More Scary Literary Characters

In our final Halloween-themed blog for this year, I’d like to add three more literary works which feature Halloween appropriate characters. Perhaps you’ll get some crazy ideas for your costume!

1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – although the scrapes Bilbo Baggins manages to get himself into are generally humorous, the giant spiders, goblins, and orcs that he has to deal with are not!
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the final scene with the ghost dog from hell emerging from the fog is one of my favorite scary literary moments!
3. Some Words with a Mummy by Egar Allan Poe – for those of us who like to go the route of wrapping ourselves in gauze for Halloween!

Have a happy and appropriately scary Halloween!

Literary Ghosts and Other Scary Things

 I’m sure this year (as on every other year) there will be multitudes of ghosts, goblins, and vampires pouring about my neighborhood on the ever important quest of obtaining candy from wary neighbors. And in case you haven’t been reading our blog lately, there are scores of ways to tie literature in with Halloween (shocker, I know!). Today, I’ve compiled a list of literary works which feature some of the most well-known Halloween appropriate characters: 

1. Hamlet by William Shakespeare – perhaps you didn’t see this one coming, but in my opinion it features one of the creepiest ghosts of the literary world!

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker – obvious choice! There’s nothing like a good old fashioned vampire to get your blood running!

3. Harry Potter  by J.K. Rowling – if I had to list all of the creepy creatures found in this set of books…well I’d be here awhile. Enough said.

This list continues next time! Enjoy!

A Fresh Batch of Zombies!

Posted recently on www.salon.com is an article titled: This Year’s Must-Read Zombie Epic. The passage is talking about the novel Zone One by Colson Whitehead which has apparently received rave reviews as of late. Whitehead’s book follows the typical zombie narrative (the world awakens to a spreading zombie disease) and yet creates a completely unique take on zombies at the same time (you’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean!). It’s great to get a refreshing take on the already much used and abused topic of zombies! I hope you get a chance to pick up this novel! Enjoy!

Halloween Stories from Mr. Poe

Following with the Halloween theme for this week, I of course cannot leave out the great master of scary stories: Edgar Allan Poe. I think we can all appreciate the macabre tint to his stories – and in fact I recall reading The Cask of Amontillado a few years back and feeling a bit nauseous in the process. Here is a wonderful website called poestories.com which features many of the deliciously morbid poems and stories by Poe (even The Cask of Amontillado is there!). Get in the Halloween spirit and take a few minutes to read a couple. Perhaps you could share with us which one is your favorite story or poem! Happy reading!

An Old Halloween Favorite

The smell of pumpkins is in the air and with the Halloween holiday  looming upon us I am starting to notice a brief and passing interest in one particular classic film which is, in my opinion, also one of the scariest I have ever seen. In fact, I found The Shining to be so terrifying, that I kept my eyes squeezed shut through a good fourth of this film. As many of you know, the film “The Shining” is actually based upon a novel by the same name which was written by famed author Stephen King. Sadly, I remain so horrified by the movie that I have yet to bring myself to read the book – I can’t really shut my eyes during the scary parts, although I suppose I could skip over them (but that seems to defeat the purpose). The novel was written waaaaay back in 1977 and the film came out 3 short years later in 1980. It’s amazing that a film which is over 30 years old is still a Halloween favorite!