All Hallow's Read
This year, I'll be doing something I've done once before, which is giving a scary book to someone for Halloween. Of course, when I did it, it wasn't exactly a scary book, since I've given copies of Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman to Angela's younger son and to the Horace Mann Elementary School library. (Long-time readers know how much I LOOOOOOOVE Big Pumpkin.)
However, the wise, witty, wonderful Neil Gaiman has put forth A Modest Proposal that involves the giving of scary books on Halloween. Here's the crux of his post:
I propose that, on Hallowe'en or during the week of Hallowe'en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they'll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they'll enjoy.
I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands -- new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe'en. Make their flesh creep...
Give a scary book.
If you don't know what kinds of books there are, or what would be appropriate for the person you're giving a book to, talk to a bookseller. They love to help, most of them. (The ones that don't tend not to be booksellers for long.) Talk to librarians. (Do not plan to give away their books though, unless they are having a library sale.)
I'm in. And you?
However, the wise, witty, wonderful Neil Gaiman has put forth A Modest Proposal that involves the giving of scary books on Halloween. Here's the crux of his post:
I propose that, on Hallowe'en or during the week of Hallowe'en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they'll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they'll enjoy.
I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands -- new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe'en. Make their flesh creep...
Give a scary book.
If you don't know what kinds of books there are, or what would be appropriate for the person you're giving a book to, talk to a bookseller. They love to help, most of them. (The ones that don't tend not to be booksellers for long.) Talk to librarians. (Do not plan to give away their books though, unless they are having a library sale.)
I'm in. And you?