Hey... you wanna read something really scary?

I think it takes an exceptionally talented author to write a truly scary book. A book that will keep you awake at night. A book that you have to keep reading into the wee small hours, because you daren't stop. There are plenty of books that are gripping and entertaining and unputdownable, but the stuff of nightmares? Not so much.

And I'm easily scared. I can't watch scary movies. I've tried, but I can't. Gory is OK, it's the suspense that gets me - I can't do sinister suspense. As soon as Drew Barrymore's phone rings in Scream, that's it for me.

I paid to see Psycho 2 at the cinema and I watched the exit sign from behind my coat for the entire duration of the film. And anything that involves a corn field? I can't even watch that bit in ET!

So getting back to books, the idea of that chilling suspense in the written word, with no eerie sound effects or atmospheric music, seems unlikely. But somehow...

Stephen King was always the master, as far as I was concerned. I haven't read any of his latest books, but I know that I was terrified by Pet Cemetery (or Pet Sematary to use its original language). And The Shining was much scarier to read than the film was to watch, in my opinion.

I have a very vivid memory of reading The Silence of the Lambs through one night, unable to stop reading until Clarice Starling caught the bad guy, or died trying. The climax of the story (the night vision bit when she's in his house) was so brilliantly written that I slept with the lights on for a fair few nights after.

The book that still affects me to this day is The Amityville Horror. I was scared stupid by that book (it all being true, especially!) and I still can't look in a mirror in the dark as a result. Don't ask me why - I really can't remember - but I won't do it! Being a teenager when I read it, I was possibly more susceptible to all the descriptions of paranormal activity, and it might not actually be that scary after all. However, I'm not going to read it again to find out...

One book I have revisited is It by Stephen King. This is another one that terrified me on first reading, and on subsequent readings, though not for quite a few years. My copy is now very dog-eared and worse-for-wear, but I thought I'd give it another go. I'm very happy to report that it's just as good as it always was, though I was spared the nightmares this time round.

I hope I haven't kept you awake with this post. That last paragraph has given me an idea for my next post, but not tonight - I've got some reading to do...