I don’t have a job at the moment. I have studied but currently unable to work due to my anxiety disorder and autism. Noboby likes to hire an autist with anxiety.
I can sympathize. I suffer from Aspbergers and, despite having two degrees, am washing dishes at a department store restaurant. Books – and Facebook – are my only connection to the lifestyle of which I aspire to become accustomed.
Funny you should mention both of those…I remember going to both movies and some one screamed in Jaws when the head dropped down, in the boat…it may have been me.? Then when the hand comes out of the ground on Carrie..i was sitting between 2 friends..they both grabbed me…i may have screamed then too.?
Yes I do. Jackson’s genius is witnessed in moments like this… I was in 8th grade when I read it and ( I must have a re-read soon ) but the book involved me in my own imaginative speculation… it was one hell of a reading experience Paula McGerr
@Sitabz I thought so too, I love how she takes the most mundane situation & make it unnerving. I’m reading Shirley Jackson’s biography & I’m learning more about her & the origins of some of her writing.?
I am buying that one soon. She is one hell of a creator. Give her a castle or a house away from society and she will spin her world of horrors unlike any other. And the most amazing thing is that everything she writes no matter how bizarre there always seems to be some logic or some sense behind it. @Paula
@Sitabz that’s what I love about her writing, there is logic behind the bizarre, that the potential is there for it to happen. The biography is really good.?
I am really broke now? I brought like twelve books this month itself ???… I will surely buy this one as soon as I can. There’s no doubt that she is one of the greatest gothic writers ..
@Sitabz Shirley Jackson was fierce! (Good fierce). I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the biography, I’ve been broke due to books myself☺️?
I am always broke because of books ???but that never stopped me from buying more. I have read a few things about her life… i am sure the book is amazing
*Potential spoiler* I’ve learned from the biography that Shirley & her Mum had a complicated relationship, Shirley wasn’t the daughter she expected, it’s sad that their relationship was complicated, there is, however, a small part of me that likes the fact that Shirley was a rebel from the start?
The Boogeyman by Stephen King, it’s one of the stories in ‘Nightshift’, I was in my 20s when I read it & I still can’t sleep without making sure that my closet door is closed?☺️
My earliest scary book memory was when I was about 10. It was an annual and there was a vampire story in it. I’ll never forget the ending…it was “she walked away, scratching at the scars on her stomach”. I can’t remember why it ended like that, nor the name of the annual. But I remember reading it still now, decades later.
When I watched the movie…my son was that age. It was traumatizing!! I was paranoid for months. I never watched the movie again…my son will be 30 this year.
Cathy Byrd Manning I feel you! I read it as a young teenager or older child really. My son is now 3, but I will soon have a second baby, also a little boy … great too hear they grow to be 30 ? I cant watch or read pet sematary or IT when they are kids, IT too … Georgie ?
There was a Roald Dahl story where the ladyland of a B and B taxidermied all her guests. That scared the crap out of me and a number of class mates at school
When you said childhood, @Paula, I assumed you meant, well, childhood. Some of you must have been reading a lot more advanced than I was when I was eight-years-old.
I read mine in junior high and high school…i read animal stories as a little kid!? My main scary reading was when I discovered Stephen King in high school. But…that was still my childhood. ?long ago and faraway
I was in my teens… liked mysteries but they weren’t scary enough. Then….came Stephen King?. Carrie…after that, it was waiting til the next book came out.
@Catherine no, it is a book and we have it too. but in addition there is a computer game and my dad buys every computer game based on books 🙂 I played it ten years ago and was scared and I was in my late 20s by then..
@Catherine they also did evil under the sun and murder on the orient express, but I always keep forgetting how and then there were none ends … so it’s my favorite bc it kept me guessing
I read horror comic books at about 8 or 9. I had at least a hundred of them. My brothers and mom brought them to me. I read Bad Seed at 9 and it scared me.
I think for me was Flowers in the Attic. The Grandmother ?
I love VC Andrews! My first adult author favorite.
The movie kinda freaked me out.
@Jennifer agreed. The original though, not that abomination of a remake ??
I never read a book that I found scary to be honest.
What kinda books do u usually read?
@Graham books about history, fantasy, horror, occult
You don’t find horror or the occult to be scary?
No I work with the occult pretty much all my life so that is not scary for me.
What do u do for a living?
@Graham why do you want to know that?
I just like making conversation. And this conversation is getting pretty interesting.
I don’t have a job at the moment. I have studied but currently unable to work due to my anxiety disorder and autism. Noboby likes to hire an autist with anxiety.
I can sympathize. I suffer from Aspbergers and, despite having two degrees, am washing dishes at a department store restaurant. Books – and Facebook – are my only connection to the lifestyle of which I aspire to become accustomed.
School textbooks. God they still haunt me ??
Best comment ??
Which house dis the hat sort you into?
My report card … knowing that I was gonna get the shit beaten outa me when I got home.
Hahaha funniest answer ever
I can’t think of anything that really, truly scared me. I started SK young but nothing really scared me.
Same 🙂 Although my school report was always a bit scary 😉
I made decent grades so that was rarely a concern for me.
Death of a salesman scarred me lol
Night of the Living Dummy II……Hated going near my closet for quite some time after reading that one!
For me it is a book I didn’t find it because it scared me so bad. Now I can’t remember the title. ?
I can only think of movies, I think I just stuck to romance books and girly stuff.
Flowers in the Attic
If I had to pick one I’d have to pick Jaws or Carrie.
Funny you should mention both of those…I remember going to both movies and some one screamed in Jaws when the head dropped down, in the boat…it may have been me.?
Then when the hand comes out of the ground on Carrie..i was sitting between 2 friends..they both grabbed me…i may have screamed then too.?
Mathematics – The Algebra Doom! ?
IT and Edgar Allen Poe … thanks dad ?
R.L Stine and all Christopher Pike?? but I still read them ?
R.L. Stine as well and a few that I don’t remember the titles ?
A book of ghost stories.
The Amityville Horror and The Exorcist…not childhood, but I was in Junior high.
I read most dog and animal stories as a “kid”.
Can’t think of any that scared me started reading mysteries very young and steven king and others too none bothered me
Try Jack Kilborn…Origin is great…but his books are good…very graphic..
Origin is really creepy though.
“War and peace” Terrifying not because of horror but because I hated it and was forced to read it. .
I must say that I’m impressed you read War and Peace as a child.
@Paula same for me also! I found it disturbing.
Amityville Horror
Good one
The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen
Yah, that guy obviously hated kids. The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf-also by this pr*ck-is also disgusting.
Dave Pelzer books
The Haunting of Hill House
~ Shirley Jackson
Do you ever wonder what Eleanor & Theo saw in the garden which made them run? I do?☺️
Yes I do. Jackson’s genius is witnessed in moments like this… I was in 8th grade when I read it and ( I must have a re-read soon ) but the book involved me in my own imaginative speculation… it was one hell of a reading experience Paula McGerr
@Sitabz I thought so too, I love how she takes the most mundane situation & make it unnerving. I’m reading Shirley Jackson’s biography & I’m learning more about her & the origins of some of her writing.?
I am buying that one soon. She is one hell of a creator. Give her a castle or a house away from society and she will spin her world of horrors unlike any other. And the most amazing thing is that everything she writes no matter how bizarre there always seems to be some logic or some sense behind it. @Paula
@Sitabz that’s what I love about her writing, there is logic behind the bizarre, that the potential is there for it to happen. The biography is really good.?
I am really broke now? I brought like twelve books this month itself ???… I will surely buy this one as soon as I can. There’s no doubt that she is one of the greatest gothic writers ..
@Sitabz Shirley Jackson was fierce! (Good fierce). I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the biography, I’ve been broke due to books myself☺️?
I am always broke because of books ???but that never stopped me from buying more. I have read a few things about her life… i am sure the book is amazing
@Sitabz it didn’t stop me either??
In “We have always lived in the castle ” who else but her can install so much in such a short book
Don’t forget Life Among the Savages & Raising Demons…about raising her kids and her own domestic life 🙂 x
@Paula I have them on my wishlist x
I have them on my wishlist as well @Paula
*Potential spoiler* I’ve learned from the biography that Shirley & her Mum had a complicated relationship, Shirley wasn’t the daughter she expected, it’s sad that their relationship was complicated, there is, however, a small part of me that likes the fact that Shirley was a rebel from the start?
@Paula that makes me want to read it more. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. I think I will dedicate March to Shirley Jackson’s works
@Sitabz I don’t read many biographies, I’m glad to say I’m really enjoying the Shirley Jackson one
?
I haven’t read many biographies either… but I have to read this one
The Boogeyman by Stephen King, it’s one of the stories in ‘Nightshift’, I was in my 20s when I read it & I still can’t sleep without making sure that my closet door is closed?☺️
Nightshift…the whole book…is my pick
@Diane I agree totally, I just never forgot that story☺️
I can still remember reading in my bed late at night and scaring the crap out of myself
@Diane there was a lot of scary stories in ‘Night Shift’?
My parents’ divorce papers. I didn’t want to live with either of them. My father got custody.
I’m sorry x
“The Sitter” by RL Stine
My earliest scary book memory was when I was about 10. It was an annual and there was a vampire story in it. I’ll never forget the ending…it was “she walked away, scratching at the scars on her stomach”. I can’t remember why it ended like that, nor the name of the annual. But I remember reading it still now, decades later.
Oh my that sentence scares me even now
I was in high school and it was ‘Pet Cemetery’.
Yep that too,the two-year-old run over … when my son was that age the scene popped up in my mind … primal fear I guess
When I watched the movie…my son was that age. It was traumatizing!! I was paranoid for months. I never watched the movie again…my son will be 30 this year.
Cathy Byrd Manning I feel you! I read it as a young teenager or older child really. My son is now 3, but I will soon have a second baby, also a little boy … great too hear they grow to be 30 ? I cant watch or read pet sematary or IT when they are kids, IT too … Georgie ?
I still can’t watch or read anything about a child or an animal being harmed. It turns me way off.
@Christine me too! I hate when they kill children. I could never read non-fiction about child killers such as small sacrifices …
I read about the dirigible Hindenburg in my parent’s encyclopedia when I was 8.
The Ugly Duckling – I hated those swans bullying him ?
Actually it was the ducks. The swans loved him.
Junior High School. It was 1984.
There was a Roald Dahl story where the ladyland of a B and B taxidermied all her guests. That scared the crap out of me and a number of class mates at school
It
Little Orphant Annie poem
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Dracula!
When you said childhood, @Paula, I assumed you meant, well, childhood. Some of you must have been reading a lot more advanced than I was when I was eight-years-old.
I read mine in junior high and high school…i read animal stories as a little kid!?
My main scary reading was when I discovered Stephen King in high school. But…that was still my childhood. ?long ago and faraway
I guess I need to revise my timeline for childhood. As you say, it is all so long ago and faraway.
I don’t think I read scary til my teens.
Amityville horror.
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
I don’t remember reading scary stories when I was a kid. I only started THOSE when I grew up.
I was in my teens… liked mysteries but they weren’t scary enough. Then….came Stephen King?. Carrie…after that, it was waiting til the next book came out.
“Amityville Horror” ??
I want to read that book, it’s on my wishlist x
I think I was in high school…maybe junior high….it was scary.
It was for me, too, Cathy. I had NO business reading this. Ever. ?
Grimm Fairy Stories! Then when I saw Disney’s Snow White at the cinema, the Queen terrified me. I had nightmares for weeks!! ?
It, by Stephen King. First read it when I was 10 or 11.
Wizard of Oz
‘Then There Where None’ by Agatha Christie. I was 11.
Oh my we had that as a computer game … thanks dad again!?
It’s a computer game? Dad gave me the book to read. That was scary enough.
@Catherine no, it is a book and we have it too. but in addition there is a computer game and my dad buys every computer game based on books 🙂 I played it ten years ago and was scared and I was in my late 20s by then..
That is so cool! (Not the being scared bit). I didn’t realised book based video games were a thing!
@Catherine they also did evil under the sun and murder on the orient express, but I always keep forgetting how and then there were none ends … so it’s my favorite bc it kept me guessing
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
I read horror comic books at about 8 or 9. I had at least a hundred of them. My brothers and mom brought them to me.
I read Bad Seed at 9 and it scared me.
The Bad Seed is a favorite x
Mine to. Reread it when I was about 20.
I snuck my moms copy of The Exorcist at 12. Scared the crap out of me. Lol!
Don’t laugh: Nancy Drew’s, The Hidden Staircase. I was 10-12. (Okay, I led a sheltered life.) ?
I had the cassettes
Wizard of Oz
Roots
didn’t really read scary stories as a child, but the pictures from Where the Wild things are………kinda spooky!
‘Where The Wild Things Are’ still creeps me out☺️
??????
Such a beautiful book though
I still enjoy the pictures!
@Linda the message is neat too, mum loves max the way he is and forgives him. It resonates with me, my son is a wild one too.
??
The Babysitter by R.L Stine as part of the Point Horror series. Terrified me!
I vaguely remember reading a R L Stine book about a evil doll? (I may be wrong though)?
Hansel and Gretel from Grimm’s Fairy Tales
i read the 1st 2 goosebumps books. then stopped too scary for me even if the other kids did think they wear cool.