Many of you likely already know that I am a Reader .. I cannot go to sleep at night without spending some time with a book .. I've been that way since I was a child, although it was particularly tough when I was in the Military to keep up that routine ..
.. I've been boxing up some books for donation purposes over the last week or so, and, as I went, decided to keep a running list of material .. so, for gits and shins, here is what I consider the greatest Horror / Supernatural books I've ever read .. sorted by year .. I am not donating all of these, and the most chilling out of them all was "Song of Kali" .. feel free to contribute any of your own favorites, I am always on the scout for new material ..
I don't read much of any Horror anymore, the last one I read being "Under the Dome" by King (I don't know if I'd call it Horror or Sci Fi) .. it did not make the list ..
1. Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1842)
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847)
3. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1849)
4. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1871-1872)
5. Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce (1893)
6. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (1894)
7.. The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
8. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
9. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)
10. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1898)
11. The White People by Arthur Machen (1904)
12. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson (1908)
13. Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe (1908)
14. The Dunwich Horror and Others by H.P. Lovecraft (1963)
15. At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft (1964)
16. Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood by Algernon Blackwood (1973)
17. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)
18. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
19. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962)
20. Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman (1973)
21. Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods by Harlan Ellison (1975)
22. Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976)
23. Ghost Story by Peter Straub (1979)
24. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (1979)
25. Pet Sematary by Stephen King (1983)
26. The Books of Blood (Volumes 1-3) by Clive Barker (1984)
27. Dark Gods by Ted Klein (1985)
28. Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1985)
29. Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell (1989)
30. The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti (1996)
31. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)