The Reading Room

Dark Icon's Favorite Books

What are the books that warped my mind and created the raving lunatic that is Dark Icon? They're right here. The links are to Amazon.com, where you can purchase these subversive tomes for your very own collection. The Reading Room is a 'Work-In-Progress,' so check back often for new additions.
(If you're lost and looking for my original stories, go here).

 

H.P. Lovecraft
Best of H.P. Lovecraft The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft
Best of H.P. Lovecraft : Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre - This is it... all the BEST of the Master's tales in one 'easy-to-hide-behind-a-notebook-in-class' volume. My favorites stories? Pickman's Model is a simple shocker that WILL scare you. The Dunwich Horror, and The Shadow over Innsmouth are epic horror tales that will be impossible to put down. But NONE of them can top The Thing on the Doorstep. That story, and this entire book, is horror at its best. I DARE you to pick any three stories and read them alone at night. (No TV or Radio in the background... that's cheating)
The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft : Dreams of Terror and Death - This is a collection of Lovecraft's more imaginative fiction. Most of the stories are more like Dark Fantasy than Horror. The tales are a slight departure from his usual shockers, but HPL still has a few 'gotchas' up his sleeve. My favorites: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and The Hound. The first is a long, slow build-up to one horrific ending, and the second is the equivalent of a metal spike to the brain. One warning... unless you have an uncommonly firm grip on your sanity, stay away from The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. It isn't scary, but it will SERIOUSLY mess with your head. You have been warned.
The Transition of H. P. Lovecraft : The Road to Madness - This is a selection of stories from various points in HPL's writing career. It begins with some of his earlier writings, and continues on to some of his better known works. It contains some HPL 'classics' that the "Best of..." compilation above missed. My favorites are Herbert West: Reanimator and At the Mountains of Madness. Both are examples of HPL at his very best.

 

Steven King
The Green Mile Regulators Desparation
Green Mile - This is less of a horror novel and more like a supernatural murder mystery. An simple, innocent man with the power to heal people is wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of some little girls. As if THAT weren't enough, he must now deal with the sadistic guards as waits to take his walk down the 'Green Mile' to the electric chair. The story is actually told from the viewpoint of one of the guards, who must decide between doing his job and doing what is right. It was originally published in serial format with one episode coming out every three weeks or so... it suits the story very well.
Regulators and Desparation - I won't even TRY to explain the connection between these two books, other than to say... it's wierd. Yes, they are BOTH written by Steven King, Richard Bachman (the 'author' of Regulators) is a pen-name that King used to use a long time ago. The books? Desparation is the story of a group of people fighting a dark, primal force in a small western town. The beginning is excellent, and it just gets better from there. In Regulators, some people with some VERY familiar names (heh, heh) are held hostage in their own town by creatures from a possessed child's imagination. Desparation is by far the best of the two books, but you'll be missing out if you don't read them both.
And then there are the Steven King CLASSICS:
'Salems Lot
The Shining
IT
Yeah, he wrote a lot of other stuff, too... but these are what I like.

 

Clive Barker
Damnation Game
The Damnation Game - I really like Clive Barker. His short stories are among the scariest (and most disturbed) that I have read. But, I must honestly admit that his novels SUCK. EXCEPT for this one. The Damnation Game is one of his first books, and is more like his short stories than any of the novels that came after it. It involves a guy who is hired to protect a man from... well I won't say what, but it's NASTY. Really... there are some NASTY, GROSS scenes in this book. I LOVE IT! How about this one... the guy's dogs all die and he buries them. The 'monster' revives the dogs. They dig themselves out, but now they're hungry. What does one of the dogs do...? It starts to EAT itself! Want more... read the book.
So what about those short stories I like so much? Here are the novellas and anthologies that established Clive as one of the top three horror writers in the known universe:
Books of Blood
Cabal/Lord of Illusions - Remember the movie Nightbreed?
Hellbound Heart - This is where the movie HELLRAISER came from!
The Inhuman Condition
In the Flesh

 

Dean R. Koontz
Strange Highways Tick Tock
Strange Highways - This is a collection of very good short stories from Dean. They range from scary to VERY scary... like the one about the intelligent rats with the pathological hatred of human beings. Or the one where the kid goes back in time to stop a serial killer. Well worth the read.
Tick Tock This is one of Dean's first novels. The plot is pretty simple: Monster chasing a guy through the city, but what makes this good is that Dean does something that very few people can do well... he combines horror and humor. The end of this book had me ROLLING! Yeah, funny horror might not be your thing, but I loved it.

 

Other Fiction
1984 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Macbeth
1984 by George Orwell - Never heard of this book? SHAME ON YOU! This book is intended to be science fiction (written in the 1940's I think), but give it a careful read and then take a look at what's going on in the world today. It's about a world where the government monitors its citizens, lies to them, and engages in active brainwashing and mind control. This book isn't fiction... It's prophecy.
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by E.A. Poe - Poe is the MAN when it comes to psycholocial horror. If you REALLY want a good scare, go see some of his stories performed on stage. THAT will give you nightmares. Be warned though, with the exception of "The Raven," Poe's poems suck and should be avoided at all costs.
Macbeth by Shakespeare - Yes, SHAKESPEARE! Of course, this is the only thing he wrote that's worth the parchemnt is was written on, but that's just my opinion. It's got witches, violence, and vague prophetic warnings. Isn't that a fantasy book? Hell YES! Watch Macbeth squirm as the pieces of the prophecy that fortold his doom fall into place one by one. Read it as a fantasy book and not a high-school reading assignment. Heck, this link is to the Modern English Version, so you won't have to stumble through all that Old English CRAP!

 

Non-Fiction
The Terrible Truth about Liberals Cheap Psychological Tricks : What to Do When Hard Work, Honesty, and Perseverance Fail
The Terrible Truth about Liberals by Neal Boortz- Yep... it's politics. This book was written by a radio talk-show host from my town. Not only is he funny, but he makes a LOT of sense. Politics may not be your cup of tea, but I'd give this one a try anway. It's a short book, and it'll change the way you think about government. (IF you think about government)
Cheap Psychological Tricks : What to Do When Hard Work, Honesty, and Perseverance Fail by Perry Buffington - Where is the best place to cut into a long line of people? How can you tell when someone is lying to you? How can you get people to tell you their deepest secrets? Find out in this book. If you interact with human beings more than once a week, then you NEED this book. If you don't... then I envy you.

 

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