More on Fear

So, I've been reading Lee Child's fantastic GONE TOMORROW. In the opening chapters, Jack Reacher is watching a woman on a subway. She's giving off the 11 signals that people give off before they're about to blow themselves up... a suicide bomber.

The day after I read that chapter, I got on the PATH train. As I was on the train, I noticed a guy who was giving off seven of the signs. My stomach twisted in knots, and I watched him the entire trip.

Obviously, I was fine.

But that brings me to a thought. Books can do something to me that movies can't. They can frighten me. JAWS never made me scared to go in the water. Modern movies are too computer generated to frighten me long term. They can startle me, but they can't fill me with dread.

IT made me think twice about walking past sewers. THE SHINING made me nervous about shrubbery (though not too much.).

And most thrillers find a way to make me nervous.

I think it's about the amount that's on the page. Books can back things up with facts. They can give me enough information to make fears legitimate. A suitcase bomb is much more likely on the train from Penn Station to Union Station in DC. Yikes.

Greg Rucka convinced me that there is no way to survive a subway bomb.

Books bring the facts. TV... movies... bring pictures. I know it's fake. I can rarely apply it to myself... my life.

Planes... well, that's a different story.

But what about you? What's more frightening? Books or movies? Why?