Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Start a New Tradition



Give scary books for Halloween.

Writes Neil Gaiman on his blog:

***

You know, there aren't enough traditions that involve giving books.

I propose that, on Hallowe'en or during the week of Hallowe'en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they'll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they'll enjoy.

I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands -- new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe'en. Make their flesh creep...

Give a scary book.

***


I love this idea. I already ran out and bought the book I'm going to give.
Pass it on.

**UPDATE** I received this book, and I gifted this.
















I also like what Joe Hill had to say:

***

I’m going to adopt this as a Halloween habit and I hope you will too. The only thing I’d add is that I think you should also take twenty minutes on Halloween evening to read a scary story to your kids, or with your friends, or your family. Everyone reads The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, which is fine, but Halloween is really a time to share a good bone-shaking horror story that will keep your loved ones awake at night.

***

I couldn't agree more. As Alvin Schwartz pointed out, scary stories want to be told. So, what are some of your favorite scary books?

5 comments:

Seb said...

Man, Ghost Story didn't do it all for me.

Kim said...

dude, that was not a productive comment. i asked, "What are some of your favorite scary books?"

jasmine said...

i loooooove the gashlycrumb tinies! i have edward gorey's amphigorey, and it's one of the stories in there. we actually studied it in a class i took called "comic spirit." random name, but it was a literature course that studied comedy as a genre. so great!

my fave scary book is a collection of stories written by louisa may alcott. she wrote them under a pseudonym, but they were all compiled into a book called a whisper in the dark. it's spooky, but not toooooo scary.

Char said...

"it" by stephen king

jess said...

omg Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark totally freaked me out when I was in 3rd grade!

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