Today’s Top Ten Tuesday (#TTT) book meme is a Halloween freebie. Here in the Netherlands, Halloween is becoming more popular than it used to be, but it’s still celebrated not nearly as much as in the United States.
I don’t really care for ghost stories or the like. I just can’t be fazed by them. That being said, there are a number of story topics I find scary. Yet most of these I also find fascinating.
1. Murderers. It’s interesting in this respect that I don’t often read thrillers or crime fiction, as I do love crime podcasts. I find it fascinating to understand what makes murderers tick, but I also find it pretty scary.
2. Epidemics. Okay, I haven’t read any book about an epidemic so far, except for an educational historical children’s book about the bubonic plague. That being said, I find it fascinating and scary at the same time when I come across books with this topic. I recently heard about a book by Dutch thriller author Tomas Ross about a fictional pandemic. The book was originally published in 1987 and was set in 1996. The book was recently republished because Ross’s pandemic bore interesting similarities to COVID-19.
3. Strange neurological diseases. I used to be fascinated by Oliver Sacks’s books, but still found them a little scary. The same goes for Lisa Genova’s Inside the O’Briens (see my review). That one really got me worried even though I have no reason to think I might develop Huntington’s Disease. Also, I remember once watching a documentary on a disease called fatal familial insomnia. It’d almost be funny to say I had trouble sleeping afterwards.
4. Medical stuff that doesn’t go well. I am fascinated by intriguing medical stories, but they also scare me, particularly when something goes wrong.
5. Poison. I find it generally fascinating to learn about how poisons work, but still I find it incredibly scary when someone in a story is poisoned even when they survive.
6. Dictatorships. This is one reason I have a love-hate relationship with dystopian novels. I loved Brave New World but still haven’t gotten down to reading 1984 and don’t think I ever will.
7. Insects. And snakes. And other dangerous animals. When I had a Netflix subscription, I loved watching 72 Dangerous Animals and the like. I am also still looking forward to reading Hatch, the sequel to Kenneth Oppel’s Bloom. Still, the topic does scare me.
8. Locked institutions such as prisons, insane asylums, etc. Particularly if strange/creepy things happen there. Like, I still want to read The Institute by Stephen King, but I’m not sure it might be too scary.
9. Cults. These are really scary and yet fascinating in a similar way that dictatorships are.
10. Nuclear weapons. Okay, I haven’t read any books on this topic, but I find the topic very frightening (of course) but also fascinating. I remember listening to Dutch historian Maarten van Rossem’s audio lecture on the atomic bomb some years ago and finding it so intriguing to know exactly what time the bomb exploded over Hiroshima.
What “scary” topics do you find fascinating in books or other media?
A Multitude of Musings 
Tom Clancy wrote a book once about some bunch of malevolents (I forget who) setting ebola off in the US. You’d love that one! Come to think of it, dodn’t one of his books also explode a nuclear bomb at Superbowl? I feel this is a writer you should get to know 😀
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Oh, that sounds fascinating indeed! I’ll check him out.
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well, it sounds like he might freak you out!
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Oh yes, that too, possibly.
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I agree with your list except cults.
http://www.rsrue.blogspot.com
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Oh okay, that’s interesting! Thanks so much for commenting.
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Ha ha. I find most of these scary but fascinating also. Insects are an exception. I hate bugs, snakes, etc. and will not willingly read about any of them! Ick.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Oh, that’s totally okay. I never read about bugs before either, but since I read Bloom, I just have to read the sequel. Please note, this is SciFi, so it’s not about bugs that exist right now.
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I can’t read books about epidemics these days for obvious reasons, but I used to love that genre! I hope I can return to it once we have a vaccine for Covid-19.
My post.
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Oh, that’s interesting that you can’t read about epidemics especially now. I at least in the early days of COVID-19 found them extra fascinating.
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Oh yea, that’s a scary list, EMPs scare us lots.
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EMPS? Not sure I know what that means. Anyway thanks for commenting.
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All of these things are plenty scary.
Check out my TTT
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Yes, they are. I already read your TTT.
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I always love a good murder mystery. There is always so much interesting background info in these books, as well as just the act of trying to find out who is the murder/murderers.
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Agree. I am currently reading my very first cozy mystery and love it.
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I find books about cults fascinating too, especially trying to figure out how people get drawn into them.
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Yes, same for me! Thank you for commenting.
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I wont read horror! I hate it! I am not scared of ghosts, but i just am not really into ghost stories, I also wont read distopian novels.
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I don’t read dystopian novels now either, but loved Brave New World in high school.
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