Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rosemary's Baby



Working on a new project and have a question for the day to pose to you guys -- What are your favorite horror novels and why? I used to read them all the time when I was younger and remember really loving Ira Levin, particularly Rosemary's Baby. What, if anything, really scares you?

I'm also reading the new Carver biography and will have a review soon. So far, very compelling!

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"Speed, strength, and the inability to register pain immediately." Reggie Williams, when asked his greatest strengths as a football player

Cocktail Hour
Drinking suggestion: I have a new drink with dry ice coming up -- it's really cool-looking and a little scary to drink, perfect for the mid-winter days.

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Sunday!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steroids really scare me.--Barney Frank

Whitenoise said...

The exorcist, which is kinda weird since I'm not a religious man...

Charles Gramlich said...

The two books that scared me the most were Peter Straub's Ghost Story and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Joe Lansdale's Nightrunners was also very good, and Ceremonies by T. E. D. Kline.

Keith Hood said...

That’s a tough one. I can’t really remember any books that frightened me. I think it’s because I’m hard to scare. Suspense is easier. I remember being held in suspense reading Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca.” Theresa, however, couldn’t sleep after reading Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” I was spooked by “Village of the Damned” the 1960 version starring George Sanders but in hindsight I think the scariest part of the movie may have been the concept of a bunch of “perfect” little white kids with blond hair and blue eyes. The question I have is what panics people. I just read a story by Joyce Carol Oates titled “Panic” in which a husband and wife panic on the John C. Lodge expressway after seeing a gun in the hands of some kids on a school bus driving in front of them. The panic causes the husband to lose control of the car and causes the mother to jump into the backseat with her children. I know a woman who almost ran into a tree because a spider was on the OUTSIDE of her windshield but this same woman when seeing a bat trapped in the stairwell of an apartment building, grabbed the bat by its wings, carried the bat outside and set it free. What panics people is my question.

Anonymous said...

I tried the read Cleaving, because you found it so affecting.

Put it down after the first 25 pages.

Really scary that a dumpy woman with a meat fetish can get a multiple book deal in this culture...

Jason said...

"Really scary that a dumpy woman with a meat fetish can get a multiple book deal in this culture..."

I don't know. I think this is exactly who should be writing books.

the walking man said...

Shit who needs a horror novel anymore to be scared witless?

jodi said...

Hi Honey, I too, read and became fascinated with "Rosemary's Baby" even to the point of copying Mia's haircut. I also read Peter Straub and a victorian era style writer that I cannot recall the name of but, scared the beJesus out of me with a wax voo doo doll that came to life. Why must we torture ourselves? xo

Heff said...

I'm scared of books in general, lol !

Lana Gramlich said...

Straub's "Ghost Story" kept me good & scared. A subtle kind of scared...Not terrified, but overly wary. So well done.
"It" scared me so bad I couldn't turn off the light to go to bed at night. Then the ending ruined the whole thing for me. Gads, Stephen King couldn't write an ending if his life depended on it! I'm glad I quit him on a high note; "Misery."