Friday Shuffle - Creeped Out Edition
I can't say I'm a big fan of horror movies. If they're the ghosty kind or have a lot of twists to the plot then I like them but slasher type movies only serve to bore me. I'm more annoyed by the gore than I am frightened of it. Maybe it has something to do with the blood and guts being more in your face than in your mind and that's why I like horror books so much more.
A well written book of any sort allows your mind to take up occupancy in the story. Instead of someone interpreting for you how things look or connect, as is done in movies, your get to put it all together yourself. The scenes, the characters, the locations - they sprout from the author's mind but you transplant them to your own head for them to take root. I think that's why I can remember scary books with much more clarity than I can a scary movie, even when it's the same story. Believe me, Stephen King's The Shining, has stuck with me much longer and much more deeply than the film ever did. It doesn't even matter that I've read the book maybe twice but have seen the film at least six times and I first read the book about thirty years ago.
Yesterday Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill was delivered to me. Friends had recommended it to me as being a very scary book and as I had been hankering to read something spooky, I ordered it. I began reading it immediately and so far I'm enjoying it thoroughly. The author, who happens to be Stephen King's son, has the knack for getting me sucked into these characters immediately and he tells a story and describes a scene very well. I'm not far enough into the book yet for anything super scary to have happened but it's coming. I know it's coming and all at once I can't wait for it and I'm dreading it.
I love reading creepy tales - horror books and ghost stories and true crime stuff - and yet I dread how they tend to creep into my sleep and invade my dreams. I will lay in bed in the dark and listen to every sound and wonder if there's something out there wanting to do me harm. In the daylight it all seems ridiculous but once I go to bed and the moonlight steals into my window it all changes. Not very long ago I'd read something a bit scary before bedtime. I'd fallen asleep just fine but before it had begun to get light outside I awoke and saw someone dressed all in white in my bedroom. I then realized that the someone in white was the electric fan as viewed in the moonlight without my glasses being on but not before I had screamed like a banshee and nearly gave my husband a stroke.
I know the truly creepy, the very scary, and the absolutely horrific are coming in this book and I can't wait and I know I'm going to be so sorry afterwards. I already credit The Shining for preventing me from walking through the labyrinth of my basement without breaking into a sweat. I'm afraid I'm going to be in for something worse with Heart-Shaped Box.
The very non-threatening Bixente the iPod will now shuffle for us.
- Meeting Place - The Last Shadow Puppets
- Run Run - Those Dancing Days
- Leaving On A Jet Plane - Peter, Paul & Mary
- In Berlin - Sugarplum Fairy
- Where We Are - Asher Lane
- You Wanted More - Tonic
- Massachusetts - The Bee Gees
- Evil Ways - Santana
- Barbara Allen - Everly Brothers
- Never Going Back Again - Fleetwood Mac
Labels: books, creepy stuff, Friday Shuffle
posted by Dixie at 10:34 PM
6Comments:
I too read the shining almost 30 years ago and couldn't put it down. The result was that I finished it at 3am...wow was that scary!
Only time I ever woke up screaming was while reading an Anne Rice vampire book. Pretty much saw two figures standing in the bedroom....
Maybe I'll have to try Joe Hill.
It is a well known fact that I am a big chicken. I'm forbidden by my parents, a coworker, Lorrie and I think Dixie herself from watching Paranormal State on A&E. Watched 2 episodes and was up for 3 days.
The movie Signs freaked me out- thats as scary as I can handle. I blame Emily Driese for showing Trilogy of Terror when we were nine. All I remember was some doll chasing a badly dressed woman with a paring knife. It was some Tiki doll. I can't be near dolls 20 some odd years later.
I'll take your word for it that it's a good book, Kim.
Mollie
I enjoy horror movies, the good. bad, and the ugly, but I especially enjoy horror books. I even write them, sometimes.
I certainly don't like to be in danger, but I like the nightmares horror books give me, as long as I wake up!
If you like Heart-Shaped Box, you should check out Joe Hill's short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts--some horror, some not. All weird and memorable.
You're a braver woman than I. Never made it through a single scary movie or book.
SS - I had the same experience with reading The Shining. I could not part with that book until I finished it.
Mollie - Isn't it funny that Trilogy of Terror was three scary stories but everyone only talks about the crazy Tiki doll with the little knife?
David - Ooo...I don't often have scary dreams but when I do, I sure don't enjoy them! I hope to read some of the horror you've written.
Diane - I can't help it...I like a good fright sometimes! :)
I really enjoyed Heart Shaped Box from start to finish and I was going to recommend 20th Century Ghosts but I see David beat me to it! I actually go to Joe's blog - he's a pretty cool guy.
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