All Hallows Read

So I don't think it's any great secret that Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. Here is a picture of him (which I took from his blog) having ice cream with one of my other favorite authors Daniel Handler. Because he is one of my faves, I read his blog and follow him on Twitter. This past week, Mr. Gaiman suggested that Halloween should be a book giving holiday, but not just any kind of book, specifically scary books! You can read about his idea here on his blog.

I think this is a marvelous idea! One of my favorite scary books from when I was a kid was 'Tales for the Midnight Hour' by J. B. Stamper. This was a collection of scary short stories that were great for reading out loud during sleepovers or campouts, especially if there were younger kids around! Muahahaha! I don't know what ever happened to that book, not many of my books stayed with me from childhood. To my delight several years ago, I found an old beat up copy of this very same book on the paperback rack of my own Marshall Lane Library! Oh joy! I checked it out right then and reread the whole thing. The stories are not as scary as they once were but they brought back a lot of memories! I love how in so many of the stories people are driven insane from fear. That was my favorite outcome. Anyway, in the spirit of Book 0r Treat, I'm making 'Tales for the Midnight Hour' my pick of the week and I'm going to order a few copies from Amazon to give away.

I hope this inspires you to give a scary book to a loved one this Halloween.

And tell me about your favorite scary books, did they give you chills? Did they give you nightmares? Were you afraid to look under your bed?