The Lovecraft Appreciation Thread

[Vypernight]

I thought I'd bring this back from the other thread as several people seem to also be H.P. Lovecraft fans. This thread is just like the others; what you like, what you don't like, your favorite books, stories, old ones, etc. Also, books and stories by those in Lovecraft's circle are welcome as well.

I'll start with the books I own and the stories within that I enjoyed the most.

Dreams of Terror and Death (My very first Lovecraft book): The Doom That Came to Sarnath, The Cats of Ulthar, the Hound, Pickman's Model (my favorite Lovecraft story).

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Picture in the House, The Outsider, In The Vault, The Call of Cthulhu.

The Road to Madness: The Beast in the Cave, The Tomb, The Terrible Old Man, Cool Air (another favorite).

The Horror in the Museum: The Mound, The Man of Stone, Ashes, The Disinterment.

Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos (Contains stories from those in Lovecraft's circle): Bells of Horror (Kuttner), The Thing on the Roof (Howard), The Aquarium (Jacobi), The Horror out of Lovecraft(Wollheim).

The Book of Iod (Stories by Henry Kuttner): The Eater of Souls, The Invaders (both feature my favorite old one, Vorvadoss).

The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia: Contains info on the various characters, places, and things from Lovecraft's and other's stories.

The Art of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos: The art is based mostly on the CoC card game, but the pictures are still pretty cool. Cthulhu is presented in all his/her/its glory, Hastur appears like the mummy 2.0, Ithaqua looks like he could wipe the dirt with Freddy, Jason, and Michael at the same time, Azathoth looks ominously evil, and Dagon makes Jaws look like a goldfish. My only gripe is no Vorvadoss. He's really camera-shy; isn't he?


Books I have but have yet to read:

The Watchers Out Of Time

An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

The Book Of Eibon


That's it for me. Take care,

Jay

[Khaine]

For anyone who is interested in gaining some insight into the mind of Lovecraft, there is one book that I strongly recommend.

Lord of the Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters, is a collect of excerpts and complete letters written by Lovecraft himself. In it you'll find HPL's opinions on everything from politics, religion, physics, race relations, entertainment, history, and more.
It gives an excellent overview of the man who helped create modern horror.
IMO, well worth both the time and money.

[The_L]

Unfortunately, I've only gotten my hands on a single collection of Lovecraft's works. Fortunately, it included such classics as:

The Color Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman's Model
The Outsider
The Shadow over Innsmouth

And that's just a few of the ones whose titles I could remember.

[the old firm]

My first Lovecraft story was indeed "The Call of Cthulhu". If you have already read some of his stories, than I strongly recommend "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". It starts slowly and takes some time, but you will be rewarded in the end. It's the only Lovecraft novel that still creeps me out.

Oh, "At the Mountains of Madness" is also quite entertaining.

And for the end, if you want a healthy laugh, I would refer you to this:

[Vypernight]

Just thought I'd make a comment about 2 of the books I listed.

The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia - Great if you want info on the beings from the Mythos and what stories they appeared in. You'll have to use Wikipedia though if you want to know the exact books.

An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia - Great if you want summaries of many of Lovecraft's stories (and some stories from others). They're like Cliffnotes, if you want to preread a story, or you finished a story and thought, "WTH?" Just ignore Joshi's ignorantly absurd commentary.

Take care,

Jay