/x/ tier books
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You are currently reading a thread in /x/ - Paranormal
What are some of the best /x/ tier books? I'm trying to get back into reading
>>17838402
>House of Leaves
The only redeeming factor is the weird layout. The actual story, the in-universe story, and so on are kinda shit.
MILD SPOILER
Yeah I picked up house of leaves and stopped around the part where the professor returns to the house and the door is gone...
I just lost interest. It was good for awhile there but it was never scary or creepy. Does it get any better?
>>17838428
Does anyone on the internet like anything?
>>17838533
>Does anyone on the internet like anything?
It's just so easy to say something sucks. And if they say they like something then someone will say that what they liked sucks -- and well, quite frankly that's just too much for them to bear. So they just say everything sucks and pretend that is interacting.
So does it get better then?
>>17838549
>So does it get better then?
They are no car chases if that's what you're asking.
The BOOK is the 'House of Leaves', pages as leaves, see pic for house shape.
The TEXT is the labyrinth. It goes this way and that and doubles back and has dead ends. Go ahead read every word if you want, but you don't need to, You don't go over every possible path in a maze do you? Come on, footnotes that are lists of hundreds of different kinds of windows -- reading every word of that is OCD crazy. This is where people that hate the book go nuts, YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ EVERY WORD. The idea is to follow one thread to the end.
Who is the Minotaur is the key question. The author? The plot? The Reader? At one point the book says the Minotaur is made of string... hmm, your route thru it all??
maybe an /x/ quality book
Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald
This is one of my favorite books ever. More of a depressing diary prediction.
>>17838559
So it doesn't get better then.
>>17838516
It does get better. You stopped right before it. The appendices are half the book's value imo.
>>17838428
I keep dropping it and coming back to it. I really hate the dry and academic (yet purple prose-filled) writing, and the irritating amounts of footnotes with meandering stories about some girl Johnny fucked, but I'm interested in the depictions of the actual film, and I wish I could hold my attention long enough to fucking enjoy it.
Annihilation
It's best redeeming quality is that it's a short novel so the author's atrocious prose won't bother you too much.
However the sequels are full length and are borderline unreadable because of it.
Better off just reading the first one and then looking at the wiki of the rest.
>>17838402
I keep picking it back up but it gives me weird lucid dreams and nightmares
>>17838559
I read it mostly through and I started lucid dreaming, having nightmares, and just constant daydreaming. It was pretty bizarre to be honest
House of Leaves best read in a short time frame.
I did it in two weeks. Required discipline through mundane stretches but the book is certainly not meant to be picked up and put down repeatedly.
The communist manifesto
The Illuminatus Trilogy.
fantastic adventure, though it's a dense read. feels like Joyce at times.
>>17838402
Lovecraft. To start read Nyarlathotep and The Outsider. They're both short but are also fantastic.
The Troop for horror
The Summer I Died for Gore/Torture Porn
Cows for shock value or simply something batshit insane
WWZ for something mainstream
Geek Love for something less mainstream
and
The Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy just for fun
>>17839371
Already read WWZ, great novel
Also recommending The Zombie Survival Guide, by the same author, it's a classic
The Summer I Died and Cows both sound like interesting reads, I'll look into it !
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, for just a hint of something supernatural.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is probably my favorite horror novel. Just really well written and depressing. Her other stuff is good too and like Blood Meridian often has the hint of something really "off" and kind of supernatural.
The Turn of the Screw, which is a classic ghost story that's fun for a debate, if you're into that sort of thing.
Finally, opinions are divided but I like Stephen King.
>>17839922
>Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, for just a hint of something supernatural.
Excellent, excellent book. And while it's true it's mostly a violent tale of border skirmishes, you're right there is a supernatural element. The encounter with the circus has a tarot reading, and there's a tarot card stuck on the wall of some place they visit. The cards tell how people die at the ferry crossing. There's a neat concordance that outlines all this, translates all the Spanish, and gives the historical background -- believe it or not, the ferry bloodbath actually happened.
Bottom-line: Blood Meridian, read it now.
Anything for someone who claims that he can't be scared by any book or movie anymore?
>>17840029
People that worried about convincing others they're too bad-ass to be frighten by anything is a fuckin' poser loser, so fuck `em.
>>17838559
Shut the fuck up, Danielewski. That guy is pretentious as fuck.
>>17840041
So tell us which of the Goosebump books is your favorite.
>>17840037
I think what he meant was rather over-saturation than bad-assness. Especially since he's the kind of guy who is scared of anything in real life.
So I guessed that finding him something really scary but not related to real life might be kind of therapeutic. I'm not a great horror reader, I prefer movies in that genre, so I have no idea.
>>17840050
That one were the family moves to a new town and it turns out that all of the inhabitants are undead.
>>17840050
Robert Aickman is my favorite horror writer.
Steven Millhauser isn't horror, but I think he meshes with /x/.
Anyone into Gustav Meyrink? He was really popular in his time, but is hardly read nowadays. In my opinion, the story "Master Leonhard" contains one of the most gripping descriptions of madness I've ever read.
>>17840111
Me too. Spent a small fortune on collecting all the Tartarus Press reprints, glad I did. I hope someday they publish some of his writing that has never seen the light of day, such as his philosophical work 'Panacea'.
>>17840006
Plus, The Judge
>>17840132
I want to read The Golem soon.
>>17840211
Definitely want a cheaper edition of the Collected Strange Stories to come out one day.
Pretty good story about conspiracy theories.
I recomend it
This guys blog is cool:
http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/
I have this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weird
Just finished reading The Other Side of the Mountain from '67.
It's still good, but I would describe this anthology as more surrealist then horror. They use the term "weird" as literal as it can be. Not the usual way to describe Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
In the hills, cities by clive barker is great. Read the whole anthology it is featured in.
City if glass by paul auster was depressing and really spooky.
What are some good /x/ related non-fiction/information/texts/catalogs?
Where can I read a complete bibliography of Clark Ashton Smith without all those fucking typos?
>>17841252
http://www.eldritchdark.com/
>>17841234
Books of Blood should be required reading for all horror fans.
>>17839248
Lmao
>>17841260
WITHOUT typos.
>>17838402
I think that Cabal (Clive Barker's book and inspiration for the movie Nightbreed) was really satisfying. Nothing scary of course just supernatural, but it makes you question your understandings of normal.
Along those same lines the comic miniseries "Hellraiser Nightbreed Jihad" is worth a look.
>>17841266
Agreed, but the first volume only. They started to get very boring after awhile.
>>17839371
Who are th authors of these?
This is leather-bound and $20 at Barnes & Noble
do yourself a favor, pick it up & indulge in cosmic madness
>>17838402
House of Leaves is one of the best books I've ever read. I'm scanning this topic now to see if I can find anything that can scare me half as much.
If you don't like it, oh well. I love it.
I enjoy horror for the atmosphere but the only books that have truly spooked me as an adult are some hp lovecraft stories, city of glass and house of leaves.
Blood music came pretty close too, not bad for a mainly sci fi book.
>>17841394
you mean pleather bound
a bit obvious but incase any of you don't know this is the ultimate /x/ novel
>conspiracy
>surveillance
>occultism
>seances
>psychedelics
>tarot
>paganism
>bdsm
>withcraft
>psych hospital
>nazi experiments
>child murder
>transhumanism
>protosingularity
>human sacrifice
>precognition
>ESP
>dream interception
>dream communication
>illuminati
>apocalypse
>eternal return
>>17841394
>"""""""""leather""""""""-bound
i should expect this level of gullibility on this board
>>17838402
MR James' ghost stories are cool also Kafka, The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Most modern horror books suck.
How about some real good shit.
M.R. James and Sheridan Le Fanu are top notch old-school writers, I personally would take them over Lovercraft any day. That is not to say Lovecraft doesn't have good stories. He has many but he also wrote a lot of obnoxiously verbose trash.
Really wanna get into the good stuff then you should check out Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio". An Asian perspective but it's real tight and also one of the few of the old Chinese style of 'zhiguai xiaoshuo' (tales of the strange) that has a strong english translation. Easily my favorite "horror" or whatever writing(s) I have found.
House of Leaves tries way too hard and really now these creepypasta mythos that are coming out in books and movies are seriously pleb tier.
>>17841381
Cows-Mattew Stokoe
The Troop-Nick Cutter
The Summer I Died-Ryan C. Thomas
WWZ-Max Brooks
Geek Love-Katherine Dunn
THGTTG-Douglas Adams
And as a bonus
Haunted-Chuck Palahniuk
>>17839764
Glad to help, mate
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/john-kjv.html
>>17839922
I like Stephen King, but he is better, when he isn't trying to be scary, or with short stories, we all know he bloody sucks with the payoffs, and reading a 1500 pages book just for a letdown is something plain horrible.
>>17838516
Exactly where I stopped reading. Just find it hard to go back to it knowing I will eventually have to go back and forth through the appendix.
Cyclonopedia. Pretentious, full of buzzwords, but it ultimately feels like any good /x/ story or horror story overall in that it goes completely unsolved or without some violent BLOOD BLOOD MURDER GORE HORROR climax.
Full text: https://ciudadtecnicolor.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/cyclonopedia.pdf
>>17839187
there is so many people that don't like house of leaves because they find it pretentious, but honestly i loved it, the story really click on me and i feel thats is really emotional and personal.
My advice to anyone who wants to read the book would be: you dont have to read the entire thing, the whole concept behind it is that you can skip many detractors and doesnt matter which way you read it, the outcome is different but holds the same feeling.
you can read only the johnny story, or the navidson tale, or both, skip all the footnotes, etc...
it doesnt matter, is a book with "replay value"
>>17841394
What stories does it include?
>>17841882
That's the worst fiction novel I've ever read. Too much miracle shit and not enough plot development.
>>17838402
>Tried reading
>couldn't stand all the footnotes
>>17838402
Just finished House of leaves, best fucking book I have ever read
>>17838516
You stopped right before the mindfucking
>>17839247
^^^^ THIS
My first time reading though it I hated it
Second time I read it in about a week and it probably fucked me up for life.
>>17842566
kek
robert aickman wrote creepy, slightly surreal horror stories that are pretty disturbing and interesting. A lot of hints something is terribly wrong, nothing really explicit, lots of ambiguity. really good, creepy - if not terrifying - stuff
>>17839371
Seconding Troop, great read. Also I'd recommend basically any horror anthology since there is usually at least one gem in there. Husk by Matt Hults is fantastic.
>>17841828
Started reading. Thank you for posting this. Exactly the kind of book I love & I had never heard of.
>>17838428
.....fuck OFF.
Seriously.
You're obviously a really, terribly boring person.
This book is one-of-a-kind. How could you possibly compare it to literally anything you've read?
This is the most important book I've ever read...
Not because of the story, but because it proves that you can take a medium and flip it in a way to make it completely your own.
It's the most "original" book I've ever come across.
Appreciate it for what it is, faggot.
>>17843468
>angry author detected
>>17843275
If you like him try Ramsey Campbell.
>>17843505
https://www.dropbox.com/s/elpxcjsfoo27k4l/Candles%20432.mp3?dl=0
Musician*
>>17843588
I keep hearing that. I really should
>>17843643
There's also a new anthology out called "Aickman's Heirs", heard it's pretty good but I haven't read it myself.
>>17843635
how "original".
We're living in a new golden age of horror and the same handful of books/authors keep getting dropped around here.
Nathan Ballingrud, Paul Tremblay, Gemma Files, Laird Barron, John Langan, Stephen Graham Jones, Joe Hill, Damian Angelica Waters et al. are all producing amazing work these days. Seek them out.
Another book I never see mentioned, except when I recommend it, is Naomi's Room, by Jonathan Aycliffe. Disregard the shitty cover art. Some readers knock it because they literally can't handle the ending, but it's easily the scariest novel I've ever read.
>>17838402
I'm getting into that book now, picked up the 3 Familiar volumes too for a great price
The footnotes are a bit overwhelming, but it seems like a book that should be read at least twice to fully understand what's happening; Johnny seems like a completely unreliable narrator, while Zampano is suffering from several mental conditions affecting the writing. I like it.
/x/ has shit taste in movies but an aight taste in books.
I personally really liked John Dies At The End and the sequel (shit movie though) but it might not be for you.
Also, I don't know if this means anything to anyone in this thread, but I think David Wong might be WaffleHouseMillionaire
>>17844049
I looked that up, I'll read that story later.
But I don't think Wong would come here, dudes a self-described SJW and many people blame him for ruining Cracked. I think we would try to avoid this place as much as possible.
His books are still good though.
>>17840211
Nice! Weird to see Aickman fans, I thought I was the only one. I was introduced to him in an anthology (The Swords) and then found Cold Hand in Mine in a used bookstore and spent like $50 on the wine dark sea when it was OOP. I've since bought the recent reprints.
>>17843960
Idk, I think the true golden age was the 80s. Horror fiction (movies and books) were on the rage back then and anyone who wrote horror pretty much got published and made good money. While a lot of shit was published many literate, experimental works were also published.
A lot the authors you named are pretty good but only seem to be published by small presses. Every major publication company in the 80s published horror. Genre fiction hasn't had many good days since the 90s ended desu. I think this kind of good in a way since writers now have to be pretty literate to get published by big companies or else they just self-publish on Amazon or the small presses.
It also sucks that no reads magazines anymore, which means you have to write novels instead having a career like Harlan Ellison had, just writing short stories.
>>17843844
...uh....what, exactly?
>>17844199
Depends how you define it, I guess. You could certainly make a better living in the 70s and 80s as a writer of short horror fiction, and many of my favorite books and films come from that era, but I would argue that we have a way more diverse and simply larger group of writers working today and that the literary merit of stuff that gets published these days is on average much higher than the schlock produced back then.
Three or four writers dominated the market back then (King, Straub, Koontz; Barker came later) and a good chunk of what those guys produced was just OK. The public bought everything because the field was so small. Yes, horror publishing has switched to mostly small presses, and everyone has to hustle their asses off to pay the rent, but there are so many publishing venues now (mags, anthols, online, self), and so many writers working, that the competition is raising everyone's game, IMO.
I'm waiting on a response right now from Lamplight. Listened to an interview with editor Jacob Haddon the other day and he gets something like 1-2 thousand submissions per reading period. That's just insane. Sure, a lot of that probably sucks, but the creme of that crop has to be pretty sweet.
Don't believe in ancient aliens but it's a fun read.
>>17844264
I get where you're coming from man.
I love the Shirley Jackson Awards because they really try to award only to literate horror instead of stupid, pulpy schlock that gives the genre a bad name. Shirley Jackson is a great author to name after too, as she was accepted by both genre fiction and literary fiction critics. I look at these awards as where the best modern horror fiction is.
>>17844297
I feel like watching the Ancient Aliens show is like a visual novel of that book
I kind of want to read any Japanese horror books/stories. I wish their was a Danse Macbre or "Supernatural Horror in Literature" for Japanese horror fiction.
>>17844362
Read Ringu.
Hail. Hail.
All hail to the King in Yellow.
>>17840106
objectively your tastes are shit.
its all about the one with the super heros
This.
Anyone has the link to the ebook compilation of /x/ stories. ??????????
Got to agree with those recommending Lovecraft. Ashton Smith is along the same line but not as good. Aickman goes with the 'weird tales' genre too but only a few of his stories are creepy imo. I really liked the idea behind House of Leaves, but it felt underdeveloped to me so it didn't pay off. Never read a Stephen King that scared me; I don't understand why he is considered horror at all.
Overall I would say Lovecraft is the best. I really liked that tale where the guy would dream and fly to other worlds and find himself in the body of aliens and where the witch with the familiar Brown Jenkins. He just manages to get the creepiness factor just right.
I suppose I like 'inanimate object/surreal environment' horror the most. If anyone can recommend stories about haunted objects/houses, but not necessarily involving people in those hauntings I would be greatful.
>>17844693
>Novels
The Cipher, Kathe Koja
Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
>Stories
"Reports of Certain Events in London" by China Mieville
"Crouch End" by Stephen King
"The Ash-Tree" by M.R. James
"Genius Loci" by Clark Ashton Smith
>Never read a Stephen King that scared me; I don't understand why he is considered horror at all.
Have you read Pet Sematary or the Shining?
>>17841882
The last six pages have been nothing but begats. Does it get better?
>>17844801
/spoiler/God gets killed towards the end/spoiler/
>>17838402
Since I couldn't find im here:
PKD - I am reading the 'novel' collection (imported american library collection, says on the box $100 but I got it for a lot less euros :^)) and am at "Now we wait for next year"
It's Sci-Fi allright, but that's just the (convenient) setting, but tthe rest is /x/ as shit, if 4chan was still around every (except the ones from DR Bloodmoney, or how when got allong after the bomb) character who knew of /x/ would be identified as an RP'ing faggot OP whom everyone is still waiting for to post moar/proof.
>>17844915
His story "Faith of Our Fathers" is basically a Lovecraftian story.
>>17844942
Hmm, that's too short a short story to be in the collection, but all the short-short stories are on my list too. Read all of Lovecraft (penguin collection, cheap as fuck) so I am looking forward to it. Dunno why I reply because it's OT but I'm drunk and this is a nice thread.
>>17844403
YESH! -- First book on my (now 5 year old) e-reader.
>>17844297
It was, but then I found out my father, whoms book it was, was for real and all he could ever point to was this book. Fucked me up for 4-5 years, then I confronted him, 10 years ago, when I was 16, and he denied.... could not take him seriously (outside normal house stuff) since then.
I'm reading Communion by Whitley Strieber right now. It's short (~300 pages), easy read. Even as a skeptic it's hard to discount someone with a normally functioning brain and no consistent mental anomalies as simply mentally ill or a victim of vivid hallucinations.
>>17838516
>I lost interest right when it got interesting
kill yourself
>>17840041
he unironically wears a fedora
>>17840050
i liked the one where they visit their grandparents in the swamp and there are werewolves that come in the night
>>17844422
I was gonna say that but i remembered that the only cool part was the book cover and seeing the superhero's costume
otherwise the story hardly made sense
>>17841394
>he fell for the B&N hardcover meme
>>17842566
this is funny because it demonstrates that you really havent read it
>>17840050
I remember the one with the villian in the big dire hydrant base being pretty good.
>>17843468
have to agree with this guy
>>17845012
>and he denied....
denied what?
>>17841394
I prefer this, easily the nicest book I own.
An absolutely excellent book that creates an unnerving, tense, and at times outright terrifying atmosphere is The House of Sounds by M.P. Shiel. It takes much from Poe, specifically The Fall of the House of Usher, and just runs with it. Can't recommend it enough.
>>17838402
>>17838559
A book is a House of Leaves without being placed on its front. The leaves are paper and the walls of the House the cover. The fact that books reach outside themselves and touch us in the real world is symbolised by the fact that the House is bigger on the inside.
I was thought the Minotaur was the End. Seeing as the text is the labyrinth, the Ending is its monster. No matter the book, you know it's going to have to eventually end.
This year's Shirley Jackson Award nominees, what are your picks /x/?
NOVEL
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press)
Experimental Film, Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)
The Glittering World, Robert Levy (Gallery)
Lord Byron’s Prophecy, Sean Eads (Lethe Press)
When We Were Animals, Joshua Gaylord (Mulholland Books)
NOVELLA
The Box Jumper, Lisa Mannetti (Smart Rhino)
In the Lovecraft Museum, Steve Tem (PS Publishing)
Unusual Concentrations, S.J. Spurrier (Simon Spurrier)
The Visible Filth, Nathan Ballingrud (This Is Horror)
Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing-UK/Open Road Media-US)
NOVELETTE
“The Briskwater Mare,” Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)
“The Deepwater Bride,” Tamsyn Muir (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July-August 2015)
“Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage,” Steve Duffy (Supernatural Tales #30, Autumn)
“Fabulous Beasts,” Priya Sharma (Tor.com, July 2015)
“The Thyme Fiend,” Jeffrey Ford (Tor.com, March 2015)
SHORT FICTION
“A Beautiful Memory,” Shannon Peavey (Apex Magazine)
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” Alyssa Wong (Nightmare)
“Seven Minutes in Heaven,” Nadia Bulkin (Aickman’s Heirs)
“The Dying Season,” Lynda E. Rucker (Aickman’s Heirs)
“Wilderness,” Letitia Trent (Exigencies)
SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King (Scribner)
The End of the End of Everything, Dale Bailey (Arche Press)
Get in Trouble, Kelly Link (Random House)
Gutshot, Amelia Gray (FSG Originals)
The Nameless Dark – A Collection, T.E. Grau (Lethe Press)
You Have Never Been Here, Mary Rickert (Small Beer Press)
EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Aickman’s Heirs, edited by Simon Strantzas (Undertow Publications)
Black Wings IV, edited by S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)
The Doll Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
Exigencies, edited by Richard Thomas (Dark House Press)
Seize the Night, edited by Christopher Golden (Gallery)
>>17841857
>skip all the footnotes
Oh good. I think I'll do that.
I get the point of the pretentiousness, it's sort of the part of his "flavor," but it's just so boring to follow anything that isn't a play-by-play of the Navidson Record.
>>17841882
It's pretty shit m8. You gotta skim through a lot of garbage to get to the cool wizard shit.
>>17840132
I can't find anything about "Master Leonhard", is that the right title?
>>17840716
Nice, have it beside me waiting to be read after I finish The name of the Rose
Enjoyed this book. Gets a little show at parts but kept me entertained.
>>17838402
Obviously this one.
>>17847680
I've read this, its very good. Recommended
>>17847956
get a fucking clue and a life
>muh edgy 8th grade /pol/itics
>this book is the pure shit
you got that right at least
etidorhpa by john uri lloyd. one big mind fuck of a book. try to find a copy with illustrations.
