Does anyone know this book?

[D_Roderick Beresford Stiffington IV]

This is probably a long shot, but I was cleaning out my closet and I found my old collection of Goosebumps, a series of books that came out in the 90s that I liked when I was younger. I started thinking of other books I read as a kid and there was the one book, it was a collection of short horror stories. The book I'm pretty sure was mostly black, and I think the name was written in red, maybe in a bloody style.

I can't really remember the stories in it, just one where a kid ate a spider in his sleep and the spider laid thousands of eggs. Eventually the person burst and died as countless spiders came crawling out of the corpse. Wonderful reading material for an elementary school student huh? And the weird thing is I love spiders now =p I've been thinking of getting a pet tarantula.

 

[Pecker]

Most kids are attracted to the gross and scary stuff.

Just be sure to breath through your nose if you get a spider for a pet.

 

[8.5x6]

Was it a full-length novel or one of those wonderful books that tormented me as a child with 20-odd page stories, 20 to a book? Sounds like it might be a "Tales From The Crypt" or maybe even a Stephen King novella? I don't know though, I'm not a huge horror novel buff, nor was I ever. I'm more about Alien / It / The Shining.

 

[No_Strings]

A series of horror books I used to read as a child were 'Point Horror'. Every now and then they released a collection of 13 short stories in the same book.
I don't recall that particular story, but it's been reincarnated countless times so I wouldn't doubt that they did it somewhere.

Here's the only example of a PH book cover I could find: (The title is usually in a metallic colour, sorry about poor image quality.) http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n5/n29250.jpg

 

[christina]

lol totally forgot about goosebumps luved those! I think i know what ur talkin about but the only thing that cums to mind is twins and that wasnt a series. well anywho im having brain fart so good luck!

 

[D_Roderick Beresford Stiffington IV]

It wasn't terribly long, the book was maybe a centimeter thick. Also the stories were sometimes as short as a page or a few pages. I don't really care of I find the name or not, its just sometimes I start to think of thing and it bothers me I can't remember a detail and want to know.

 

[midlifebear]

OrbitXT, now that you're somewhat older (still young though, lucky bastard) do an on-line search for Algernon Blackwood. He's long dead, but was the early BBC's then the CBC's version of Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone. Amazon.com has a few of his old collections of stories in new reprints and they definitely give one pause -- if not an outright chill with anxiety for a twist.

Cheers.

 

[midlifebear]

Ahhh. . . yes, and the squeeze just reminded me about one of Blackwood's short pieces that is only about 2.5 pages called Mischievous Woods. After reading it you'll think twice, the rest of your life, about taking short cuts when hiking the countryside or the woods. (He's popular in Spanish, too.)

 

[Skull Mason]

I remember those books man. The black ones with red writing or whatever. I know what your talking about, sorry I can't add anymore more right now. But it wasn't just one book; there were multiple ones with a ton of different kind of ghost stories, haunted houses etc...

 

[D_Roderick Beresford Stiffington IV]

Arg haha, I wonder if I went to a library if I could find it. I dont want the book, I just want to remember the name for peace of mind.

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

I used to read those books CONSTANTLY. My son and I have discussed going to the Half Price bookstore and buying them for him, but he thinks he's too young yet.

 

[B_Think_Kink]

I wonder if we still have the collection.. Take a look and see if you recognize any of the covers here

 

[flame boy]

Hmmm could this be "Scary Stories" by Alvin Schwartz?

"Scary Stories 3" has a chapter called "The Red Spot"- Young Ruth grows an ugly red spot on her cheek. Her mother plans to take her to the doctor, but meanwhile, the boil grows and grows. One night, while Ruth takes a bath, it finally pops-sending hundreds and hundreds of baby spiders out from the egg sac that their mother made on Ruth's cheek!

It was released in 1991 however the cover doesnt totally match what you were describing!

 

[wellstrung]

I remember exactly what book you are talking about - I even remember the cover but not the title.
I remember that story with the spiders. It also had a story where a kid walking through a field found a toe sticking out of the ground. He pulled it out and the man it belonged to dug himself out and came after the kid to get his toe back.

I think it was part of the Scholastic catalogue that schools used to pass out to encourage kids to read.