite work of cosmic horror.

    Also check out "A Mountain Walked" and the "Black Wings" series, both edited by ST Joshi. If you need any more recommendations for specific authors, feel free to ask.

  • Heh, same thing happened to me with Fight Club actually. My best friend at the time went to see it near opening night and raved to me about it nonstop for months. When I finally watched it on video I failed to be blown away. Decent picture, don't get me wrong, but not the life-altering event he made it out to be.

  • Yeah, pretty entry level, but Trainspotting is one of my all time favorite films. So if you haven't seen it, rectify that!

  • I suppose I have my father to credit (blame?) for my lifelong love of books and reading. From the earliest I can remember, he was always reading and always had books lying around that he was more than happy to share with me. Looking back, I realize that some of these books (King, Le Carre, etc.) were way beyond what I should have been reading as a kid, but Dad never seemed to have a problem with it. He was probably just happy that I wanted to read instead of watching TV all the time.

    Since we're sharing favorite, here's a few of mine. Pretty heavy on horror, but that's what I tend to like the most.

    • Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
    • Caitlin R. Kiernan - The Drowning Girl
    • Clive Barker - The Books of Blood (all of them!)
    • Peter Straub - Ghost Story
    • Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
    • JG Ballard - Crash
    • Thomas Ligotti - Teatro Grottesco
    • Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
    • M. John Harrison - The Course of the Heart