Well, what was it ?
I can't say much, because I've never read a book that truly scared me.

Feral

To this day, I still hate cats and I think that book is to blame.

A book that scared me was Steven King's Running Man. I finished the book 2 days before 9/11 and when I heard what happened in New York it scared me big time. Has anyone else read this book?

Lee

Without a doubt, The Shining. Beats the stuffing out of the movie.

Pet Cemetery by Stephen King would have to be the scariest book I've Ever read, Just because I read the book while staying at my Grandmothers place for the holidays and it was near a Grave Yard...... Scary!

The first book I read by Stephen King, Christine...had nightmares but became a fan.

Wow, seems the majority of us chose a Steven King book. I have to admit I don't think he's one of the greatest writers ever, but he certainly has an undeniable genius for finding and drawing out terror from everyday situations.

Thanks for the suggestions. The scariest thing I've ever read and wasn't really scared was Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I have read many of King's books and found all of them to be scary to a degree.

The scariest though for me was Misery, because there were no supernatural elements to it. Just a crazed psycho woman torturing the protagobnist.

Why, because he's percieved as writing only in the horror genre? I hope this isn't intellectual snobbery...

I've read many, many books (I used to be a bookstore manager), and a lot of the so-called great and worthy ones were just a drag.

Some of King's work was, to my taste, tawdry and lacklustre, but some of his earlier stuff, especially his short stories and novellas, were out and out brilliant. His latest books are seeing him back on form too.

King captures everday feelings, speech, characterisation, and his ability to pace a story is, in my opinion, almost unparralleled in the 20th century. Deaver comes close, but isn't as prolific.

The scariest King book I read was probably Salem's Lot or IT, though many of his short stories (Boogeyman, Night Flier, They Got A Hell Of A Band) are nerve-shredding!

The scariest book I ever read was Silence of the Lambs (waaaay before the film came out, this had me looking over my shoulder!)

If we're not just talking Fiction here, that I'd throw my vote in for anything bt Lynn Macdonald, who writes about the First World War.

btw, Rob Eubank - I hope no-one in your audiences has ever read it!

Cycle of the Wolf (turned into the movie Silver Bullet) was the first book that really had me going. Very scary when I had to go feed my dog down by the woods while reading that book. OOOH WEEE scary!
Jason

I'm currently reading R.L Stine's Nightmare Hour. Not scary, just entertaining. My father also bought Skeleton Crew, a book with short stories by King, when I have the time I'll give it a try to see what everyone is talking about

Read 'Survivor Type' from this collection. Not the scariest tale ever told, but surely the most gross.

Think about the hiker who hacked his trapped arm off with a penknife, and max it!

Here's another vote for a Stephen King short story collection, Night Shift. There must be at least four or five movies that have come out of that book, but I think some of the ones that haven't been made into a movie are among the creepiest. I think the scariest thing I ever read that he wrote though was near the end of his book On Writing, where he describes in intimate detail the circumstances surrounding his accident with that mini-van. It has a real immediacy to it, and knowing that it actually happened really made my blood get moving.

-Reg {*}

Hi Reg,

They say "Truth is stranger than Fiction"

I remember reading an article in the newspaper that stated: the person whom hit Stephen King with his van was found dead in his home of unexplained causes. (I can hear Twilight Zone music playing in the background trying to come up with an explanaition.)

Anyone here read Dean Kootz? I'm a fan of his books as well and Steven King claims to be a fan of his too. Both good authors.

No, I don't have anything to 'snob' with even if I wanted to. Just a genuine opinion.

I've been a longtime fan of Koontz for, well, a long time.

I've actually found, over the last half decade or so, that I prefer him to King, though I don't think I can put my finger on why.

Have you noticed that Koontz has changed recently? It seems to me that his last 4 or 5 books are quite different from those preceding them. The most recent 4 or 5 also seem to be quite similar in some ways: a deeper fascination with spirituality, a lot of thought regarding quantum physics, etc...
Maybe it's just me.

As far as the scariest book I've ever read...There have been a few, though I can't really think of any right now. I agree that Misery got to me, because of the seeming reality of it. Supernatural sort of horror, while I love it, rarely really affects me...but give me a realistic psychopath causing hate and discontent...and I can get a bit freaked.

I'd have to 1984 is the scariest book I've ever read, because the possibility of that being reality is terrifying

Now that I think about it, Rezamalek, you're right!

Add to that Joyce's Ulysses, not because of its content, but because it's SCARY how little of it I understand.

Okay, the Shining scared me, but the best is Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes." I haven't been right since I read that about 20 years ago.

Mark