I was disappointed in this book. It's mainly just lists of the top 10 horror movies or top 10 horror books recommended by famous authors or directors. The music section is very, very small. I thought there might be a lot of songs with horror themes that could have been included in this book but there's just opera (okay, but. . . .) and classical (okay, but. . . .) and only one rock list of 10 rock horror songs. That disappointed me.

Most of the lists weren't fun. It's been ages since I read the original Book of Lists but I remember it being a really fun book. I was always reading in and referring to it when I was in high school.

I expected more. More crazy, fun, interesting, "I didn't know that" lists. A couple of these lists fit that bill, but not most of them. At least I now have lists of some horror books I've missed to add them to my Goodreads "to-read" list. I also learned the invunche story line from Constantine the TV show came from Swamp Thing and I saw that Scott Derrickson got mentioned once for "Exorcism of Emily Rose". ( )

Right away I can say that if you liked trivia, then you will like this book. If you like the horror genre in any form (film, books, tv, music, etc.), then you will like this book as well. Some readers out there may remember the Book of Lists series, and this is a pretty good entry in the series.

The book is arranged into major chapters. There is one chapter each for film, literature, music, miscellaneous trivia, and a little bit of this and that at the end. Personally, I like the literature chapter best, but that may be because I am a literature sort of person. I did find the film chapter pretty interesting as well. It does cover a pretty broad range of films, especially older films that may or not be available nowadays. You may find yourself longing to watch this or that film, or maybe watch again a film you may have enjoyed before.

The lists contain a variety of trivia and items. I do think a small weakness of the book, which is what prevented me from giving it five stars, is that a couple of lists are a stretch. There were a couple of lists of movies that "were not really horror movies but can be viewed as horror" and similar concepts that felt that the editors were just pushing. Those kind of lists just made it feel like the editors were simply pushing in stuff to fill up the book rather than something that was carefully thought out.Aside from those, and those weak lists are few, the content overall is pretty good. The editors do a good job of providing context for the lists in the form of introductory notes, which at times can be as entertaining as the annotated lists. Yes, most of the lists are annotated.

I definitely enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to any fan of the horror genre as well as anyone who just likes reading trivia books. I know there are a few items listed that I may look up to experience later, and for that, I think the book is worth it.
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The perfect bathroom book, this entertaining collection is both interesting and insightful. Sure to send you looking for many obscure movies and books. ( )

Got this because of the varied contributors (are Edgar 'Shaun of the Dead' Wright and Scott 'Mysterious Skin' Heim brought together anywhere else?) plus inspired little features. The Twilight Zone chap's list of hackneyed plots is a hoot, particularly 'Hey! I'm Really Dead!' ( )

A must have for any fan of horror. Mainly focuses on movies, but does cover books, music, televesion, and random horror. Excellent material and should sit on the bookshelves of any horror fan! ( )