Halloween 2009 Readings

Ok, I couldn't wait and started my reading for the Halloween season early. A delicious mix of supernatural tales from my favorite era never seen in other anthologies or out of print for decades.

I found this on the bargain shelves for $2.50, can't beat that.

A BOTTOMLESS GRAVE: and Other Victorian Tales of Terror by Hugh Lamb editor.

What is everyone else opening up for the season?

I may have posted this on a similar thread, but one of my Fall reads that I think fits into your Halloween Readings category is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I've got a few non-fiction things to finish up, then it's on to Jane Austen as she's never been read before!

I'll be in the glorious Kruger Park for Halloween, and accompanying Daughter on fieldwork for the following 5 weeks, so the holiday reading has been ordered. Apart from a predictable box of tree, animal, bird and guide books I'll be trying to make these last for 7 weeks:

Persian Fire by Tom Holland
The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
Well of lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
Phule me twice by Robert Asprin
M.Y.T.H. Inc. Action and Sweet Myth-tery of Life (available here as a double volume) -- Robert Asprin again
The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
and Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

In every case either the book is a Green Dragon recommendation or I was introduced to the author by our regulars. Thank you everybody, and particular thanks to Clam -- I'll be thinking of you while I'm away!

I'm reading a series about witches and vampires by Kim Harrison, the current one is called "White Witch, Black Curse

Last October I read only scary, magical, or fantasy books and really enjoyed the Halloween spirit it gave me, so I intend to do the same this year. Some of the books I'm considering are:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
No Rest for the Witches by MaryJanice Davidson
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

I've already read part of Stories for Late at Night by Alfred Hitchcock, so maybe I'll finish it up.

Too bad there are only 31 days in October; I will never get to them all.

>5 PaperbackPirate: I did the same last October and had a blast. I'll be doing the same this year.

I just grabbed a copy of Victorian Ghost Stories at a used book sale, so that'll definitely be on my list. I'm trying to read works from a variety of time periods. I'm thinking:

House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne (1851)
Victorian Ghost Stories edited by Michael Cox (approx 1850 - 1910)
The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich by Fritz Lieber (1936). I'd rather read Conjure Wife but no branch of my library system has a copy.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez (2006)

I still need an audio book or two, preferably to fill in the gap 1960 - 2000. No copy of The Exorcist in the library, but they do have Rosemary's Baby. I also haven't read Interview with the Vampire since I was a teenager, so that's a possibility.

Every October for the last few years I have read Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville possibly the best read aloud ever (at least for Halloween). Best for 3-5th graders but I first read it as an adult and love it.

I plan on re-reading The Haunting of Hill House this year for Halloween, and I always dip into my Victorian Ghost Stories (that's a wonderful book!) I think this year I might read a few stories from my Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, which, while not ghost stories, are still deliciously delightful for dark and stormy nights.

A Night in Lonesome October by Zelazny is fun to read throughout the month. I'll have to move P&P&Zombies up the TBR list for the season.

There are great ideas here! I love reading scary books around Halloween. I have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies so that's a definite one. I like the idea of rereading Interview With the Vampire and a few others that have been mentioned. I have a book of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. I may have to dig that one back out.

If anyone has Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill on your TBR list, Halloween is a perfect time to read it. This book is seriously scary!

I think I will reread Clockwork by Philip Pullman and Coraline. Both are deliciously spooky, and short. I'm not a big spooky ghost story fan.

Although, I've been meaning to read The Picture of Dorian Gray. Does that count?

Confession: I have never read anything by Stephen King. Maybe The Shining for Halloween this year. But more likely, something by Richard Matheson, such as Hell House.

Over in the 75 Books Challenge group, we're going a group read of the following for October:

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe
The Wood Wife by Terri Windling
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Fear by L. Ron Hubbard
Ghost by Alan Lightman
Creepers by David Morrell
The Face by Dean Koontz

Feel free to join us!

I will pick up one of those DrNewt! Thanks!

I've seen the movie Hell House is the book better?

ArcticS: I don't read King either. My students used to say, "Oh, Mrs. M. he's great. It's like you're really there." To which I would answer, "There is someplace I don't want to be!"

I love King, but I can see how his books are not for everyone. I like horror, especially the phychological horror that King is a master at producing. I have had more than one sleepness night because I was trying to finish a book by King.

What a great idea. While I might have considered reading one scary book a whole months worth is such a great idea, PaperbackPirate and lucien!

#3 - Wow, Hugh, I was reading your list saying "Oh! Oh! I read that!' and 'Oh! I read THAT, too!' to myself. Hee hee You are going to love that Omnivore's Dilemma, I think. Especially being in the field that you are. I Just bought another one of Michael Pollan's called Second Nature: A Gardener's Education and I'm on the lookout for The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. Have a fabulously fantastic and relaxing holiday! 5 weeks! I am so very jealous, and happy for you. :o)

A million thanks, Clam. I must put Second Nature on to my wishlist! Read The Botany of Desire some time ago -- muchly recommendable! Thinks: wouldn't it be great if we could fetch you from the airport at Nelspruit and show you the Kruger Park ... :-)

#19 - I hope to see that part of the world some day. :o) I just saw The Botany of Desire on the book table at Costco for about %50 off the cover price, so maybe I'll snap it next time I'm in there.

Have a blast!

Just picked up 20th Century Ghosts today in the bargain aisle at B&N. Just in time I think.

This thread needs to be resurrected, like the undead!

Have you ever read a book in a location that multiplied its scariness? I read The Shining when I returned to college a day early and was the only person in the dorm! That night alone in the dorm was the creepiest I ever experienced. I have to stop reading - I can't stop reading - Put the book down now! - One more chapter then I'll stop - What was that noise?

#23 - Yes, I had a similar experience with the same book! I spent the Summer of 1980 renting a room at a huge old Victorian house in upstate New York. I was left alone for one weekend, and I just happened to be reading The Shining. I refused to use any bathroom that had a tub in it. In fact I had to go down the back stairs and through the kitchen to get to the 'safe' one.

I'm reading Sunshine by Robin Mckinley this very moment and since it's all about vampires and other creepy things it's perfectly halloweeny

#23 Yes! The first time I read The Haunting of Hill House I was staying in a huge barrack block (I was in the military at the time), that was pretty much deserted. It was being used as a women's barracks-back in the day when there was segregated accommodations, and there weren't very many women at this base we were at. Anyways, my roommate had gone out and I was alone, reading. I got up to go and get a drink from the vending machine down the dimly lit hall. I turned the corner, bumped into my roommate, and screamed and screamed and screamed! Naturally scared the wits out of my roommate who thought I'd lost my mind!!

Makes me laugh everytime I read The Haunting now ;-)

#26 - Hee hee! Great story, katylit.

I levitated a good 18 inches off of a couch once while reading Pet Cemetery. My husband walked into the room and I hadn't heard him coming down the hall.

I just finished Hell House. Wow! Fantastic horror story.

#24 & 27, Stephen King is good for scaring you isn't he? Pet Cemetery spooked me too.

I haven't read Hell House jimmaclachlan, just seen the movie, gotta read it soon.