October Scare Fest

Every year I do the same thing, in a fit of masochism. I pull out the scary books and watch the scary shows on tv in honor of Halloween being in the month of October. By the end of the month, I am through with it, and I back away from the scary stuff.

So I am in the midst of organizing my Halloween month reading. As I love classic horror and ghost stories, I have tons of anthologies to choose from. Most likely I will read stories from these anthologies:

• The Irish Book of Weirdness: A Treasury of Classic Tales of the Supernatural, Spooky and Strange by Mairtin O'Griofa
• Hex and the City by Simon R. Green (Book 4 in the Nightside Series)
• The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories
• Classic Horror Stories: 16 Stories of the Supernatural
• The Dark: New Ghost Stories edited by Ellen Datlow

Today I was reading Haunted House Stories, and also yesterday at the gym. Some of these stories are pretty scary. "The Whistling Room" by William Hope Hodgson really gave me some shivers. Also another story about a guy being stalked by an ancient presence of a Egyptian cat diety was pretty darn scary also. Well most of them are thrilling. And the funny thing is they are are all older stories, no blood, guts and gore. More modern horror is overly reliant on such underpinnings, and when you read it, you feel distinctly disgusted instead of genuine terror.

I will post at the end of the month with my thoughts on the reading, and my overall progress. If you are doing your own scare fest, happy scares!