Top 10 Horror Printed Books

Powells Books Horror Top 10
Top Selling Books for Saturday, July 7th 2007

1. The Husband by Dean Koontz
This may be Koontz’s most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever. He reveals the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary love for his wife will take him on a terrifying journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to a showdown with the darkness that would destroy his commitment forever.
2. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
3. The Harlequin: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #15) by Laurell K. Hamilton
4. The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson.
William Hope Hodgson was one of the best and most literate of early fantasy writers. He was an artillery office during the Great War and was killed during this conflict. You can enjoy The Boats of the Glen Carrig on three levels; lovers of the nautical will find the descriptions of people including even a maritime attorney and events impeccably correct ; lovers of horror and suspense will enjoy the monstrous creatures he invents (weed people that attempt to devour survivors), and lovers of fine writing will revel in his perfect use of the English language of this period.

5. Lisey’s Story: A Novel by Stephen King
6. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Written in 1954, the story line was influential in the development of the zombie genre as we know it today, and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. Three movies have adapted the main character of the novel, Robert Neville: The Last Man on Earth in 1964, The Omega Man in 1971, and I Am Legend in 2007. Each screen play has revised and adapted different themes. Read the book and compare the movies’ adaptations to the original storyline.
7. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
8. Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
9. Haunted: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
This book has an unconventional construction with each of the 23 stories having three parts: a story about the retreat and a specific writer, a free verse poem, and a story which the writer wrote that ties back into the main story in some way. The main story of Haunted, centers on a group of seventeen individual writers who have decided to participate in a secret writers’ retreat. Haunted is one of Palahniuk’s darkest funniest novels. It includes his most infamous story, Guts.
10. Night Watch: A Novel by Sergei Lukyanenko
11. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
This novel has won numerous awards including:
Hugo Award for Best SF/Fantasy Novel
Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel
Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Critical praise was heaped on the American Gods when it was released in 2001:
“Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic prose – American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages.” Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
NOTE: A special 10th Anniversary edition with an additional 12,000 words with the “author’s preferred text” was published by William Morrow in June 2011.