Last year at this time, inspired by the long-lived "Horror Fiction" thread, I read "Dark Harvest" and H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". This year I again checked out from the library Lovecraft's "Tales" collection published by the Library of America, planning to read "The Call of Cthulhu". Since I'll have the book for a few weeks, what are a few other of Lovecraft's works in this volume that I should read? Please make some picks in the poll (the first time I've done this), comments welcome, and I'll likely read at least a couple of them. Thanks!
I have the "Tales" collection by Library Of America. From the shorter stories I especially liked are The music of Erich Zann and The rats in the walls. From the longer ones - The colour out of space, The whisperer in darkness, The shadow over Innsmouth, The shadow out of time.
I voted for about eight of those - but I'd put The Whisperer In Darkness and Case Of Charles Dexter Ward top of the list.
I quite liked most of the tales in that anthology, but I voted for what I consider the best of the best: The Music of Eric Zann, The Rats in the Walls, The Horror at Red Hook, The Color out of Space and The Whisperer in Darkness. I haven't finished the last 1/3rd or so of the anthology yet so can't comment. The Color out of Space may be his best work that I've read other than the Call of Cthulu. The Music of Eric Zann is a simple little tale but it's filled with some really evocative imagery. I can still "see" the entire final scene and practically hear the music.
My personal favourite on the list is 'The Shadow over Innsmouth'. The BBC recently did an audio of it with Richard Coyle that was a very good reading.
"The Colour out of Space" is one of his best stories. The only problem with "The Shadow over the Innsmouth" is all that phonectically-spelled New England dialect, which gets a bit wearing after a while . . ..