You might be surprised there are some student costumers who don't want read books of films they've ready scene, &/or didn't much like. Not only that, I bet you there will be students looking forward to reading some horror classics they haven't yet had a chance to read. (I would have been one of those.)

I'd recommend:
The Body Snatchers, Jack Finney
Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelly
Dracula, Bram Stoker

Some novellas & short stories:
Who Goes There?, 168 pages, John W. Campbell, Jr.
The Lottery, 30 pages, Shirley Jackson
The Tell-Tale Heart, 25 pages, Edgar Allan Poe (and take your pick of others The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, etc)

For some reason I always confuse those.

I hear you about Koontz, but he is extremely popular.

I would love to do The Walking Dead, but I am barred from including film or graphic novels in my stream.

Thank you for posting an alternative perspective. Really excellent choices. I was thinking about including The Hellbound Heart.

What do you think?

First off, I was laughing embarrassingly at my prior post, I'm freaked I wrote "ready scene" instead of "already seen".

Anyway, I never read Hellbound, so I can't speak to it's content. I'm also not a fan of the films or Barkers material. Objectively, I'm sure there's some interest, but it'd be more useful to look at the book's sales numbers and ratings (than to listen to me). Then you'd have to decide, as a teacher, if there's anything of value in the book.

I think the concept of the box leading into other dimensions is a great premise. But I personally don't have an appreciation of the nihilistic tone of Barker's work. I can understand hedonism easily, but nihilism is like a styrofoam screw... I don't see any use in it.

Out of that list?

I Am Legend

The guy with American Psycho picked a great book but getting people interested in it might be tough. Two of my friends that I suggested read it gave up on it after the pages and pages of satire about consumerism, I think they were bored the second they started reading about his VCR.

I don't hate any of the other authors but I don't love the choices there. If I were to pick something it would probably be Lovecraft, maybe Shadow Over Innsmouth, Herbert West: Re-Animator, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, or The Haunter of the Dark.

A Clockwork Orange anyone?

Excellent suggestion.