I've heard of that book and have been meaning to read it. Do you mean "horrible read" as in "it sucks" or is it just horrifying?
Great thread, by the way.
"The Black Book of Communism" is horrible in the banality of Communism's evil. The authors did not write only about Russia. They wrote about the rise of Communism in every country where it took root, and about the destruction of those counties as a consequence. Such as China, North Korea, Cuba, etc. There were some differences in each one, but the destruction of each is the same....starvation, moral degradation, extreme poverty, etc. Islam has nothing on Communism for taking a country back to the Dark Ages.
I think it should be required reading in High Schools.
Another book I read recently is "Koba the Dread" by Martin Amis. It's about Stalin, and Amis' writing style makes the familiar information in the book really overwhelming. Plus there is new information.
Martin Amis is the son of Kingsley Amis, a well-known British Communist. Martin hates Communism. The book also is a diatribe against Christopher Hitchens because of Hitchens' continued defense of Lenin. Amis shows in the book that Lenin was every bit as horrible as Stalin. And so was Trotsky.