The original premise is simple - on All Hallow's Eve (or Halloween, whichever term you prefer) or the week before, give someone a scary book.
That's it. Give someone, or multiple someones, a scary book. Give a child a scary book that they would like and can handle (age appropriateness is a good thing!) Give your best friend your favorite Stephen King novel, or pass along a copy of one of Dean Koontz's delightfully terrifying novels to a stranger on the bus! It can be a new book, or a used copy - it really doesn't matter. Just give someone a scary book!
I think this tradition sounds awesome, and I plan to participate. When my nephew was young (4 or maybe 5?) his favorite bedtime story was The Monster at the End of this Book. We read that thing every night for months, until the pages were falling out and the cover was trashed, and still he wanted it every night, and when it finally disintegrated we had to go buy a new copy to satisfy the little guy! I think this will be the perfect opportunity to introduce my great-nephew to the book if I can find it, and hopefully he will love it just as much!
I also have a couple of extra copies of The Stand by Stephen King that I could easily hand off to people. It wasn't the first Stephen King novel I ever read but it scared me the most, and I vividly remember reading it late into the night (ok, early morning) one summer and suddenly realizing I was alone in the house with the sliding glass door wide open and being too terrified to cross the living room to close and lock the door until my roommate came home! (I often wish that I could somehow read it again for the first time to have that feeling again - delightfully and fantastically awesome!)
But if doesn't have to be a "Horror" novel! There are scary books in every genre - Sci-Fi, Young Adult, Children's, Dark Fantasy, Paranormal and/or Romance (anyone remember Phyllis A. Whitney's adult suspense novels?), Thrillers, and Mysteries - just about any genre you can think of!
Anyway, if you'd like to read up a little more on All Hallow's Read here are some links:
Neil Gaiman's Journal - Where he writes about first coming up with the idea.
AllHallowsRead.com - More information about the idea, including book recommendations!
Tor.com - Tor's Blog announcement listing all the ways they plan to participate, with giveaways and more!
Need more? You can also follow and join in the conversations on Twitter by using the #AllHallowsRead hashtag. So join in the fun and help me spread the word! And if you plan to participate, why not leave a comment below letting us all know who you plan to terrify this year, and how! And if you have a good scary book recommendation in an unusual genre, or just want to tell us what your favorite scary book is, leave that in the comments too - I'd love to hear it!!
That's an awesome idea! I think I might have to do that myself. My son's a little too young for scary books, but I have friends I can terrify!
ReplyDelete@Christine Rains Hi Christine! Thanks for dropping by!
ReplyDeleteYes, we should all remember to be age appropriate with our scary books - but to be honest, I think it would be just as good to give a book even if it's not scary, right?
Oh that's a great idea! I will have to think of what book to pass on. I have to agree with you about The Stand though, I remember I didn't sleep until I finished it and even then I sat up until it was full light before I could even move off the couch!
ReplyDelete@~Ang Hi ~Ang! Thanks for stopping by! Too funny about your experience with The Stand!!
ReplyDeleteI did a quick scan of my bookshelves last night and found an extra copy of Intensity, by Dean Koontz. It's not really "scary" exactly, but the non-stop, high-intensity suspense works out to almost the same thing, and I think I have the perfect victim, er, friend, to give it to!
The Stand is one of my all-time favourite books. :)
ReplyDelete@diaryofadomesticgoddess Hiya Goddess! Yeah it's one of the few books that I pull out and re-read periodically. About once ever 5 years or so, I guess. Actually, I think I'm over due...
ReplyDeleteStephen King's 'Salem's Lot' was my first introduction to 'scary' when I was a teen. Talk about terrified! I was rigid with fear as I was reading it but could. not. put. it. down. My bed was under the window and I was CONVINCED that if I drew back the curtains there would be a vampire with an evil grin, just floating there and desperate to be invited in! YIKES! The curtain's stayed firmly drawn!
ReplyDeleteI fell asleep (eventually) with the covers pulled up tight around my neck in case a stray vamp was invited in by someone else in the house, heheh. Overactive imagination or what?!!
The Stand is one of my all time faves though. Love that book!
Oh! and 'IT' scared the bejezus out of me...
...oh, forgot to leave my recommendation..
ReplyDelete'Autumn' by David Moody! Didn't even manage to finish that one because I was so spooked! Great book, realistic setting, zombies, intense peril...it's got it all!
Zombie's are my ultimate scare. They're even scarier than my ultimate movie scare, which is an abandoned hospital with a crazed killer hunting the corridors for the lone woman trapped in there with him. OMG.OMG.OMG.
But, even worse has just occurred to me - abandoned hospital...lone woman trapped....with zombies. *SCREAM* :o
Scary book :D
@Silver Thistle Ha! Stephen King is the master of fright (at least in his older novels). Somehow I've never read Salem's Lot - I'm not sure why, but I couldn't "get into it" even though I loved his other works. I should try again sometime...
ReplyDelete@Silver Thistle OMG! Zombies have never been particularly scary to me in the past, until last year when I watched the premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC, and the one scene where the main character wakes up from a coma in an abandoned hospital with zombies locked in some of the other rooms and then walks down the pitch dark staircase - seriously gave me nightmares and immediately became my favorite television show!
ReplyDelete