We all love a good fright on this website, and we all love a good book. So what are you reading this Halloweenseason?
I prefer* my scares of the historically true variety, so I am going to reread The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. My sister just returned it to me after I lent it to her years ago, and I remember being very creeped out by it. That’s the whole reason I lent it to her. Even though she’s six inches shorter than me and has curly hair, you can tell we are indeed sisters because we both love old-timey true crime and cozy mysteries.
What are you guys going to read as the nights get longer and the air gets colder and the spooking gets underway?
*I actually prefer not to be scared at all, but sometimes I think I can handle the scares. I usually regret this. I regret even thinking about reading The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher because I know it’ll give me nightmares. I’m a literal child, afraid of everything on this earth and in the heavens.
Homeless Monsters 
We found a collection of spooky stories read by Vincent Price and we’ve been listening to that before bed, which is an OBVIOUSLY AWFUL IDEA, but what can you do. He sure does read a good book, that Vincent Price. I don’t know the name of the book (Mr Fatima downloaded it), but this is similar:
I LOVE Vincent Price. I always have. Then I found out he did a mail order deal in the 70s to help Americans learn about art, and now I love him even more.
Anyone who lives in LA should go see the Vincent Price movie “The Tingler” on the 30th or 31st. It’s a Halloween tradition at Cinefamily and they do a really great job:
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-october-2015/#the-tingler-presented-in-percepto-2
That sounds like a sex toy
You’re gonna wish it was when you’re screaming for your life!
I just finished my first Stephen King book. It is called The Long Walk (by Richard Bachman which is King’s pseudonym) and I recommend it because it was really good but also I don’t recommend it because it was truly horrifying and sad at times (but not scary).
I also scare easily and do not enjoy being scared. So I wont be reading any scary stories. I am going on vacation next week, and so I bought The Martian as my beach read. Being lost on Mars sounds pretty freaky to me, but we will see! 🙂
I really enjoyed The Martian. I like any book where I just naturally imagine Matt Damon as the protagonist and in this one he’s a sarcastic engineer….it basically ticks all my boxes.
I don’t read a lot of scary stuff because I don’t enjoy being frightened (related: I hate roller coasters) but I did really enjoy reading the Zodiac book written by the guy Jake Gyllenhaal plays in Zodiac.
Maybe I will reread Northanger Abbey? That’s vaguely horror-adjacent.
I just finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It wasn’t exactly scary but there were some creepy bits. There was a random mention of this creepy event in history and I definitely wasn’t able to sleep after reading that Wikipedia page late at night:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Benders
I’m reading Modern Romance now which is a different kind of scary. Next on my list is The Luminaries and Amazon says something about it being a clever ghost story, so we will see!
Yesssss, the Bloody Benders are the creepiest! If you like podcasts, let me recommend that you go back in the archives of Stuff You Missed in History Class because I found out about a lot of creepy murders from them.
Ooh, I do like “Stuff You Missed in History” but I usually only download the episodes that I already am sort of familiar with. “Royals of Sweden, sure I would like to know more about them”. The ones that have really weird titles, like “bloody benders” I just wouldn’t even look at.
Allegedly they’re going to make American Gods into a miniseries on HBO. So I’m very excited (because I really liked AG).
It’s actually supposed to be on Starz. Which could be a good thing….Starz did the Outlander series and my friends who have read the books seem pretty pleased with the show. I really meant to write up recaps of that show but then I got intimidated with WordPress and the show got super rapey so didn’t. I’m old and technology is confusing.
For Halloween, I’m going to read the scariest thing of all: My students essay tests!
I finished The Man in the High Castle last night, which captured different states of mind very well, some of which were Nazi. Usually in movies and games, Nazis are The Other and exist only to be a threat and then lose, but here you can see how they were actual people. That was super disturbing. Over the weekend I read an MR James story (The Tractate Middoth) which was delightfully creepy. Up next I think I will try a short & fast vampire kindle bestseller and then the original Dracula.
I want to read Turn of the Screw too but I bet I run out of October before I get there.