Book picks similar to
An Archive of Human Nonsense by Jason E. Rolfe


snuggly-books
0-theatrical-limits-of-danger
outstringo
sbeguiled

The Thief and Other Stories


Georg Heym - 1913
    There are seven in all, with subjects ranging from social revolt to insanity, disease and unrequited love. They are considered some of the finest works of German literary Expressionism and have been compared to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and the prose pieces of Baudelaire.

The Last Days of Christ the Vampire


J.G. Eccarius - 1990
    A new edition of the underground classic.

You're All Alone


Fritz Leiber - 1972
    Fantastic Adventures Jul ’50 · Four Ghosts in Hamlet · nv F&SF Jan ’65 · The Creature from Cleveland Depths · na Galaxy Dec ’62What if all the world were a clockwork mechanism, and its people merely toys? All are trapped within the mechanism, but a few learn the secret of escape from their programmed lives. Carr Mackay was one such—"awakened" one day by a chance meeting with Jane, an-other "living" person. He soon learned, with her help, to enjoy the freedom of invisibility—for the machine kept going as if he were in his proper place.But they were not alone. There were other living souls sharing their special world; others who enjoyed the power even more than the freedom. They would stop at nothing to remain invulnerable—and Carr and Jane had no one to turn to for help.

Midnight in a Perfect World


Ambrose Ibsen - 2018
    Horrific specters walking the streets. A drug that promises to change the world. An apocalyptic cult. Something is stirring in the city of Duluth, Minnesota. Ever since a celebrated researcher announced the creation of a new experimental drug—a drug with the potential to cure the mind of countless ills—people have been disappearing. When a grad student involved with the drug's development unexpectedly commits suicide, a private detective is tasked with unearthing the details of her tumultuous final days. This miracle drug may not be what it seems. Others touched by the drug begin to see things—horrible things—and find themselves transported into a nightmarish world where an ancient evil stirs. Those who taste the drug are left spiraling into horror. Dark figures tail them on the street, and the scenery of their nightmares begins to encroach upon waking life, blurring the lines between dreams and reality. Their terrifying experiences make up the individual fragments of a dire mosaic. As the pieces fall into place, they come to realize the unspeakable horrors that await all of mankind. Midnight is looming, and the sun may never rise again over the city of Duluth.

The Tenant


Roland Topor - 1964
    More than a tale of possession, the novel probes disturbing depths of guilt, paranoia, and sexual obsession with an unsparing detachment.

Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror


Lynne JamneckEllie Knightsbridge - 2016
    Kiernan, Molly Tanzer, Lois H. Gresh, Nancy Kilpatrick, Elizabeth Bear, Gemma Files and many more fully color illustrated by Daniele Serra, Dreams from the Witch House highlights some of the very best women writers of weird fiction and Lovecraftian horror. The history of the Old World is shrouded in secrecy. Creatures and forces unimaginable inhabited this realm for eons, long before any human navigated the surface of the earth. As the Old Ones have slumbered or observed from afar, humans have assembled civilization upon this fragile planet. Yet the whispers from the elders have been growing stronger, their energy once again seeping into the world. These whispers are being felt throughout the earth; from the roots of our flora to the dreams of our children. They are preparing us for what is to come. In Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror the most intuitive dreamers have been assembled to give us glimpses into these ancient terrors and their whispered warnings. Featuring authors Joyce Carol Oates, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Lois Gresh, Gemma Files, Nancy Kilpatrick, Elizabeth Bear, Storm Constantine and others accompanied by the lavish artwork of Daniele Serra, Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror is a representation of some of the finest cosmic horror and weird fiction from female authors in the field today.

The Altar In The Hills and Other Weird Tales


Brandon Barrows - 2014
    Lovecraft, the most-fevered mind of 20th century horror and weirdness! These weird tales blend horror, science-fiction and fantasy to weave stories of darkness and terror that will alternately leave you checking dark spaces for hidden horrors and wondering at the nature of reality itself. From the horror/mystery of The Altar in the Hills to the private confessions and revelations of one of mankind's most brilliant minds in Through the Ether, these seven stories bring with them Old Gods, strange twists and interesting characters that will both surprise and delight fans of horror fiction.

New Tales of the Yellow Sign


Robin D. Laws - 2012
    A slim, sinister text called The King in Yellow drove those who read it to madness. Despite suppression by anxious authorities, it spread through global culture, and history itself, like a virus. Now the contagion bears hideous fruit.New Tales of the Yellow Sign expands the classic horror mythos of weird tales pioneer and Lovecraft precursor Robert W. Chambers into new vistas of unease and imagination. Over the course of eight troubling stories, writer and visionary game designer Robin D. Laws lures you into diseased timelines, impossible pasts, and the all-too-terrifying present.Sterilize your suicide chamber, harken to the remorseless clicking of your black box, and whistle for the monstrous creature that lives in your basement. The pallid mask awaits.

The Endless Fall and Other Weird Fictions


Jeffrey Thomas - 2017
    I envy those of you making your first acquaintance with this author.” – From the introduction by Matthew Carpenter Respected as one of today’s leading figures of weird fiction for his striking imagination, versatility, and deeply emotional stories, Jeffrey Thomas here offers up fourteen searing tales. Included are the haunting and surreal "Ghosts in Amber," in which a man is compelled to visit a mysterious derelict factory that harbors chilling secrets; "Jar of Mist," which focuses on a father who, in seeking to understand his daughter’s suicide, encounters a dream-like other realm; "Those Above," which imagines an alternate Victorian society controlled by vast monstrous entities from beyond; and the title novelette "The Endless Fall," which concerns an astronaut who crash-lands on an unknown forested world where time seems to work in an alien way, and where he finds he is unfortunately not alone. “With brutal elegance and chilling subtlety, Thomas pulls his readers into his dark visions immediately from every opening line.” – Paul Di Filippo, in ASIMOV’S “Jeffrey Thomas’ imagination is as twisted as it is relentless.” – F. Paul Wilson “In time he will, in this reviewer’s opinion, be listed alongside King, Barker, Koontz, and McCammon.” – Brian Keene

Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things


Richard Calder - 1993
    Only love holds the future together in this tale of star-crossed teens whose transformations defy description or imagination.To read this trilogy is to behold a strange new world, one unlike any other.

In Darkness Waiting


John Shirley - 1988
    Although In Darkness Waiting begins in much the same vein as many horror novels (mysterious deaths; a small town invaded by evil; plucky, attractive young lovers; the logical level-headed doctor; some salt-of-the-earth townsfolk...) by its end you will have discovered it is not "just another horror novel." With its exploration of the "insect" inside us all, In Darkness Waiting proves more relevant today than ever. Considering a read of In Darkness Waiting is like considering a trip through the Amazon with no weapons and no vaccinations and no shoes. It's like contemplating a journey in the Arctic clad only in your underwear. Or maybe it's more like dropping into one of those spelunker's challenges, those chilling pitch-black shafts into the Earth's crust-and when you get down there your light burns out and you remember the chitinous fauna of the cavern... Unlike undertaking those endeavors, you can get through the harrowing pages of In Darkness Waiting alive (although we are not promising you'll remain unscathed.) Towards the end you'll discover one of the most extreme yet literate passages ever written. It may well be the most outré scene ever created. But John Shirley wasn't after shock alone. Shock is never enough for him.

Fluid Mechanics with Engineering Applications


E. John Finnemore - 1985
    This book is for civil engineers that teach fluid mechanics both within their discipline and as a service course to mechanical engineering students. As with all previous editions this 10th edition is extraordinarily accurate, and its coverage of open channel flow and transport is superior. There is a broader coverage of all topics in this edition of Fluid Mechanics with Engineering Applications. Furthermore, this edition has numerous computer-related problems that can be solved in Matlab and Mathcad.

The Old Gods Waken


Manly Wade Wellman - 1979
    But the land atop the mountaintop, taken over by two Englishmen, Brummitt and Hooper Voth, is undergoing frightening changes.Strange and evil rumblings begin to happen around the mountain—man-like creatures prowling around, mysterious voices reciting evil incantations that terrorize Luke and Creed Forshay who live at the foot of the mountain. Then a wandering minstrel, known only as John, learns that the Yoths are Old World druids who are hell-bent on reawakening the pre-Indian spirits that sleep at the summit of Wolter Mountain. Armed with his own arsenal of personal powers, John and an Indian medicine man must fight their way through the druids' sorcerous defenses to rescue their friends from certain death at the hands of the blood sacrificing priests.A tale of mysticism and terror featuring Wellman's famous wandering hero.

Hole Punch


Garth Simmons - 2020
    HOLE PUNCH is:The height of the Earth Empire – where War Bricks flatten alien civilisations.Yorkshire 1985 – where a child's mind is patched together with trauma.Ancient Greece – where Socrates discovers a carnal method of time-travel.Mars 2348 – where crime and terror haunt the Martian Habitation Domes.The Mistake's skull – where Muscle Society achieves self-destruction.Delaware Dost – where mindfulness prevails and hierarchy is understood.The End of Everything – where convert concepts welcome refugees into the folds of theory.All these places (and many more!) reside within the tangled text of Hole Punch.

The Abyssal Plain: The R'lyeh Cycle


William Holloway - 2019
    A cup full of tentacles mixed with existential nihilism and sprinkled with liberal quantities of gore, this is Lovecraftian horror with a bloody bent that few others have dared to explore. --Peter Rawlik, author of ReanimatorsThey called it the Event.The Event changed everything. The earthquakes came first, including the Big One, shattering the Pacific Rim and plunging the world into chaos. Then the seas came, the skies opened, and the never-ending rain began. But as bad as that was, there is something worse.The Rising has begun.A lone man who abandoned the world for his addictions searches a waterlogged Austin for something, anything to cling to. Little does he know that something else searches for him.In the Sonoran Desert, the downtrodden of the world search for a better life north of the border, only to see the desert become an ocean: an ocean that takes life and gives death.In the woods of Alabama, survivors escape to Fort Resistance, but soon discover that it isn't just the horrors of the deep places of the world that they need to fear; but rather a new and more deadly pestilence that has grown in their own ranks.In England, it's too late to fight, and all that's left is to survive. One man reaches for his own humanity, but what to do when humanity is an endangered species?And in the Pacific, He is rising.In The Abyssal Plain: The R'lyeh Cycle, authors William Holloway, Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason, Brett J. Talley, and Rich Hawkins have created a timely and uniquely modern reimagining of the Cthulhu Mythos.