In October of 2010, Neil Gaiman came up with the idea of All Hallow's Read, mostly because he felt there weren't enough book gifting occasions.
When I was a kid, I read through the entire Nancy Drew library, the V.C. Andrews treasury, and various supernatural "choose your own adventure" books.
I got through a few of Stephen King's less terrifying books ('Salem's Lot, Christine) before I couldn't sleep (see: IT and Cujo). I'm sure there were a bunch of other 1980s, "I was a Teenage Witch/Ghost/Psychic" books that were terrible and less memorable. As I am an avid, voracious, ravenous, insatiable reader, I love the idea of giving scary books for Hallowe'en, I've just never participated. Until this year.
I got through a few of Stephen King's less terrifying books ('Salem's Lot, Christine) before I couldn't sleep (see: IT and Cujo). I'm sure there were a bunch of other 1980s, "I was a Teenage Witch/Ghost/Psychic" books that were terrible and less memorable. As I am an avid, voracious, ravenous, insatiable reader, I love the idea of giving scary books for Hallowe'en, I've just never participated. Until this year.
This year I will be gifting my niece and a few other choice friends with spooky books. Her mom and dad are pretty voracious readers too, so I'm not worried about her at all.
Are you participating in All Hallow's Read? If so, what are your spooky book picks?
This is the first I've heard of it. If I were to gift a book for the occasion, it would probably be one of the anthologies edited by Marvin Kaye. He's got over a dozen seriously huge collections of classic horror and suspense stories with his name on the cover. The really impressive thing is that as far as I can tell, he hasn't had to repeat a story!
ReplyDeleteYour fellow 2014 Cryptkeeper,
Richard @ PureBlather.com