October is one of the best times to read.
The weather in getting a teeny bit cooler, the leaves are beginning to change, and the atmosphere is just a little spookier. Hence, the desire to read mysteries, ghost stories, and classic tales of legends and monsters. Alas, October is also the time when everything gets busier from school to sports to family parties and weekend events and road trips. Sitting down with a good book is a little tricker when you have a packed agenda.
Bring in the beauty of anthologies and short story collections. Books and magazines that let us pick our own stories to enjoy in a shorter time, yet still escape into another world. Here are three random anthology and short story collection picks for the sheer love of spooky reading:
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
The Master of Suspense and mystery, the great Alfred Hitchcock, knew how to collect some great tales, usually featuring around 15 to 20 short stories by classic and contemporary authors. This anthology digest has been around since the 50s, and is still being published. It’s bimonthly today instead of every month, but pretty easy to find in bookstores. Old issues also pop up constantly at used book stores, thrift shops and the occasional flea market or garage sale. Grab them, read them, and pass them on. Who doesn’t love a little mystery?
Anno Dracula 1899 by Kim Newman
Newman’s Anno Dracula short stories and novels are always fun because, they take many elements from the classic Dracula story we know and incorporate other monsters and historic figures into the mix. His Anno Dracula 1899 was written in 2017, but is a good one for this year as Guillermo Del Toro finally releases his long-imagined interpretation of Frankenstein. You’ll find appearances with Frankenstein’s Monster and The Invisible Man, along with other classic Universal Monster favorites. There’s also an Edgar Allan Poe appearance and a tale set in Tokyo…that leads to his 2019 cool novel Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other Macabre Tales by Washington Irving
I might have recommended this book a few years back, but when fall comes around, so does the Headless Horseman. While many classic horrors are set in Europe, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a tale for a very young America. It just encapsulates the best of the spookiest of Halloween season, and even if you know the story, you need to read original text. Don’t forget he’s also known for classics like Rip Van Winkle, The Devil and Tom Walker and The Spectre Bridegroom, all fast and entertaining reads. Irving collected works have been published in many forms and by several publishers, so even if you can’t find the exact copy I was gifted about 15 years ago, you can easily find some version new or used.
If you have just a small window of time to read this month: take it. The spooky, scary, and suspenseful escapes are much less horrifying than the real world, from which we all need a break.
Shoutout to the always cool Serena Kosta for her post on my generation’s gateway drug into horror reads: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, I recommend checking it out!
