Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Horror! The Horror!

The Plan: Buy this book - Frightlopedia: An Encyclopedia of Everything Scary, Creepy, and Spine-Chilling, from Arachnids to Zombies by Julie Winterbottom - for my nephew and niece for Halloween. They love to read, and they're pretty okay with scary things. Besides, each section in the book has a Fright Meter to gauge the scare-factor. 


What Actually Happened: Aunt Madeline decided she did not want to be responsible for terrifying her nephew and niece. (Adults, on the other hand, are fair game.) So, at great sacrifice to her own sanity, she read it instead and promptly freaked herself out.   

(To be fair, the kids might've been fine with it. It's just you never know what will trigger a nightmare, a fear, a phobia, especially when you're young. Take it from someone who was scared so badly by an innocent Popeye cartoon that she had bad dreams for a week.) 

All that being said, I really did enjoy the book. It's creepy, with photos that haunt me still, but it's also entertaining and informative. 

Did you know . . . about the waste water treatment center where scientists found 107 million spiders had woven a four acre web - the size of four soccer fields! - inside the building? 

Did you know . . . that claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces, but cleithrophobia is the fear of being trapped? Check out these two real-life situations:

- A man got stuck in an elevator for two full days with nothing to eat but Rolaids.

- A woman got stuck in her bathroom for 20 days. She banged on the pipes, but neighbors thought the noise was construction. She lived on nothing but water.

And finally, a place I will NOT be going to on my next vacation:

Gomantong Caves is on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It houses two million bats. The cave floors are ten feet deep in guano, but you can't see any it because of all the cockroaches. Yep, a giant mass of cockroaches feasts on all that poop, along with the occasional bat that falls from the ceiling. And you can watch it all from the wooden walkway that will supposedly keep you safe from all but the errant cockroach and the three-inch-long centipedes that crawl along the handrail. 

Yeah, my sister should sooooo thank me for not sending this book.

*****

So, what scared you as a kid? What scares you now? Plan on taking a trip to those caves? If so, please don't bring me back a souvenir . . . . 

*****

(I talked about this book purely because I enjoyed it. I didn't receive any compensation, etc.)

39 comments:

  1. Not a chance I'd get my wife in that cave if it's full of cockroaches and centipedes.
    Send it to them but tell your sister to read it first. See if it freaks her out!

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    1. If I freak my sister out then my brother-in-law will be mad at me!

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  2. As horror books go, this is the kind I'd like to read. I love to read about interesting factoids.

    Ghosts used to keep me on the fence between fear and curiosity. As I got older curiosity won.

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    1. I really did enjoy the book, Maria. I thought the author did a great job of talking not only about say, ghosts or monsters, but also including stories about different kinds of ghosts, monsters from different parts of the world, that kind of thing.

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  3. The caves terrified me now. I am scared to death of bats. Add in cockroaches and that place is definitely the stuff of nightmares.
    But I do want to read this book! Seems so interesting plus possibly inspirational for future stories.

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    1. I was so creeped out reading about those caves that I literally had to put the book down for a bit. And there's more to the story, like what else is in the jungle as you head for the caves.... :o

      I made a note or two while I was reading about things that struck me, when I felt that zing of a possible story idea. I might have to do more research...if I dare....

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  4. Oh man! Yeah, I think you made the right decision. That spider web thing sent my imagination spinning. Whew! --Not that I mind spiders, but that much web? There's a horror story in the making.

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    1. I don't mind spiders all that much, but some of the photos in the book? Shiver!

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  5. That sounds like a book I'd enjoy and would freak myself out reading.

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    1. If you do check it out, I hope you enjoy it and don't freak yourself out too much. :)

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  6. The four acre spider web would definitely give me nightmares for months! Aagh! I'm also not fond of earwigs, because they liked my bedroom when I was a kid. I don't know if it was because we had trees close to our house, or because my room was at the top of the house which was converted attic space - which was much nicer than that sounds; my walk-in-closet had a ceiling that sloped from 6 feet to 3 feet in height in a walkway/crawlway that was only two feet across, but it had nice built-in shelves and I painted the whole thing pink in my teens (the rest of my room had varying Miami Vice shades of color). The only creepy parts of my room were those annoying earwigs and the tiny attic door at the back of my closet - it had a lock on my side because I requested it from my dad. We stored our Christmas decorations back there, but still . . . just having an opening in my room that went to a dark space . . . agh! (I only hid there once during a game of hide and seek, and I couldn't stay in long enough to win the game.)

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    1. That would've creeped me out, too.

      And I remember those Miami Vice shades of color. :)

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  7. That sounds like such a fun book, but yeah, I'm not going to that cave either. I love bats, but the cockroaches... *shudders*

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    1. That might be a lot of bats even for someone who loves them. :)

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  8. I think a lot of kids would love this book. Kids seem drawn to things that freak them out and often handle them better than adults! I've been to a bat cave like that in Bali - it also featured a giant python. Yeah, quite creepy.

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    1. I agree that a lot of kids would like this book, and I think my niece and nephew would, too. All I could think about, though. was them having horrible dreams about spiders in the toilet or not wanting to go camping anymore because of some hideous snake they would never actually come across.

      You are a brave man, Nick. :)

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  9. One word re the Gomantong Caves: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

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  10. Cockroaches and spiders. No thank you! Nothing scared me as a kid. I have many more fears as an adult!

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  11. This sounds like an interesting read. Thanks for sharing!


    www.ficklemillennial.wordpress.com

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  12. Thanks for the warning, Madeline. I hate spiders!!!

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    1. If you skip the first part of the book - Arachnids - you'd probably be okay after that. :)

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    2. Maybe I can read with my eyes closed?? Hmm..

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  13. This looks like a book my daughter has and loves called Pranklopedia. I'd like to read scary one myself. I find this stuff fascinating. Books don't usually freak me out, but movies can.

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    1. I believe Pranklopedia is by the same people who wrote and/or published this one.

      I find it depends on the book and/or the movie. I still haven't watch an entire season of American Horror Story because something about it totally creeps me out. :o

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  14. I kinda want to read this book now! Huh, I am definitely more scared of being trapped than of small spaces. Good distinction. And I heard about the lady trapped in her bathroom!

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    1. You should check it out, Shannon. Probably spark some good ideas for horror stories. It did for me. :)

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  15. That book sounds super cool. My grandkids would love it! (But I'd, um, have to read it first, of course... purely for quality control...)

    That cave with all of the bats and roaches wouldn't be my idea of a perfect vacation spot. (shudder) As a kid, the only thing I can remember that totally creeped me out was walking to the outhouse in the dark... past rustling leaves and scary shadowy wooded areas, with dogs and God-knows-what howling in the distance and stuff close-up waiting to grab me... (This was at a relative's cabin, nestled in the woods beside the Susquehanna River. To make it "better," my father and uncle put a picture window in the outhouse! HA... NO, it did NOT make it better, although it was kinda cool to be in there during the daytime and watch boats go by...)

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    1. Quality control, of course. :)

      See now, with that window, I'd be afraid someone - or something! - would be looking inside the outhouse while I was in there!

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  16. This does look like a good book-something my kids (and I) are sure to like. Okay, I'd have to check the closets afterwards but the kids would enjoy :)

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    1. You'd probably have to check not only the closets but also under the bed, behind the shower curtain, in the toilet (spider!) etc. :)

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  17. Wow, I think I'll pass on that stop in Borneo. I'm good with video or pictures of it. Yikes.

    The book, on the other hand, sounds pretty cool.

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    1. This is one of those times when I wish my imagination wasn't so active. :)

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  18. I've heard of that cave. No way would I visit there. Spiders and rats were and are my icky creepers.

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  19. Back when dirt was young, there was a series (almost a daytime drama) called Dark Shadows. I would watch it from behind a pillow. Apparently I loved being scared even then. :-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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    1. Didn't they remake that into a movie? With a pretty big name actor? Or maybe I'm thinking of something else entirely....

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