Count Dracula

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Some of King's stuff is better than others. Misery is one of his best. Insomnia was not.

I quite liked Desperation and more recently Duma Key. The Dark tower series was good but at the time didn't like the ending. Going to read Under the Dome next, see how that one is with its 100+ characters.

Originally posted by Stork69
After reading your suggestion about Edgar Allen Poe I thought I would get down his complete stories and poems book from where it was gathering dust on the book shelf. To be honest only thought he did poems and only know that one about the raven. Are there any particular stories you would recommend? I have heard the pit and the pendulum, quite liked the hammer horror film of the same title.

The Pit & Pendulum film was, IIRC, an amalgamation of several of Poe's stories, not just the one with the same title. It was (as expected of Hammer) much, much more cheesy than Poe himself ever was. Good fun, of course, but cheesy fun.
As for Poe's stories, he wrote a great variety. Not nearly all of them are horror. Not nearly all of them are any good - Poe could be a terrible hack and a weirdo of the boring kind (see: Arnheim), but when he was good, he was very good indeed. Recommended? Depends on what you want. For a laugh, How to Write a Blackwood Article/A Predicament (two which go together). For horror, The Fall of the House of Usher, or A Cask of Amontillado. For the very beginning of detective fiction, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. For suspense, The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether. Hop-Frog is also good.

Richard