Ot-This LoveCraft Dude

[Theonlystd]

Decided to check this guy out since hes mentioned so often here but He has a bunch of books out there.

Is there some order i should read them in to keep confusion down?

[atul]

Theonlystd said:
Is there some order i should read them in to keep confusion down?

Keeping the confusion down is not the point of reading Lovecraft. :>

Most of his work are very much stand-alone short stories, so don't worry about continuity. You'll soon see why that is. I think about the only longer story by Lovecraft is "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", which is a good read if you want to start with something longer.

[Quietly]

I think he has 3 collections of short stories (but only 2 books worth of them, some collections overlap)... I would advise reading nightmares and dreamscapes

[Archonsod]

atul said:
I think about the only longer story by Lovecraft is "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", which is a good read if you want to start with something longer.

Herbert West : Reanimator is also fairly lengthy IIRC. There isn't an order to the stories, but some reference others - Pickman crops up a few times. The dream stories also tend to cross reference a bit.

There's lot's of non-Lovecraft Cthulhu-mythos stuff that I haven't read. The main one that I have read is the fantasy masterworks series edition of the works of Clark Ashton-Smith. This includes several stories that are clearly set in the Cthulhu mythos and actually introduces some entities that Lovecraft later mentioned in his work. Clark Ashton-Smith's work has more of a fantasy rather than a horror feel to it. I like both genres and I heartily recommend both authors.

Out Of Time has just been re-released. Should recieve my copy tomorrow.
August Derleth has his own take on the Mythos. Brian Lumley has also written a few decent mythos related books, most of which are quite good. In the House of Cthulhu is particularly interesting, being a cross of Cthulhu and Conan for most of the stories Lin Carter is another decent Lovecraftian author, though he tends to be somewhat derivative. Then again, if you like Lovecraft this won't be a problem.

[Reverend Zombie]

Theonlystd said:
Decided to check this guy out since hes mentioned so often here but He has a bunch of books out there.

Is there some order i should read them in to keep confusion down?

The best collections come from Arkham House; there is no overlap of stories amongst the volumes they sell. The various softcovers you find in Barnes and Noble and other bookstores frequently include the same stories in several volumes.

Dunwich Horror and Others from Arkham House contains the seminal shorter works. At the Mountains of Madness has his longer works, called novels, but they are shorter than what we think of as novels today. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales features lesser-known shorter works. If you get just one volume, get the Dunwich Horror one.

[Gandalf Parker]

IF anyone is into Lovecraft they should go to CthulhuLives.org and check out the Christmas Music CD's. We have both and they are a RIOT! Loads of fun to slip into the stack at work.

Songs from "A Very Scary Solstice" CD
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men
Great Old Ones Are Coming to Town
The Carol of the Olde Ones
Freddy the Red Brained Mi-Go
Oh Cthulhu Chorus
Do You Fear What I Fear?
Awake Ye Scary Great Old Ones
I'm Dreaming of a Dead City
Cthulhu Lives
Tentacles
It's the Most Horrible Time of the Year
Dance the Cultists
Demon Sultan Azathoth
Es Y'Golonac
Have Yourself a Scary Little Solstice
Here Comes Yog-Sothoth
He'll Be Back for Solstice
I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog Sothoth
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men
Little Rare Books Room
Mi-Go We Have Heard on High
Mythos of a King
Oh Come All Ye Olde Ones
The Shoggoth Song
Silent Night, Blasphemous Night
Away in a Madhouse

[JaydedOne]

Dunwich Horror and Others seconded. It's the best introduction collection to his wor and contains numerous classics. There's also a fourth Arkham collection that's worth a look called The Horror in the Museum which rounds out the Lovecraft books. However, that book consists of works that Lovecraft "edited" or ghost-wrote for others, oftentimes revising to such an extent that the stories were more his than theirs in the end. However, they -are- ultimately collaborations and therefore not "pure" Lovecraft.

[Lasu]

Teraswaerto should have already posted in this thread since his sig is Lovecraft's text

Teraswaerto, where are youuuuu?

[FAJ]

Shadow Over Innsmouth
At The Mountains of Madness
The Dunwich Horror
Dagon
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
--------------------------------------------
his best IMO

[Teraswaerto]

Lasu said:
Teraswaerto should have already posted in this thread since his sig is Lovecraft's text

Teraswaerto, where are youuuuu?

You called?

I recommend getting the 3 Lovecraft Omnibuses with introductions by Derleth:
1. At the Mountains of Madness
2. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
3. The Haunter of the Dark

They have (to my knowledge) pretty much everything.

If I had to name Lovecrafts best, the following would be on the list (along with others I can't remember just now ):

The Colour Out of Space
The Rats in the Walls
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
The Festival