Boo!

If you’re in the mood this Halloween for some frightful reading, there are plenty of stories from which to choose. Book Sense offers its top 10 list of Halloween books. Brad Leithauser, editor of The Norton Book of Ghost Stories, made up a list for The Wall Street Journal of his five favorite ghost tales. Britain’s Guardian newspaper has a fang-tastic rundown of the top 10 vampire tales, while London Times reviewer offers her own selection of six vampiric yarns. And Mystery Readers Journal editor Janet Rudolph has her own choices of Halloween-appropriate reading matter. More suggestions are available from MyShelf.com, the Springfield (Massachusetts) City Library, Classic Mysteries, and Suite 101.

Perhaps the scariest thing of all, though, is the idiocy being propagated this Halloween by people such as those at Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, who wrote in a blog post yesterday: “During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.” Who is being tricked here, I ask you.

(Hat tip to Campaign for the American Reader.)