In the realm of the reading I haven't been a member very long. My love of reading started at an early age but quickly became bland as I turned my sights to movies, TV shows, and video games. Many years later as I entered into my twenties I picked the hobby back up on the recommendation of my girlfriend Alecia and I haven't been able to put the books down. So here is a short list of the best books I've read from the start of my obsession to my newly developed love of the printed page.
5. The Goosebumps Series.
The first book I ever read was R.L. Stein's masterpiece Attack of the Mutant in the Goosebumps series. I was 9 years old and just finding out that I had a deep love of being afraid. My mother brought home a short paperback book with a sandy cliff and a giant ghost hovering over a grave stone. Above the art was a word written in what appeared to be bumpy slime that said 'Goosebumps'. The book itself was called Ghost Beach. I stayed up into the night reading it and it scared me half to death. From that point on I couldn't get my hands on enough Goosebumps books to feed my appetite for them. By the time I was thirteen I owned every one that had been released up to that point. It got so bad I was reading a book in a three hour period and moving on to the next one. Even now at the age of twenty four I can still open one of these books and enjoy the hell out it. Some of my favorites are the aforementioned Ghost Beach, Attack of the Mutant, The Ghost Next Door, Ghost Camp, and The Werewolf of Fever Swamp.
4. The Dresden Files Series
The Dresden Files books were created by master author Jim Butcher as a challenge by one of his college professors and has since become a literary giant. My brother turned me on to the series with the first book entitled Storm Front. The thing that makes these books stand out is the protagonist Harry Dresden a wizard for hire. He has a dry wit and is a complete smart ass but he makes up for it by being a genuinely good man and a damn good wizard. In these books he battles everything from other wizards, to vampires, werewolves, and even demigods. So far I have only read the first two books, Storm Front, and Fool Moon but the series has already been imprinted on me as one of the finest out there.
3. No Doors. No Windows.
As of late I can't seem to drive by a Borders or Barnes and Noble and not stop in to take a peak at their horror sections. One particular day I walked into a Borders that was closing soon so everything was on sale and I found a book by an author I had never heard of and the only thing on the cover was an old house. The title read No Doors. No Windows. I became interested, picked it up, and turned it over. The plot of the book struck me immediately as it sounded unique and very promising. The author is Joe Schreiber and the front of this book exclaimed that he was the author of such stories including Star Wars: Death Troopers and I thought to myself the author of a sci-fi book is tackling a horror story? I was intrigued. The book is amazing. The thing that stands out the most to me is that it is actually frightening. I've ready many horror books that are by all means great books but none of them actually scared me. No Doors scared me on multiple occasions and in one instance scared me so bad I had trouble walking around my apartment alone. The story deals with torn apart families, dead and gone murderers come back from the grave, child ghosts, and a fantastic cast of characters. To top it all off the book is incredibly written by Mr. Schreiber and is a strong force behind my own writing.
2. Hell House
After reading No Doors. No Windows. I started looking for more books to actually scare me rather than just tell a good story. With the internet at my disposal I did a google search for the scariest books of all time and Hell House by Richard Matheson always came at the top of the list at number one. A week later it arrived in the mail and within three days I had it read. Published in 1971 Hell House tells the story of four people from different walks of life with different religious views and psychic powers who willingly spend a few days in the most haunted house in the world. What threw me off was that the book is very sexual. If books had MPAA ratings this one would be NC-17. Now as far as it being the scariest book of all time I'd have to really think about that but I will say that it was indeed scary as hell. Matheson wrote this story with a delicacy of a master craftsman and after one chapter in it was difficult to put the book down. It was eventually made into a feature film called The Legend of Hell House but I have yet to see it. All I can say is that this book is scary, disturbing, and a great look into the world of the supernatural through the eyes of skeptics and mediums alike.
1. The Dead Path
I walked into a Borders one night on a whim and found this book behind a couple others, hiding from me. I picked it up and looked at the cover and read the title. The Dead Path. Something about it stuck out and I felt I had to buy it. I turned the book over and read the synopsis of the story and then I knew I had to buy it. One morning I sat down and read the first chapter. Not only did it completely engulf me in the story and keep me wanting to read more but it almost had me in tears. The book is written by Stephen M. Irwin and his words bleed to the page with poets blood. To this day it is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read and by far my favorite book of all time. It centers around a man who's wife has recently died and shortly after her death has developed the ability to see the dead. But he can't speak to them or communicate with them in any way. He sees ghosts in their final moments dying on an endless loop before his very eyes. From there the story takes him back to his childhood home where things escalate into a nightmarish welcoming back that will threaten his very life. I won't go into anything else because to be honest I can't even do it justice by just talking about it. It has to be read and once you read it, it will soak itself into your very being and stay with you forever.
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