Mental Floss

BOOKS

Stephen King can bring the scares.

The master of modern horror has made readers jump out of their chairs for decades thanks to excerpts like these, which are best read after dark.

Jake Rossen




A lithograph by Charles Robert Ashbee for H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau

In 1896, H.G. Wells published an uncharacteristically gruesome tale called 'The Island of Dr. Moreau,' forever changing the face of science fiction. Here are seven curious facts about Wells’s most unsettling work, which turns 125 this year.

April Snellings












Patricia Highsmith poses at home in Locarno, Switzerland in 1987.

Celebrated author Patricia Highsmith, who was known for her psychological thrillers, believed that life "didn’t make sense without crime in it."

Carla Delgado
Octavia E. Butler autographs a copy of Fledgling at a book signing.

Born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947, science fiction author Octavia E. Butler was one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century.

Kritika Agrawal








The World's Work, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Today, F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the most astute American novelists of the 20th century. But his best-known work, 'The Great Gatsby,' wasn't a bestseller.

Carla Delgado
Henry Cavill and Anya Chalotra in The Witcher (2019).

'The Witcher'—the Netflix series based on Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy book series, which spawned a popular video game franchise—became an immediate pop culture phenomenon when it debuted in December 2019.

Scott Beggs