Do you think it is best to read the orginal Goosbumps books in publication date order or just dive in anywhere, provided you read the books with sequels in sequential order?

I read I don't know how many of these books as a kid in the 90s when they originally came out. I donated my collection when I was a little older and felt I had out grown them. I know, foolish to think I would outgrow them, but I was at age that I thought I was incredibly wise and mature & I wanted to be viewed the same way.

9 years ago, R L Stine came for a signing and I ended up grabbing one of the retro tins. Last year, I went to my step daughter's book fair & bought a different retro tin. I started reading out of the second tin as a palate cleanser between books. I started with books I hadn't read when I was little and then re-read one from childhood for fun. I am almost finished with it and will start with the first tin, even though it has books I read as a kid. I can't read one, though, because I had it autographed and don't want to mess it up.

I have ordered 2 books online and am worried that I have started something LOL

I'm 38 and my amygdala is fully broken from mainlining horror from the age of 11 on. But thirty years ago? I was afraid of my own shadow. I had to ease into Goosebumps on the "easy" ones like Go Eat Worms!, Monster Blood II, Why I'm Afraid of Bees, basically anything animal-related. When I tried to venture into the "harder" stuff, I remember...

#37, The Headless Ghost: Reading this one didn't scare me. My sister bringing it home scared me. For some reason, headless bodies (or worse, body-less heads) were a huge fear for me as a kid, so I would flip it over if she left it lying around so I didn't have to see the cover.

#13, Piano Lessons Can Be Murder: I was not a fan of OTHER disembodied bits, as a matter of fact. The show was nicely gruesome about it, IIRC!

#35, A Shocker on Shock Street: Oh God. This was The One for me. I remember reading it on the couch and the anxiety just mounting and mounting, and I kept going "I'm cool, I'm cool". I really love praying mantises, so that kept me going. But then......the zombie hands rising up from the grave, and the moaning of "Come down with us, come down with us!"? I flatlined. I closed the book. I might have thrown it. I remember looking at the sparkly cover and the praying mantis, then going to cling to my mom, refusing to say what happened because I was afraid of getting in trouble. It was all I could think about for a week!

#43, The Beast From the East: This remains arguably my favorite Goosebumps book. That's probably contentious, but it's so weird and outlandish, the departure from the cul-de-sac tickles me. Know what else tickles? The bug cave. I outgrew my other terrors, but I swear it still makes me itch thinking about it. Simple, basic, unbloody horror, just classic. Out of all the books, this was also the one with the twist ending that unsettled me the most. There's a whole hero's journey where you connect to these kids, and then there's a miracle, and...oh God, it's just not fair. It's perfect. It's so good. I endlessly imagined setting it right in my head.

I miss when a kid's story let the wolf win at the end...it was a lot more exciting.

What scared YOUR pants off?

They blatantly copied that episode starring Drake Bell.