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Which book would you force someone to read?
I would love for the only friend of mine who reads regularly to read Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. He dislikes long novels but that one might change his mind. Also, I wish that more people would read authors like Richard Laymon and Bentley Little. A lot of them can't get over the vulgarity of the novels and don't even notice how amazing the stories are.
Do I have to choose just one? Never mind. I can't. You can't make me.I would force a horror fan to read: The Summer I Died, Afraid, Naomi's Room, Off Season, Let's Go Play at the Adams, The House Next Door, Survivor, Katie, The Pilo Family Circus, Let the Right One In, Infected, The Ruins, Under the Skin, The Haunting of Hill House, Rosemary's Baby.
All other readers: Lonesome Dove, The Accidental Tourist, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Ender's Game, Passage, Mystic River, Abandon, The Gargoyle, Boy's Life.
If I had to choose one from each category, it would be Let's Go Play at the Adams and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy for fictionEyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Muller for non-fiction
both incredibly brutal books, but books that will change you forever
You're all cheating.I pick Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (big surprise there). Read it people and get back to me.
I would force my sister to read Dracula by Bram Stoker. Because she's a huge vampire fan, and I think all vampire fans should read this book.
Tressa wrote: "Do I have to choose just one? Never mind. I can't. You can't make me."Thanks Tressa more titles to add to my tbr pile.
Who wrote "Katie"? I did a search and it pulled up about a million books.
Nathan wrote: "Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy for fiction"I'm not a fan of straight up western novels but this sounds interesting. I will add it to my list.
This is one of the rare times I cheated. And I didn't really cheat since I did finally pick out two.Bark, Katie is by Michael McDowell. I've had my copy since the early '80s that I found at a used bookstore I worked at. It might be out of print. The writer died of AIDS back in the late '80s.
Nathan, I used to read every book I could get my hands on about Auschwitz. Have you ever read Anus Mundi: 1,500 Days in Auschwitz/Birkenau? I think it translates to "In the Anus of the World." This is also about a man who saw the inner workings of the death camps. Can't remember if he was a doctor or not. A brutal read.
I will read Geek Love one day.
Tressa wrote: "Bark, Katie is by Michael McDowell. I've had my copy since the early '80s that I..."Thanks, it's now on my list along with a bunch of others there you posted.
Enjoy them. They're some of my favorites I'm always suggesting. I had lots more but I didn't want to be a nuisance. ;-D
I never find book recommendations a nuisance. I'd love to see them.
wow , i`ve read loads about the Holocaust , but i`ve never seen that one before , just about everybody gives it 5 stars , so i`ve added that to my read list .thanks
Beans, it's a tough read. Very thorough on the atrocities. I can't listen to "Ave Maria" without thinking of a passage from the book. I don't read anything on the Holocaust anymore and I try to never look at the pictures.
@BarkLessWagMore - Blood Meridian is less a western, and more the retelling of the west as it was (in all its brutality). Poetic writing, but a difficult and slow read.@Tressa - I've read some Holocaust lit, even more Soviet prison camp lit. After awhile, you can get numb to the atrocities. Even the writers themselves bicker amongst each other as who has suffered more.
Humor: Diary of a Mad HousewifeWit: House of Mirth
Romance: Age of Innocence
Horror: Cujo, The Stand, Carrion Comfort
Apocolyptic: On the Beach
Women's Lit: Black Alice, Handmaid's Tale
Thriller: Patient Zero
Chick Lit: Bridget Jones' Diary
I couldn't list just one book!
World War Z. If you don't like zombies after that, then there's no hope. I studied modern German hsitory in college, and read a lot of books on the Nazis and the Holocaust. Sometimes the worst horrors are the real ones.
Anything by Joe Hill...i forced my sister to read HSB and 20 Century Ghosts.
I wouldn't force anyone to read anything. If I can't make a good case for them to voluntarily read it themselves, I should force myself to read material to better make my case.
Rackel, have you read Horns by Joe Hill yet? I would force horror fans to read that one.Also, good point Gerrod. I couldn't physically force someone to read an entire book. I could talk them into it though, or at least try very hard to do so.
Sorry Rachel and Jerrod. I spelled both of your names wrong in my last message.
Adam wrote: "Sorry Rachel and Jerrod. I spelled both of your names wrong in my last message."No worries, story of my life...
Meh, it's ok. My name has like 9 spellings, who says that isn't one of them? and yes, I loved Horns.
Horror: The Shining by Stephen KingScience Fiction: Neuromancer by William Gibson
Fantasy: The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker
FYI, TressaMichael McDowell (1 June 1950 – 27 December 1999)
I thought the '80's sounded a little early.
Rachel wrote: "Anything by Joe Hill...i forced my sister to read HSB and 20 Century Ghosts."I forced my good friend to read HSB. She's a huge Stephen King fan. She read Coraline by Neil Gaiman (another one I forced her to read) right before it so she's now got an issue with creepy eyes. Hehehe! :-)But she thoroughly enjoyed it.
Adam, I bought Horns but I haven't read it yet. I'm itching to get to it!
I forced another good friend, who's not a horror fan at all, to read Clive Barker's short story, "In the Hills, the Cities." Just because that story is so unique and brilliant, IMO. I believe she liked it but was not as blown away as I was when I first read it.
General Fiction: I forced my mom to read Handle With Care by Jodi Piccoult because I needed someone to discuss it with and thought she might feel very similarly about it.
Horns is nothing short of amazing. Anyone who reads it shouldn't be disappointed, even if they aren't a horror fan. I'll recommend a few more.Crime fiction: Wild Justice by Phillip Margolin
Romance: The Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice. I don't know if that counts but I've never read anything like that before.
Fantasy: the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
Thriller: False Memory by Dean Koontz
Splatterpunk: One Rainy Night by Richard Laymon.
Horror: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill.
Apocalyptic: Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon.
Scifi: Under the Dome by Stephen King. It was classified as scifi anyway.
I just bought Beauty's Release (#3 in The Beauty Trilogy). Once I start a series, I gotta finish it. You're right, Adam, in saying that they're like not much else out there. I still think they'll stay in the box under my bed so i don't have to explain my "smut", though hehe.
FYI, Tressa Michael McDowell (1 June 1950 – 27 December 1999)
I thought the '80's sounded a little early.
Oh, did I say he died in the eighties? Thanks for looking it up. I am ALWAYS off on dates/years/time. And knowing where an author lives or is from. Who the hell can keep up with that stuff? I just read their book and move on.
Jaimie wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Anything by Joe Hill...i forced my sister to read HSB and 20 Century Ghosts."I forced my good friend to read HSB. She's a huge Stephen King fan. She read Coraline by Neil Gaiman ..."
The only thing I found scary about "In The Hills, The Cities" was the roll in the wheat field. lol. Fucking disgusting, classic Clive Barker gross-out, taboo at it's finest, ladies and gents.
BarkLessWagMore wrote: "You're all cheating.I pick Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (big surprise there). Read it people and get back to me.
"Why won't people read this? We have such exquisite taste.
If there was a book I'd force people to read, I might go with something dark but not imposing or off-putting for non-readers (or non-horror readers). With that in mind, I'd recommend:The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker
I just ordered The Great and Secret Show from PBS. I also have Horns and CANNOT believe I haven't read it yet!If I had to force anyone to read one book it would probably be The Gormneghast Trilogy. Okay, that's three, but I was blown away by it!
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. It's better if you've read his other books, but you don't have to. Great example of horror and satire mixing together.Search for Joseph Tully by William Hallahan for sheer suspense and creepiness.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - I don't think you can call this one horror, but it's pretty twisted.
Non-horror:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Amy, you should really just read the first couple of pages of Horns. Once you do, you will probably spend the rest of your day reading it. I can't say it's better than Heart-Shaped Box because I liked both of them equally but in different ways. Both are essential horror reads though.
Dave wrote: "Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. It's better if you've read his other books, but you don't have to. Great example of horror and satire mixing together.[book:Search for Joseph Tully|40..."
I couldn't get into Infinite Jest but will try again since it's raved about. I remember it had about 5,689 pages!! Didn't the author recently die?
Yeah, Wallace killed himself about a year, year and a half ago. Infinite Jest is a tough read, and there were a number of things that left me frustrated at the end. Still, all in all, it was worth it.
I'm also going to cheat a bit here...there is no possible way I can list just ONE novel that I would force someone to read. So here is my current list of MUST reads: The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon, The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce, The Rising and City of the Dead by Brian Keene, 13 Bullets by David Wellington (this is the first of the Laura Caxton vampire series), and obviously, World War Z by Max Brooks.I also have to add a couple books that are not truly horror but are terrifying in concept. Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Road by Cormac McCarthy (try to read the novel prior to viewing the movie -- it won't make that much of a difference but there is obviously more details in the novel) and The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh.
NOW -- the one novel that I would force everyone to read (and have attempted to) is Stephen King's The Stand. Hands down the best novel ever written, in my opinion.
Also, thank you all for the enormous amount of selections you've given. Now I have more books to add to me "To Read" pile!
Last year one of our group reads was The Tooth Fairy. I didn't care for it too much and I don't think I was alone. That was an odd book.The Onion Field is a sad and tragic book. I still own my hardback copy of Watership Down. We read it in high school for a psychology class.
not sure i'd want to force anyone to read them but my favorites to re-read are: Catch-22, The Thin Red Line, Little Big, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffmann, Titus Groan & Gormenghast & Boy in Darkness, His Dark Materials, Raj Quartet, Absolute Beginners, Picnic at Hanging Rock, White Noise, Wolves of Darkness, collected stories of Robert Aickman & Clark Ashton Smith & Cordwainer Smith, Stand on Zanzibar, Bellefleur & A Bloodsmoor Romance. sad to say there's not much horror in there, besides the Aickman & Ashton Smith stories and maybe by a stretch Wolves. guess i'm just waiting for that perfect horror novel to come around that i want to re-read several times. The Stand and It and Declare by Tim Powers come close but i haven't had a really burning desire to re-read them yet since the first time.
Tressa wrote: "Last year one of our group reads was The Tooth Fairy. I didn't care for it too much and I don't think I was alone. That was an odd book.The Onion Field is a sad and tragic book. I still own my ha..."
I really loved "The Tooth Fairy." I thought it was an amazing coming of age horror story. Sadly, they attempted to make it into a movie known as "The Boogeyman" and they completely changed the entire concept of the novel so that the only thing recognizable in the film from the novel is that the villain is named -- wait for it -- the Tooth Fairy. I was so angry about this...what a way to ruin a brilliant novel. It could have been a remarkable and terrifying movie.
Melissa
That POS movie Boogeyman was based on the Tooth Fairy? I didn't care for TTF but it wasn't as bad as that movie.I didn't know Picnic at Hanging Rock is a book. What the hell happened to those girls? *scratches head*
Tressa wrote: I didn't know Picnic at Hanging Rock is a book. What the hell happened to those gir..."Me either. Another perk for GR's.
Mark, does the book tell what happened to the girls?
Read Survivor by J. F. Gonzalez. True horror there. Hopefully if you do you can get passed the bloody parts though. I would force a horror fan to read it. If you can read this book, not much else should disturb you.
Maicie wrote: Mark, does the book tell what happened to the girls?"
nope. the film is very similar to the book....it's a mystery to the very end and beyond! the main differences between the two is there is more of the headmistress in the book and the movie loses the book's wry, dry tone and replaces it with a sort of hypnotic lyricism - which works for me. i thought both were excellent; the film is actually one of my favorite films as well.
Boys Life and Swan Song by Robert R McCammon, and I would force all my friends to read it.
Horror Aficionados
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Joseph Boyden (other topics)Cormac McCarthy (other topics)
So, what book would you like to make someone read?