jack_ryder: (Default)
jack_ryder ([personal profile] jack_ryder) wrote2006-08-15 11:15 am

Scariest book cover

There's a discussion on one of the mailing lists I still subscribe to about the scariest book you've ever read.

I can't think of the scariest book I've read immediately, but the book with the scariest cover is More Tales of Unease by John Burke (not in a great resolution but you'll get the basic idea)

I first came across it in primary school when the mobile library stocked it. I pulled it out of the shelf and it was like an electric shock went up my arm and I quickly put it back.

My next encounter with it was noticing it faceup in a discard box at Dickson Library in Canberra - even behind a counter, part of the cover obscured by other books and at a bizarre angle it still chilled me and haunted my dreams for the next few nights.

Years later I finally purchased a beaten up copy of it to try and immunise myself against it. No luck, it still exercises it's terrible power. It still lurks in a box at home somewhere, waiting for me to pull it out again and relive that horrible chill.

It must be that particular juxtaposition of elements that strikes a deep chord within me, but I wonder if that image will now haunt your sleep...
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[identity profile] jack-ryder.livejournal.com 2006-08-15 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, now that I think of it, the face worn by the children in the Aphex Twin "Come to Daddy" clip is really similar.