scary summer reading

Micah Cohen

Scary books, scary books... "The Exorcist" and "The Shining" are both good scary books; make you jump when the house settles, you know? Stoker's "Dracula" is a good scary read. And Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is pretty scary. And there's some Poe and Lovecraft that will creep you out pretty seriously. Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" is pretty awesomely scary, and David Searcy's more recent "Ordinary Horror" will leave you all weirded out in a scary way. All good scary stuff to read on a cool autumn evening, you know?

But the scariest books I have ever read have to be the two books I just finished: the "dark biology" pair by Richard Preston, "The Hot Zone" and "The Demon In The Freezer."

Worst part is, these two books are NON-FICTION.

"The Hot Zone" is about the Ebola virus, it's victims (who die horribly "from the inside out") and the people who hunt the virus trying to make a vaccine for it. It's also the story of how a newly evolved strain of AIRBORNE Ebola virus GOT LOOSE at a CDC lab in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood in Reston, VIRGINIA! HOLY ****! (Ultimately, the CDC had to put a balloon tent over the lab and destroy it, then soak the ground and all the materials of the building with bleach and super-disinfectant.)

"The Demon In The Freezer" is even worse! It's about smallpox, which everyone thought was "eradicated" back in the 70s. Truth is, specimens of the virus have been kept frozen in labs in the US and Russia, and defecting Russian scientists even claimed that the USSR had TONS of "weapon-grade" smallpox made and stored in the Soviet Union. It's out there and now it's unaccounted for! And if you thought Ebola was bad, with its 90%+ kill rate, smallpox turns out to be a hundred thousand times worse, practically guaranteed lethal in the worst possible way -- with no currently reliable vaccine! A TEASPOON of smallpox could WIPE US ALL OUT, man!

Both books are true, but written in an interesting novelistic way that makes them tense "CSI"-like forensic detective story page-turners.

And these two books have scared the CRAP out of me! I could not put them down! I am afraid to leave the house! I want to wear a gas mask! I don't want to touch anything!

Highly recommended reading, but only if you have the stomach for the horrible truth about how scary this world is now!

MC

nadams

The Hot Zone is pretty freaky. Another good read, although fiction, is The Andromeda Strain. Kinda along the same lines...

Mjr7531

Sword in the Stone by T.H. White, man when I got it, it was so thick, and the type is soo small, and-

Oh wrong scary summer reading...

[Deleted User]

The Hot Zone was actually made into a movie called Outbreak with an all-star cast including Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, and Rene Russo.

Jstas

Originally posted by Josh
The Hot Zone was actually made into a movie called Outbreak with an all-star cast including Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, and Rene Russo.

Yeah, the movie sucked compared to the book!

I had to read the book for school when I was in college. It was extremely good! I read the entire book in 3 days and was bored for the rest of the class. The wife doesn't understand why I have a fear of Reston, VA now. She think's it's unfounded but won't read the book because she is afraid it will scare her.

I'll have to pick up the second one though. I heard about it but haven't read it.

Richard Preston is alot like Tom Clancy only, unlike To Clancy, the stories he writes are based on true facts and pretty much relate exactly what happened. Names are changed and that's it I think. If you like Tom Clancy and think his stuff is poignant then Richard Preston will blow your mind! Defintly a good read on all counts.

George Grand

In the early or mid 80's somebody tossed me "Red Dragon" and said "Save this for when you really want to get scared." Well he was right about that one.

Whenever I want to re-live REAL scared I re-read "Helter Skelter".

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

Ron-P

swerve

I remember in a psychology class I took online some girl tried to relate religion to hot virii and i basically ripped her a new one. i did alot of reading on ebola and other bad bad things during this class and I really showed her what was up. Nothing better than some gut wrenching tails of virus infested humans being brutally eaten to death...!!! wooo I love it!

-adam


as for my reading... i'm still in the middle of "The Lies My Teacher Told Me". I started this book ilke 2 years ago.... yet I've read the art of war, the prince, and the discourses a few times through since then. some books just don't do it for me.

Micah Cohen

"Lies My Teacher Told Me" is great!

Everything you think you know is wrong!

I love that.

MC

bikezappa

Yes George, Red Dragon put you into the mind of the Killer. It explained why he does what he does. Only a good auther like Harris can allow you to understand the shadow in the human. Both movies about the book are good.