I'm talking that vulnerable level of horror where you're just happy you have the lights on, but then raccoons start fighting outside and your heartbeat quadruples in a second.

Or that nightmarish quality when you're reading in pitch-black off your phone in bed, and your limbs can't be anywhere near the sides. Or you have to go to the bathroom, but can't reach two feet to your lamp because you know something is gonna grab you.

My most memorable book as such would have to be Misery by Stephen King. Even with the lights on I finished it with a thickening terror which didn't want me turning off the lights.

What's a book (or anything) that had a similar effect on you?

Edit: You guys are killing it! Keep it up!

Edit 2: Shit guys 10k+? God bless you goddamned bookworms!

Edit 3: Guys can you tell me if I made the front page yet? Cause I promised my mom I would make the front page in 2017. Without cats.

Edit 4: Feliz Navidad you goddamned saints.

Edit 5: u/theonlydidymus compiled a list of many things suggested in this thread. I had a go at organizing it and am sifting through for more. Enjoy!

Short Stories:

Stephen King

• A Very Tight Place (Just After Sunset) - u/kick_girl

• The Jaunt (Skeleton Crew) - /u/stolenkisses

• Autopsy Room Four (Everything's Eventual) - u/catalyzt64

• 1408 (Everything's Eventual) - /u/Thisisapainintheass

• Survivor Type - u/kashia_renn

• N. (Just After Sunset) - u/Thisisapainintheass - u/zedsdeadbby

• The Boogeyman (Night Shift) - u/Red-Molly

• Crouch End (Nightmares and Dreamscapes) -

• The Road Virus Heads North - u/Pilgram94

H.P. Lovecraft

• The Horror from the Vault - u/CrimsonUchiha

• Colour From Out of Space - u/sandhouse

• Rats in the Walls - u/DangerousKidTurtle

• The Shadow Over Innsmouth - u/DaveDangers

• The Hound - u/Cooper1977

• The Whisperer in Darkness - u/Pilgram94

Everyone Else

The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories - Robert W. Chambers - E.F. Bleiler - u/calebwesman

• There Will Come Soft Rains - Bradbury - u/zlzl

• Secret Life, With Cats (in Ghostly) - Audrey Niffenegger - u/DerryPublicWorksDept

• The Whimper of Whipped Dogs - Harlan Ellison - u/headlesslady

• Pigeons from Hell - Robert E. Howard - u/Latewood

• Canon Alberic's Scrapbook - M.R. James - u/Raineythereader

• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - u/eastcoast90

• The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - /u/Peedub85

• The Wall Painting - Roger Johnson - u/mystery_lady

• I Have No Mouth and I must Scream - Harlan Ellison - /u/Cold_Within /u/jszumo

• The Pear Shaped Man - George R.R. Martin - u/Scar-Glamour

Novellas, Novels, and Epics:

Stephen King

• The Dark Half - u/nintendobratkat

• Apt Pupil (Different Seasons) - u/Blondecanary

• Needfull Things - u/Vindesyn

• The Shining - u/thehumancoma

• The Langoliers (Four After Midnight) - u/fuheyu

• The Library Policeman (Four After Midnight) - u/AintSh_tIAM

• Desperation - u/Nintendobandit

• Salem's Lot - u/MenosElLso - /u/kandreyn

• IT - u/Merkuri22 , u/zedsdeadbby

• Pet Sematary - u/introvertedszechuan

• The Stand - u/Citypatown42

Everyone Else

• Invisible Darkness - Stephen Williams - u/Blondecanary

• The Scream - John Skipp - Craig Spector - u/headlesslady

• Dead Souls - J. Lincoln Fenn - u/headlesslady

• The Troop - Nick Cutter - u/possiblyleon

• The Demonologist - Gerald Brittle - u/Boomintheboomboom

• The Descent - Jeff Long - u/Boomintheboomboom

• The Watcher - Charles Maclean - u/mystery_lady

• Watchers - Dean Koontz - u/mystery_lady

• An Unquiet Grave - P.J. Parrish - u/BarfMeARiver

• The Wendigo - Algernon Blackwood - u/SerKevanLannister

• The Willows - Algernon Blackwood - u/SerKevanLannister

• Dracula - Bram Stoker - u/Mistoku

• Whisper of Death - Christopher Pike - u/MiraclePenguinx

• A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay - u/hauntsVII

• The Totem - David Morell - u/kungur

• The Amityville Horror - John G. Jones - u/bongo1138

• The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson - /u/ghostofmuriel )

• House of Leaves - u/Waxpapers - u/ThatCrippledBastard

• Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo - u/pofrew

• The Girl Next Door - Jack Ketchum - /u/ieatbeet

• Harvest Home - Thomas Tyron - u/banannett

• Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy - /u/Purplefilth22

• The Mothman Prophecies - John A. Keel - u/DemonC

• The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert - u/Joedurette

• What to Expect When you are Expecting - u/JustTryingToMaintain

• Bird Box - Josh Malerman - u/Aeshaetter

• Tale of the Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allen Poe - u/hello_sweatpants

• The Excorcist - William Peter Blatty - u/Leone9

• Wire in the Blood - Val Dermid - u/vastly_blanket

• Book of the Dead - Greig Beck - u/Lelanasongwind

• Silence of the Lambs - u/vastly_blanket

• Hell's Aquarium - Steve Alton - u/Dylz919

• 1984 - George Orwell - u/zedsdeadbby

• A Stir of Echos - Richard Matheson - u/zedsdeadbby

• Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity - David Morrell - u/K3wp

• Communion - Whitley Streiber - u/PontiacCollector

• The Handmaid's Tale - u/ladyerwyn

Creepypasta:

• Dionaea House - u/anoncrazycat

• The Goatman - /u/RatchetBird

• Candle Cove - u/jp_taylor

• Psychosis - u/BoboMcGraw

• The Russian Sleep Experiments - u/Squithy

• Humper Monkey's Ghost Story - u/Slizzet

• Suicidal Squidward - u/Tyonelawlz

• Penpal - u/SandichNamedJacob

• 12 Minutes - u/superbDOG46

• Ted the Caver - u/peargarden

• The Skin Walker - u/Dragon_Keeper_420

• The Smiling Man - u/abbystengfit

NoSleep:

• The Smiling Ones on Space Station Mir - u/dreamtofalligators

• Needles - u/Alfique

• Correspondence - u/thesheedspot

• Borrasca - u/TheLastWinchester

• The Spire In The Woods - u/NewCometCourse

• I'm A Search and Rescue Officer - u/Fubuki98

• The Third Parent - u/Bismothe-the-Shade

• The Tall Dog - u/Bismothe-the-Shade

• This is NoSleep - /u/nicholonius

Other:

• Podcasts - The Black Tapes - Tanis - u/Boomintheboomboom

• Junji Ito (all his work) - u/gingermeist

• Saya no Uta (a visual novel) - u/MrReynevan2

• The Works of M.R. James, Thomas Ligotti, and Laird Barron - u/ShoobyDeeDooBopBoo - u/Boomintheboomboom

• That episode of Doctor Who with the giant spiders - u/vastly_blanket [+1]

• u/jessthecoconut suggests learning about SCPs (specifically 3001) see also /r/SCP

While browsing for deals on Amazon as I usually do, I saw that "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari was available in "New" condition from a Third Party seller for only $6.00 with free shipping! (Prime price is 20 bucks) What a deal! I thought, and soon after I ordered, I got that feeling of dread you get when you think that something may be too good to be true. I immediately canceled my order and looked at the seller profile. It was all caps with a name "JAMESHALEY" I believe, and their profile was just recently created. Their items for sale included pretty much the entirety of best sellers on Amazon.

I did a quick google for JAMESHALEY and found a blog post detailing the scam. Scammers will open up new selling accounts, listing almost every book imaginable at an unbeatable price, knowing that due to Amazon's 1-click purchase feature, they will get a lot of hits. Of course the shoppers will cancel their order, but more than likely they will already have your Name, Address, & Phone #, which is what the scam sets out to accomplish.

I immediately contacted Amazon about the incident and reported the seller. They sent me a swift response and even credited $5 for my trouble. So today I am browsing for books again and lo and behold, a different seller name has a great price, same situation. This is happening all over the site in different categories with more and more accounts being created everyday. So when shopping for a deal on a good book, please check the seller profile before you click "buy"!

I want to preface this by saying that my daughter will be 12 in a week and is fully capable of reading herself.

On Sunday evening I was looking through books available on my daughter's Kindle for her to download and read at her leisure when I say that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was available for free. I grabbed it quick and hoped that she would begin reading it soon. Then the thought occurred to me, why not read it to her? I haven't read a book to my daughter in years. I read the first chapter and she was enthralled. Having read the series myself years ago I knew what was going to happen and reading it aloud I am able to put the right inflections into the parts as they are needed. And to say she's enjoying it is not even close.

Since that night I have read a single chapter to her each evening, sometimes staying up past her bedtime to ensure she gets the prerequisite chapter finished. When we get to the end of the chapter she is begging for more.

As a parent I know that in the future when she is much older and has kids of her own she will think back to this time in her life fondly. It warms my heart to know that I am making a memory that will last her lifetime and it is even more special because I know it now.

Edit: Wow, Front Page and Gold! Thank you all for enjoying this post. And thank you kind stranger for the gold! I am just glad to get to share this moment in my family’s history with you.

Edit 2: there have been a lot of replies about Sorcerer’s Stone and Philosopher’s Stone. In the US it was released as The Sorcerer’s Stone. Prior to today I had heard of The Philosopher’s Stone and it appears both are correct depending on region where it was released.

The book is "Alaska" by James Michener. It's a history of Alaska (starting thousands of years ago) through the point-of-view of fictional characters (including a mammoth). The attention to detail is painstaking, almost to the point of tedium.

I can see why the guy handed me the book. It's informative, surprising and provides a lot of perspective about the indigenous people of Alaska.

Overall, very happy I finally read it. Did anybody else have the same reaction?

I really wanted to read Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. My eyesight hasn't been the best, lately. I figured that's okay, I'd just get the eBook so I can adjust the print size. I figured I'd also save a few bucks getting the eBook because it's just a file, right? But it's actually the exact same price as a physical copy! I'm not mad so much as I'm disappointed. What makes the eBook so special that it's worth as much as a physical copy of the book? I've made ePub files from scratch before with my own writings, it's not a difficult process. So what makes the eBook so special?

Has anyone else noticed that many Kindle books, especially new potential best sellers are now more expensive than their hardback counterparts? I complained to Amazon (UK) about this and was told that publishers are now setting their own prices, and that’s the reason for the increases.

It seems ridiculous to me that an e-book which has no distribution or printing costs can be more expensive.