Halloween Reads

Once again, it's very close to that time of year. I'm referring, of course, to the annual event of picking this year's Halloween read. It doesn't have to be a book that takes place on Halloween, necessarily, but a good, creepy, scary, late-into-the-night read. Last year I read Glen Hirshberg's superb novel The Snowman's Children. The year before, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge.

My good friend Kelly is already making his own Halloween preparations and has some great ideas. So here are some of my candidates for this year's Halloween Read:


The granddaddy for this year is the new Library of America 2-volume set American Fantastic Tales, edited by Peter Straub. Although Amazon's price of $44.10 sure beats the $70 list price, I probably won't be buying/reading this one this year.


October Dark by David Herter certainly sounds great, but at $50, I'll probably wait until it comes out in a cheaper edition.


Much cheaper would be Sarah Langan's new novel Audrey's Door, or maybe even another Langan title from 2007, The Missing.


Cheaper still, two books that have been sitting on my shelf unread for a couple of years, Peter Straub's Ghost Story and Ray Bradbury's The October Country.

So what about you? What are you going to read this Halloween?