Customer Reviews

The Book of Lists: Horror: An All-New Collection Featuring Stephen King, Eli Roth, Ray Bradbury, and More, with an Introduction by Gahan Wilson

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a huge fan of the horror genre and lists so i knew i would love this book. It is interesting on many levels. Many familiar faces of the genre created lists in the book that are both entertaining and informative. I guarantee you will be making lists of your own after reading this book with movies, books, or music that sound appealing to you. It is also great to hear what people involved with the genre think. All the lists are given generous description so even the most diehard genre fans will learn something new. I highly recommend this book, whether you are a fan of the horror genre itself, a lover of lists, or you simply enjoy entertainment related trivia. Just trust me this book is for YOU!

The Book of Lists: Horror is the latest addition to the Book of Lists series that has spanned four decades. This time Amy Wallace, Book of Lists veteran and daughter of the legendary Irving Wallace, receives a strong assist from Scott Bradley and Del Howison, two experts in all things horror. The result is very special!

If you love lists, you will not be disappointed. If you love horror in films, books, music, poetry and art, you will not be disappointed. If you want to celebrate your love of the macabre, then look no further. If you want to expand your list of movies to watch and books to read, then you will find this book to be an amazing resource.

The book is filled with fun facts, great lists (be sure to check out James Gunn's NINETEEN FAVORITE REASONS GOD MADE HUMANS SO SQUISHY on page 38), great style (I love that Chapter 2: The Literature of Dread, starts with 20 great openings in horror fiction and closes with 20 great endings in horror fiction) and a fantastic fan section (do not miss Jim Gerlach's list on page 405). This tome does a wonderful job of expanding the scope of horror, particularly with Jack Ketchum's TEN BEST HORROR NOVELS THAT DON'T CALL THEMSELVES HORROR NOVELS and Ramsey Campbell's THIRTEEN NOVELS ON THE EDGE OF HORROR. Bentley Little has a great list dealing with one hit wonders although I would disagree with his contention that MAGIC was William Goldman's only horror novel. But that's part of the greatness of this book - it offers so many viewpoints, that it is likely to start some arguments!

The quality of contributors is amazing, particularly in the field of literature. The book is creative, fun-loving, well organized, informative and well written. Add this one to your shelves today!

The Book of Lists began a franchise in 1977 that has lasted over 30 years. It has resulted in a New York Times bestseller, three other general collections, and one each on the 1990s and punk rock. Now they move even further out of the mainstream with The Book of Lists: Horror.

"Trying to prod a thing as elusive, sneaky, and totally out-of-bounds as horror into an informative and highly usable book of lists would seem to be pretty much impossible," states author/illustrator Gahan Wilson (one of the first artists I learned to recognize by style) in his introduction. But it seems that editors Amy Wallace, Del Howison, and Scott Bradley have managed to somehow compile over 400 pages' worth of opinions, recommendations, and commentary into this endlessly fascinating volume. If you're a fan of the genre, The Book of Lists: Horror is a must read; if you're not, it will make you one.

Here's just a sampling of the contents: Edward Lee's "Ten Best Horror Movies with Gratuitous Nudity"; Bentley Little's "Ten Horror One-Hit Wonders That Everyone Should Read"; Jack Ketchum's "Ten Best Horror Novels That Don't Call Themselves Horror Novels"; David T. Wilbanks's "Ten Favorite Dark Works of Classical Music"; Steve Niles's "Top Twenty Horror Comic Covers"; and Gary A. Braunbeck's "Seven Disparately Horrific Triple Features."

And that's just scratching the surface. The Book of Lists: Horror took up every free moment I had from the day I got it until ... well, I still refer back to it now and then, and I expect to keep it on my reference shelf right next to another horror-list classic: Horror: 100 Best Books.

In fact, my only real complaint is that there is no comprehensive index or table of contents that would allow the reader to relocate a favorite list. But there are so many terrific takes on the genre included in The Book of Lists: Horror, however, that the search will undoubtedly result in finding something else great in the process.

The world is a complicated place, and one of the ways we try to make order out of chaos is by dividing things into lists. Even with Amazon, users are exposed to myriad lists: not merely the best seller lists, but also heaps of lists by customers who create rosters of books, movies or other items organized in a particular fashion. Certainly the list has been around for a long time, but it really became a phenomenon with The Book of Lists and its successors. One of the newest of these books is The Book of Lists: Horror, and following its format, I present my review in list form.

SECTIONS OF THE BOOK:

1. Movies ("Fear on the Silver Screen): This section, taking up just over half of the book, is filled with lists created by various people associated with the horror genre. Among other lists, there are the horror films that most influenced Ray Bradbury's youth; the five common tactical errors made in horror films (e.g., confirm your kills); ten movie fates worse than death; and the top ten horror movie surgical blunders. Some of the lists are weak, others are interesting, and no doubt you will find your own movies that fit in a list (for example, I would include one character's fate in the movie Wolf Creek to fit into the "worse than death" list). The real strength of this section is that it can give you a number of ideas for new movies to see.

2. Books ("The Literature of Dread"): This section takes up another quarter of the book and many of the same comments apply as with the movies. Of course, for every horror movie (using the very loose definition of horror in this book), there are probably a dozen books, so there is even a greater chance that the lists will neglect some novel or story. When we get a list of five horror novels set in Venice, you can tell that this section may be stretched a little further than needed.

3. Music ("A Little Nightmare Music"): This section is brief and appropriately so. And there's no reference to Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London.

4. Miscellaneous ("A Miscellany of Terrors"): This grab bag is the largest of the minor (last three) sections. Comic books, TV horror hosts (such as Vampira) and even drinks are here (Zombie or Bloody Mary, anyone?).

5. Fan Submitted Lists ("Shrieks from the Gallery"): This section has lists from non-pros, but even the ones from kids sometimes surpass the ones elsewhere in the book. The nicest list here includes a bunch of old pulp covers; they're fun to look at, even if the pictures are a bit small.

Overall, this is the literary equivalent of a bag of potato chips. Even if not every list is spectacular, you can't stop with just one. There may not be a lot of nutritional value, but even a guilty pleasure is a pleasure nonetheless.

love books of lists, love horror genre....mix 'em together and you get a winner! FIVE HUGE STARS!

Darkness abates in THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR ... and creative light shines.

Thumbing through this book tonight, back from the release party at Dark Delicacies earlier today, I like it. I dig this book. Dig it deep and try to bury it ... yet it still rises.

Beyond the editors' choice picks, the deft contributors rise sublime. Beyond ephemera, this volume renders a needful and quirky historical pop document for an oft maligned genre.

Required reading for the horror buff and a walking-like-it's-talking checklist tour of sharp minds and multimedia curios for the horror curious.

THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR scents blood, and begs a second volume.

Get some.

This book is what it says on the title, it is a collection of "best of" lists or similar by different people involved in the horror field. We get contributions by authors King, Braunbeck, Schow, Bradbury, etcetera, and we get lists from the film side of horror like Roth and Craven, as well as others involved in the horror field.

This book tends to favor horror movies in the number of lists, even though there are different sections, one on movies one on literature, etcetera. So there are only so many of these that you can read about my "Top 10 favorite Horror Movies" for example. I really doubt anyone read every single list in this book, as it would be very repetitive but I did go through every page and end up reading at least half of the lists (the ones that interested me).

Anyway this book is bathroom material; pick it up to read a few lists, put it back down, and you're happy. Do I think this is an essential book? No. Was I entertained? Yes, but not overly so. I had some fun with the book, but I didn't find this to be a great read.

This book is the best Ive read for movie information. Its has a large selcetion of lists ranging from the best deaths in a horror movie to what are Stephen Kings favorite horror stories. The number of horror stars is amazing. There are writers, mucians, directors and actors. I highly reccomend this book to any fan of horror or just movie information.

this book has everything you ever wanted to know about horror!! i couldn't put it down!