# Lovecraft Reading Suggestions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 29, 2001, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262 "2001-01-29T14:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/21 "2001-01-31T15:38:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AuntiePam \* > \*\*Who translated your Borges collection? \*\* Andrew Hurley. Penguin brought it out in paper ($16.95) in 1999. There’s a furious fight raging over at [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) about whether the new translations suck or not. I assume that most people read Borges in the New Directions editions back in the 1950s and 60s and 70s, and they just hate the new kid on the block…this happened to me with the new Thomas Mann “Death in Venice” translation that came out a few years ago: I got apoplectic over the new version of “Blood of the Volsungs,” which seemed to me to be inferior to the one I read in college and was USED to. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/22 "2001-02-01T00:53:15Z")
**Ike** , thanks. If the Hurley’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for moi. Have you found time to read _Dr. Brodie’s Report_ yet? My guess is it’s Borges’ answer to _The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward_. ?? **Some guy** – _At the Mountains of Madness_ is just about the only horror story that ever gave me real chills, and at one point, a sense of vertigo. (Weird, that.) And I like your Username. Conversations in my future: “Where’d you learn that?” “Oh, just some guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/23 "2001-02-01T03:05:55Z")
Yeah, the whole point was to come up with the single most generic username possible. Incidentally, I have exactly zeroc connection to the similarly generic **Just Another Guy**. Just to keep this (sort of) on topic, I’ll point out that Vertigo (DC Comics’ “serious” imprint) has recently produced an extra-spiffy graphic novel version of _The House ont the Borderlands_. I can’t for the life of me remember who the actual writer and artist are, but it’s a really nice interpretation of the original. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/24 "2001-02-01T03:33:16Z")
[Hijack] One of the best things my Lovecraft obsession did for me was to turn me on to Lord Dunsany’s writing. Has anyone else here read his stuff? If you’re curious, you can find some of his stuff here… [http://www.interlog.com/~case/support/content.html](http://www.interlog.com/~case/support/content.html) Or, the whole Book of Wonder is here… [http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/l\_wonder.htm](http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/l_wonder.htm) …and I can’t for the life of me find it, but Lovecraft wrote a poem entitled: “On Reading Lord Dunsany’s Book of Wonder” [/Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/25 "2001-02-01T03:51:58Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by mrvisible \* > \*\* Lord Dunsany’s writing. Has anyone else here read his stuff?_\* I’ve read a whole buncha his stuff. He’s the berries. I love the Jorkens stories, and “The Three Sailors’ Gambit” may be the best spooky chess story ever written (and how’s THAT for a miniscule subgenre?). Right now I’m reading THE CHARWOMAN’S SHADOW, which someone was raving about in one of the “What Fantasy Novels Should I Give My Kids?” threads. Excellent. If you can find a copy of S.T. Joshi’s lit-crit classic THE WEIRD TALE (University of Texas Press, 1990), snap it up. He goes over Lovecraft, Dunsany, Machen, Blackwood, Bierce, and M.R. James. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/26 "2001-02-01T03:55:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AuntiePam \* > \*\*Have you found time to read _Dr. Brodie’s Report_ yet? \*\* Hoo hah. When I say “posthaste” I mean within the next six months. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/27 "2001-02-01T04:32:02Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* \*\* > [@](#): > > If you can find a copy of S.T. Joshi’s lit-crit classic THE WEIRD TALE (University of Texas Press, 1990), snap it up. He goes over Lovecraft, Dunsany, Machen, Blackwood, Bierce, and M.R. James. \*\* I am now officially obsessed with finding that book. Thanks. And to hijack my hijack… I’ve converted the Gods of Pegana for use with my long-running Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I now have a group of guys who can debate the virtues of worshipping Yoharneth-Lahai or Skarl, and who dread the day that Mana-Yood-Sushai awakes. I do find ways to amuse myself… ---
**Author:** ![zen101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c68b51/32.png) [@zen101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zen101)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/28 "2001-02-01T06:32:53Z")
My suggestion would be to not read any of it. It’s a gateway into the messiest form of occultism: Cabalism. Cabalists generally have dandruff and sneeze a lot from all the dust and they all got started with either LaVey or Lovecraft. ugh. Too much monochromatic black and patchouli and eyeliner. Even Wiccans own brooms (blessed be kids), but them Lovecraft types are allergic to cleaning house, I swear. Seriously the most interesting HP related reading is the stuff ABOUT the guy and his life. He was pretty mysterious, and from most accounts one of the worst name droppers of the turn of the century. Claimed to know every big cultist of his day and not one knew him. I think his dad was a Freemason (Egyptian, not Irish) and thats why he was so whacko. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/29 "2001-02-01T06:49:18Z")
If you want a little international opinion, I read HPL in French, being my mother tongue, and the classification according to French critics of the best of HPL is something as follow : the Dream-quest serie The outsider The colour from out of time The call of Cthulhu In addition, if you read French, Les cahiers de l’Herne published in the late 60s, early 70s a special issue on Lovecraft. It is out of print as far as I know and a bit pricy ($ 90 +) but very interesting regarding Lovecraft’s writing. Oh, also, Lovecraft seems improved by its French translator (the adjectivitis is not as irksome as in the original. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262/30 "2001-02-01T07:20:45Z")
“The House on the Borderlands” can be found online [at this site](http://www.litrix.com/sec4.htm), along with much other nifty stuff. No Lovecraft, though, for some reason. “The Shadow over Innsmouth” always freaked me out (beware the _fish-frogs_…), as did “The Dunwich Horror.” “Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath” always sat weird with me, too; as there are no direct quotes in the entire story. Gives it an odd feel, I always thought. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-reading-suggestions/52262.md?page=1)