FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS certainly opened my eyes to what you could get away with in a "nonfiction" narrative (in quotes because Thompson himself said he had to fictionalize a lot).

THE SHINING scared the hell out of me. But the earliest that a freaky horror story put the zap on my head was reading Edgar Allen Poe back in grade school. THE TELL-TALE HEART, THE CASK OF AMONTILLIADO (sp?) and, especially, THE BLACK CAT were seriously deranged.

Seconding -t's V.

To this date, the least commerical novel I have ever read. It was all about "if you can't keep up with the preconceptions turned upside down ... piss off."

eta: Noone else has remarked on it here, so I will. Jim Baen has passed on. A light has gone out.

I hadn't heard about Jim Baen. Sad now.

He was certainly one of the major influences on modern sf, and, at least when I talked to him, a nice, funny, smart guy.

Books which fuck with my head: Mary Gentle's Ash sequence. If you can get through it, but it's major mindfuckery. Good stuff.

headTARDIS

That reminds me! Doctor Who starts up again in Australia next week!

It always boggles my mind when someone dislikes Watership Down. I t shouldn't , I worked with enough people that prefer realistic fiction, but I am still always amazed.

I read Watership Down right after reading something or other on the human tendency to anthropomorphise animals. I still enjoyed it, but couldn't shake off the meta-.

Though I think my fave WD reference is when the Goodies did it. "Belllllammeeee..."

Sheri Tepper's book Sideshow really fucked with my mind

Grass, Raising the Stones, and Sideshow are the best things of Tepper's that I've read. I can see how Sideshow would be weird, and the twins finding pleasure together made perfect sense to me. You really need both Grass and Raising the Stones to get the most sense out of Sideshow.

Watership Down gives me great joy. When Bigwig struggles to his feet and said, "My Chief Rabbit told me hold you here," and the invaders go, "Oh, my god, he's not the Chief Rabbit? There's someone *he* obeys??" Wonderful moment. I'm obviously very big into the "Here I am with my last breath, defying you" thing.

Wonderful moment.

Isn't that everyone's favorite moment of Watership Down?

Although I'm kind of fond of the bit where General Woundwort becomes a kind of generalized boogeyman for keeping little rabbit kids in control.

I prefer more realistic fiction, but, c'mon. Talking rabbits are cool.

Isn't that everyone's favorite moment of Watership Down?

Probably. Though I have a real fondness for the whole digging-out-the-snare sequence, and the run from Efrafa to the boat.

Now I must go re-read Watership Down. Bigwig, Fiver, Hazel, Hyzenthlay... Maybe Plague Dogs too, because the ending satisfies my mushy heart, after it has given up all hope. Much like the emotional payoff in The Incredible Journey.

I remember having to sleep with the lights on after reading The Haunting of Hill House and how somehow the colors in the room looked all wrong and it was the most frightening thing ever.

I acquired the entire Anne of Green Gables series at the Curious Book Shoppe back in Michigan, and none of them had been published before 1936. I loved reading fragile, yellowing books much older than I because it made the story feel more like time travel. I've pretty much deleted Anne of Ingleside from my memory banks because the author was so clearly bored that my beloved vivacious Anne came across like a Valium-damaged housewife who couldn't finish a single thought.

I think one of my favorite book memories is coming across my roommate's copy of John Varley's Wizard. Standing in the living room, paused on my way to doing something else and getting so completely caught up in the story that I had to come up for air. Thinking, " oh wow" and "I have got to go get me a copy of this book ASAP because I can't steal this book and I can't wait for my turn at it."

When Eowyn kicked the Witch King's ass, how happy I would have been to know that characters like Xena and Buffy and Zoe would soon be routine.