Starting out with HP Lovecraft

[Tele-screen]

I recently realized that I have never read an HP Lovecraft book. The impression I have of his work based on the commentary of others makes the idea of deciding where to start a bit daunting. What book should I read first? Is there some time of order I should maintain? A list would be nice.

 

[natural20]

Start out with Call of Cthulhu. It's a great starting point for the mythos as well as his writing style. Be careful though, you may get hooked!

 

[Hiphophippo]

Colour out of Space is my personal favorite. His prose was hard for me to crack actually. I like WHAT he was writing more than the finished product, if you follow.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Shadow Out of Time is a good one, and not exactly as hard to decipher as some of the others.

Shadow Over Innsmouth is good too.

 

[voetballeeuw]

I recently went to my local library to grab my first Lovecraft book and I found one with a 22 seperate short stories, The Rats in The Wall, Call of Cthulu, etc. It's just plain awesome he's a great writer.

 

[CloggedDonkey]

Try Herbert West: Reanimator. It's short and will let you get to know whether or not you like Lovecraft's style of writing.