Josh-da-man

Really, you can't go wrong for $12.95 in this case. Definitive text. Complete works. This is a killer deal.

jmj713

Indeed. The LOA volume is nice, but it doesn't contain, I dunno, maybe a third or a quarter of the rest of the stories in this book. It's an oversized hardcover, so although it's over a thousand pages, it's quite manageable and readable.

heebiejeebie

Looks like something I'm going to pick up. I've read "Call of Cthulhu", "At the Mountains of Madness", and "From Beyond" via the internet. I was going to read "Shadow over Innsmouth" next. What are some of the other "good" Lovecraft stories? I've heard not everything is that good, so I'd like to get some recommendations.

tonyc3742

Don't forget you can print out a coupons for 10 or 15% off coupon, making it an even better deal.
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/barnesandnoble.com
I picked this up a week or two ago and just started it. I was actually inspired to get it by the board game Arkham Horror. I have a paperback that has some stories but never got into it, thought I'd try again.
I had found the website that had all or many of his works readable online, but as much as I like the net, it cant' replace hard copy books in my mind.
The only thing I wish this edition had is the commentary/notes; I'm reading the Annotated Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and the notes really flesh out some parts of the story. But I've also read varying opinions of Joshi's commentary.

Mike UFC

Shadow over Innsmouth and The Lurking Fear are two of my personal favorites. Too many good ones to list: The Thing on the Doorstep, Cool Air, At the Mountains of Madness, The Music of Erich Zann, The Statement of Randolph Carter, Pickman's Model, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Silver Key, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Through the Gates of the Silver Key, Colour Out of Time, The Whisperer in Darkness, Herbert West-Reanimator, The Dunwich Horror off the top of my head. Enjoy! He is my favorite author.

heebiejeebie

Agreed. That's why I hadn't read more of the stories. There's a big difference between reading a book and reading off a computer screen.

Wow, looks like a lot to choose from. I'll probably pick up the book and wind up reading all the stories. I've had a great time reading the R.E. Howard Conan stories in order (even the "lesser" ones).

Xytraguptorh

Wow, thanks for posting this! This is an incredible deal. I got a BN gift card for Christmas and now I know what to get with it.

I have most of these stories already, but it will be great to get them all in one volume with a great looking cover.

Yavin

Well, after reading Watchmen, I came across , which prompted me to look further into the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

I've always been a fan of sci-fi/fantasy/horror, so I am now itching to delve into some of Lovecraft's works. The Cthulu mythos seems very intriguing, as does Necronomicon (although that might just be because I am an Army of Darkness fan...).

Just wondering if anyone can recommend me a couple of good books by Lovecraft? Something available on Amazon, ideally.

Also, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much am I going to be freaked out after reading some of his stuff? ...

Dr. Mantle

Lovecraft only wrote three stories that are long enough to be considered novels, and even then they're so short they're usually included in collections. So if you're going to get a collection, why not get the whole thing?
H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction
Every single story Lovecraft ever wrote. Not counting the ones where he was just revising someone else's work.

It's not available on Amazon since it's a Barnes and Noble Press. But if you can find it in stores (or if the website gets it in stock again) it'll only cost about $13. It should still be in print. It was just published in October.

But if you can't find it, get a copy of any of the following:
H.P. Lovecraft: Tales
The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft
The Road to Madness

You can also find Lovecraft free online.
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

And you may want to read Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred by Donald Tyson.
Even if one isn't interested in Lovecraft, it works as a stand alone piece of imaginative fiction.

As far as freaking you out, that's hard to say. Do you find the unknown scary? Nameless fears? Ideas beyond human comprehension? Here's the Wiki entry on Lovecraft's Themes.

Have fun!

Yavin

Thanks for the recommendations, particularly the link to dagonbytes. It'll give me a chance to try before I buy.

heebiejeebie

Just a reminder that the Complete Lovecraft is available again at Barnes and Noble (for those that missed it the first time). I ordered my copy last week.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/HP-...9781435107939/

Drop

It is a great book, very glad I own it.

And now that there are more people with e-readers, I'd like to remind them most if not all of these works are free to download. So if just want to see if you like his works or not drop the 12 bucks, Feedbooks should have them.

Living Deadpan

For Lovecraft fans & athiests, there was recently published a collection of Lovecraft's essays/letters pertaining to religion & philosophy:

http://importanceweblog.wordpress.co...aft-available/

I've read about the matter quite a bit from (the many) previous collections of Lovecraft's nonfiction & personal writings (many of his viewpoints I share), so I haven't read this particular one, but I must say I find it curious that Hitchens is attaching his name to this book. There has already been much published of Lovecraft's religious & philosophical views in various "Selected Letters" and "Collected Essays" books, and S.T. Joshi has made no secret about his own support of atheism, but attaching Hitchens' name... seems like they're trying to make Lovecraft a poster-boy for the atheist crowd.

Pointyskull

Looks like a great deal! I'm going to head over at lunch at pick it up.

I know they're not necessarily interwoven, but do you happen to know if the stories/writings are presented chronologically in the book?

Living Deadpan

I'm looking at the table of contents (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/HP-...435107939/#TOC) and they appear to be (I know for sure "The Shadow Out of Time" and "The Haunter of the Dark" are his last two stories). But (damn!), like at least one other poster said, you may not want to read it chronologically, especially if you're new to Lovecraft. I mean it takes 164 pages just to get to "The Outsider"! His material got much better later in his short life.

Living Deadpan

Hmm, according to more than one reviewer on Amazon, this B&N hardcover "was very poorly proofed and contains hundreds of typographical errors." And that's from a 5-star review. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1435107934/ref=cm_rdp_product)

heebiejeebie

Each story also starts out with a little paragraph that gives the approximate time the story was written and a little anecdote about the story itself.

Ash Ketchum

I went through a Lovecraft phase a couple of decades ago. Once you start, you really have to go through all of it. I don't remember which stories I liked better than others, but I do remember that the one with "Brown Jenkin" in it was amazing. Maybe someone else here can fill in the story title.

As for the longer works, I remember liking both "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and "At Mountains of Madness" a great deal.

Living Deadpan

"Dreams In the Witch House."

Ash, I see you're a fan of RA Wilson. I got really into him a year or two ago... somehow got derailed as I do with all my interests. What are your favorite works of his?

xmiyux

More folks who discuss RAW? Awesome!

I'm not Ash obviously, but I have read the majority of RAW's books. Prometheus Rising was the first one that introduced me to his work.

Ash Ketchum

The Illuminatus Trilogy, of course. And of his non-fiction, the Cosmic Trigger series, even though I like all of them. Prometheus Rising is a good one. It's been a while. I'd have to look them over again and see which ones have the most notes in them. (I.e., if I like a quote or a section, I put in notepad pages to mark down what to remember.)

Living Deadpan

Interesting, the links between RAW and Lovecraft....

I first discovered RAW on the Disinfo.con live DVD, and was drawn particularly to his sense of humor (an attribute lacking in most people who deal with fringe culture & conspiracy theory... Oliver Stone could take a few lessons from RAW!).

Figuring out which books to read first was daunting to a RAW newcomer. And I quickly discovered that Illuminatus! was the wrong starting point for a newcomer in his mid-20's, I really don't know much about 60's politics. After reading the Cosmic Trigger trilogy, Illuminatus! made much more sense (topical absurdism needs some sort of context to approach with).

Prometheus Rising I also read, though I still need to read it again & actually do the exercises... an issue with which Quantum Psychology was discouraging, since they're group exercises and I have no group with whom I can exercise.

xmiyux

Everything is Under Control is a great encyclopedia. I have always been intrigued by conspiracy stuff (which is why Lovecraft interested me so much) so him gathering common conspiracies together in a wikipedia-like format was neat.

A few of his others that I vaguely remember enjoying are: Ishtar Rising, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, New Inquisition, and The Walls Came Tumbling Down.

I actually need to dig through the books in my attic - I have an entire box filled with books by him. Many out of print. I ought to give them another read and try the exercises from Prometheus Rising again.

As for Lovecraft, I was at game convention last week and they had a neat black leather-bound collection of Lovecraft stores titled "Necronomicon." It looked pretty sweet on the shelf.

Living Deadpan

Ahh yes, I have this one too. Frankly I get tired of all the Kennedy stuff, but it did get get me interested in "ultraterrestrials" and "interdimensionals" (and I started reading Jacques Vallee). I see you're from WV, xmiyux, any Mothman sightings?

I recall that some of them, like the quarter exercise, don't work so well in the suburbs or rural areas. It seems to me that sometime's Wilson's unaware of his reality-tunnel assumptions from being an urban Californian libertarian.

xmiyux

No mothman viewing as of yet. I grew up reading and knowing the stories though!

As for Prometheus Rising, yeah some of the exercises didn't work so well due to location but flexibility is part of the program.

As for Lovecraft stuff: Has anyone read any of the non-Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos stuff? I saw this book at Borders the other day and it looked intriguing. Know anything about it?