Let'sGet Scott Carpenter

It’s that time of year again. You know, right after summer, the HALLOWEN countdown begins. Funny how this holiday brings out the freaky stuff and everyone considers it normal. Blood, vampires, candy, werewolves, ghosts, candy, skeletons, zombies and of course… candy. Isn’t that what Halloween is all about? Eating and sorting all the kids’ candy when they get back home after roaming the neighbors’ front doorsteps with their baskets, and accidentally hoarding your favorites from the bowl by your door—the ones you are supposed to hand out to the little superheroes and Disney characters. Confess it, you know I’m right – you’ve been caught more than once, haven’t you?

Being honest though, I think most people enjoy the preHalloween build-up. You can decorate your house with all the things boxed up in the garage that collect dust during the rest of the year. It’s not like you would put up a graveyard out front for the kid’s birthday party. Well, you could do it I suppose, but anytime other than October and it would be just plain weird.

It’s always a fun time prepping for a night of ghoulish thrills. Just seeing all the munchkins running around, sugared up and crazy, and knowing you’ll get to add to it before they leave. In essence, you are like grandma and grandpa feeding the kids sweets all day, knowing they will be bouncing off the walls for a few hours that night, as you sleep soundly and ignore the curses of their parents.

Other benefits of this particular holiday? You are now perfectly free to read all the shape-shifting, vampire, scary type books you wouldn’t particularly want people to see as you drink your eight-dollar coffee any other time of the year.

It does mess with people’s minds, seeing that horrifying book cover and wondering why on earth you’re laughing at tales about demons and possession. I prefer the classics myself. Not necessarily Victorian Gothic horror all the time, but most everything from Anne Rice or Steven King is a sure thing when it comes to freshening your twisted imagination. They either have to deal with it or leave as you tap your new pen shaped like a wooden stake.

Devouring the gruesome details of all the carnage on a written page demands you see it in your mind. It’s even more graphic when such stories are transferred to the screen on a large high-resolution television.

Don’t forget the popcorn and Red Vines, and the pillow to hide behind when it gets too scary.

Ghost stories are always a blast. You lay in the dark reading a book and hear something move or fall in the closet. Already being on edge, you jump about six feet and then scream when you see those eyes from the light on your phone. It’s a ghost, or a monster or… it’s actually your Chihuahua with a sock in its mouth.

Personally, I love the timeless creations of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe. The classic horror tales that just creep you out. I know everyone has a different taste in books, especially when it comes to this genre, but that’s the wonder of the reading world. Some people freak out about evil spirits, others scream at bugs. No matter what your fear, scary is scary. Reading horror helps us delve into our fears and what makes us uncomfortable, and often makes real life horrors easier to handle.

Watching a scary movie is always entertaining because it is showing everything right in front of you. The fun part is seeing people jump out of their skin when the monster breaks out. It’s the instant adrenaline rush that makes us shriek, shudder, lose our breath… and it’s usually the time when we spill our popcorn and drinks.

Then we go back and do it all over again.

Just like a book. We throw it aside, shaking our heads and saying, “I’m done, no more… wait, I wonder what happens next.” And we flip to the next page, picturing it all over again. It’s one of the greatest joys of reading.

So I started thinking. (Yes, that’s pretty frightening right there, I know.)

I was wondering… what are some of the most popular scary books?

Steven King is a master of everything terrifying. His twisted mind comes up with all kinds of stuff. Can you imagine his schoolteachers’ reactions when they asked for an essay? They probably had to get some therapy – or a lot of aged Scotch.

Besides Mr. King, however, I wondered what were some of the other most popular books in this genre.

I did a quick search for books about Halloween. I guessed it would be different to straight horror, and here is a list I found that was interesting.

1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

2. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

3. Final Girls by Riley Sager

4. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

5. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

6. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

7. Dracula by Bram Stoker

8. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

9. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

10. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

(Thank you for the list: https://www.purewow. com/books/halloween-books-for-adults)

If you have time, you can make your own list. I didn’t see Frankenstein on there, but there are continued on page 54