Reading Scary Books When You're Home Alone

[grinningghost]

I have been reading a really creepy book and it gets me all nervous when I'm home alone at night. (But it's so good I can't put it down).

Do you read scary books when you're all alone at night? Does it make them better? Or doesn't it faze you?

 

[disney4us2002]

No, no, no, you're not allowed to say you're reading a really creepy book and then not say what it is!!

Some things bother me more than others. For the most part I rarely read Stephen King or Dean Koontz anymore - too weird and too graphic. Some of King's under other names aren't as scary to me.

I tend to stick more to romance or serial mysteries. I get attached to characters so I like the ones that have continuing stories.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I can't read scary books or watch scary movies even if DH is home.

It took me a while to stop having bad dreams about Gollum from LOTR.

 

[grinningghost]

Originally posted by disney4us2002
No, no, no, you're not allowed to say you're reading a really creepy book and then not say what it is!!

Oh my! How did I forget? Thanks for slapping me around a little.

It's "Kiss Her Goodbye" by Wendi Corsi Staub. It's the second book of hers that I've read and so far, she gets two gold stars. She's kind of Mary Higgins Clarkish, but better IMHO.

 

[Missy1961]

I don't do it anymore. Remember Steven King's "It"? That book was very scary, I was home alone, and I couldn't put it down. But I didn't read it right before bed.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

I can remember being really creeped out with two books. In high school I read Helter Skelter. I was too scared to go to sleep so I kept reading into the wee small hours of the morning. When I finally put the light out, I had to get up again to put the book out of the room--I couldn't stand having the picture of Charles Manson in my room with me.

On another occasion, I think I was reading Misery by Steven King. My roommates were gone for the summer and I was in the apartment by myself. I stayed up until it was light reading that book because I was too scared to go to sleep.

It is amazing how vivid these memories are as I post this. I read HS about 24 years ago, and Misery about 18 years ago. I can tell you exactly where I was for each one of them. I hope I can get to sleep tonight!

 

[grinningghost]

I felt the same way with "Helter Skelter" IGB40! And the fact that it was a true story, and Charlie and friends were still out there (even if they were in jail) creeped me out majorly.

 

[cati]

I use to love to read scary books and watch scary movies. Now I seldom have time to do it anymore. Maybe when the kids are grown.... I keep telling myself that. LOL

 

[Lisa96]

I checked in to see what you were reading too, and weirdly enough, I have just started a Wendy Corsi Staub book! It's "In the Blink of an Eye", and it's ominous but not too scary yet (only at the beginning though.) I don't mind reading a scary book alone (although Salem's Lot did freak me out a lot!) but I can't watch a scary movie alone. I watched "The Ring" and then was afraid to fall asleep! It wasn't really a great movie IMHO but there was just something creepy and unsettling that stayed with you.

 

[meandtheguys2]

"Salem's Lot " did me in when I was in high school. slept with the light on, and a Bible next to me! LOL! Now that I have the guys, if DH is gone I am checking the doors more than once, etc. I give myself the creepies.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I used to read Patricia Cornwell books when dh was away. This is how bad I was. I would get up in the middle of the night because I heard a noise. I would carry a can of hairspray as a weapon. Then I would check behind every door, curtain, bathtub, sofa, etc. I would then sleep with a cell phone in my hand. Very bad for me to read those books alone.

 

[Tinks]

I read the scariest book ever on my honeymoon---The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

This one part scared me so badly that I got goosebumps, turned on the lights, and woke my sleeping husband! I've never been so scared by any book ever! It is so scary!

 

[leahannpen]

I don't do that much anymore. I get too freaked out! A few years ago, when we lived way out of the city, and before DS was born, I'd sleep with a knife under my matress, just in case. (Like a killer was going to know I was home alone! LOL!)

Once, I know I heard something, so I ran into a closet and unraveled a hanger (al a Halloween!) and it turned out to be my cat sneeking up on me!

Now if he's gone and it's just DS and me, I'll read something else, like any of my Harry Potter books, or any John Grisham ones. Those usually do the trick!

 

[Pkaroch]

Can't do it, I'm a big chicken. I read Pet Cemetery once years ago and it did me in. I also cry at scary movies, just can't watch them.

I stick to smut novels.

 

[themepark]

When I am alone, I can't even read scary emails or posts people make about spooky things that have happened to them. I love a scary book but I do get scared when reading one while everyone else is asleep.

 

[grinningghost]

I have a tough time watching scary movies alone. I'll do the books, even though I become a nervous wreck, but movies - that's too hard.

I watched "The Ring" with my DH, DD, her two friends, my dog and cat and I was freaked out for about 2 days after.

 

[ShuisFan584]

I can't watch scary movies when I'm home alone at night. Actually I can't watch scary movies at night period. I usually end up getting nightmares when I go to sleep.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I stick to smut novels.

So instead you lose sleep worrying that Eduardo freeing himself of any nagging doubt, will burst into your room, soaking wet from the terrible storm he walked thru, confessing that his loins ache for you.... Oh never mind. There's a reason I never tried writing that genre of fiction.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

LOL! When I read The Amityville Horror I was home alone at night. Since DH had purchased the book for me from a used bookstore, I convinced myself the book was haunted or possessed or something. When DH came home well after midnight, I made him go outside and throw the book in a dumpster, I was so worked up. Before he had a chance to read it!!

Recently, I had difficulty sleeping after reading Patricia Cornwell's Case Closed. It's non-fiction and about the identity of Jack the Ripper. There are autopsy photos and horrible descriptions and it bothered me very late at night, though I couldn't put it down.

But the book that had the biggest effect on me was one I, ironically enough, didn't read. American Psycho. I only skimmed through parts of it which were so horrible, offensive and disgusting it actually ruined part of our vacation (we were in Scotland and DH had bought the book to read on the plane). I got irrationally angry at DH for even wanting to read it and I was preoccupied and bothered by it while we were touring great castles in London and Scotland.

When we got home I made DH throw that one away too. I'm really not a book-destroying wimp, but that book really bothered the heck out of me.

 

[momof3disneyholics]

It's the scary movies that get me. My hubby has been out of town for 2 weeks and I have been renting movies to help with my feeling lonely at night. Well, I really have got to stop renting those scary ones. I've spent a couple of nights awake for most of the night.