The Scare Your Pants Off Club – Spooky Reads for October (& Poll!)
POSTED BY elaine ON October 8, 2010
October is my favorite month for so many reasons. The Texas weather finally starts to cool, our great city of Austin hosts the ACL Festival, Texas Book Festival and various Oktoberfest celebrations, and college football is in high gear (go Horns!). But my favorite part of October is Halloween. Now, I am not a big fan of the dressing up in costumes part of Halloween – I’ll leave that to my kids – but what I love, love, love about this spooky season is indulging in scary movie and book marathons. Even though I watch the movies with my hands over my eyes and snuggle up extra close to Hubby after staying up too late reading a good thriller, I can’t help myself.
At the risk of giving the obvious answer – when asked who my favorite scary author is, I have to say Stephen King. No one can scare me like this man (The Shining, anyone??). I remember when I was living alone in an old, creaky house, I picked up his book, Bag of Bones. I didn’t get 3 chapters in before I had to put it down. Supernatural aspects of scary books and films frighten me ten times more than slasher blood and guts types – and this book hits you with ghastly figures right up front! I told myself I’d try it again one day when I wasn’t having to read alone in an empty house. That was 10 years ago, and I have yet to pick it up again even though my house is far from empty.
Other popular choices? Between recommendations from friends and various “Top 10 Scary Books of All Time” lists floating around on the web, there are are several that got multiple mentions, including:
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Alvin Schwartz
Ghost Story, Peter Staub
Salem’s Lot, Stephen King
So what about you? Is there an author that makes you pull the covers up a bit tighter? Any favorite scary books? Do tell!
Tags: Halloween, Scary books, top picks
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I contributed content and assisted in the editing of Jeanine Plumer’s new release, “Haunted Austin: History and Hauntings In The Capital City.” Jeanine is a local historian and founder of Austin Ghost Tours. We’ve collected stories of true haunting activity and examine the history of each location, including The Driskill Hotel, The State Capitol and The Serial Killings of 1885. Available at Bookpeople, Barnes & Noble Arboretum and on Amazon.com. Great photos, too!