Thread: Read this book?

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Has anyone read October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween by Chizmar and Morrish? I'm wondering if it's all poetry or not. Looks like it would be a great book to read whenever you need a dose of Halloween, and a good gift for a Halloween enthusiast.

I have it in hardcover. It's a nice mixture of short stories, poems and essays. A little uneven, but all in all the best anthology of Halloween and Autumn related stories out there. For the cost of a used (Amazon) paperback its a must have.

Sounds good to me!!! I love Halloween books! I read The Halloween Tree last Halloween with my 7yr old girl. She loved it!

OOOH I need to get that. Wonder if Barns and Noble would have that.

I dont know who has it. I received it as a gift in the Halloween Gift Exchange I participated in with the other Halloween forum I was with last year. Ill look at the author tonight and let you know who it is.

Here's a little bit of near-useless information : There is another paperback out there with Halloween-themed short stories that's a good seasonal read. The cover has dayglo colors on it, but - I don't recall the title, editor, publisher, etc. I sold it at a Horrorfind convention a few years ago and have regretted selling it since!
Does anyone know any more about this particular PB?

HQ4Ever - are you refering to The Halloween Tree in your post? That was written by the godfather of Halloween, Ray Bradbury.

October Dreams is a mixture of mostly short stories, recollections of Halloween by writers, and a few poems (one by Bradbury). You can "search inside" the book, view the table of contents, and read an excerpt, at Amazon.com. I have a copy, which I read about half of. I really wanted to like the book. But the stories were either depressing, or not that well written, I thought.

Spookilicious mama, it's out of stock at Barnes & Noble, although you can buy used copies online from their authorized sellers.

Some other books that you may like:
• A Halloween Reader: Poems, Stories, And Plays From Halloweens Past, edited by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne.
• Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Herbert Wise. One of the best anthologies, with works by Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Guy de Maupassant, O. Henry, H.G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft, Wilkie Collins, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, M.R. James, and many more. Classic stuff. It was first published in 1944, and that it's still in print today is a testament to its selections.

A number of the stories are now out of copyright, and can be read online for free. I've put some of my favorites in orange:

Tales of Terror

• La Grande Bretêche, by Honoré de Balzac.
• The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe.
• The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, by Edgar Allan Poe.
• A Terribly Strange Bed, by Wilkie Collins.
• The Boarded Window, by Ambrose Bierce.
• The Three Strangers, by Thomas Hardy.
• Pollock and the Porroh Man, by H.G. Wells.
• The Sea-Raiders, by H.G. Wells.
• Sredni Vashtar, by Saki.

Tales of the Supernatural

• The Haunted and the Haunters, or, The House and the Brain, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
• Rappaccini's Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• The Trial for Murder, by Charles Allston Collins and Charles Dickens.
• Green Tea, by John Sheridan Le Fanu.
• What Was It?, by Fitz-James O'Brien.
• Sir Edmund Orme, by Henry James.
• The Horla, by Guy de Maupassant.
• Was It a Dream?, by Guy de Maupassant.
• The Screaming Skull, by F. Marion Crawford.
• The Furnished Room, by O. Henry.
• Casting the Runes, by M. R. James.
• Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, by M. R. James.
• Afterward, by Edith Wharton.
• The Monkey's Paw, by W. W. Jacobs.
• The Great God Pan, by Arthur Machen.
• How Love Came to Professor Guildea, by Robert Hichens.
• The Return of Imray, by Rudyard Kipling.
• "They", by Rudyard Kipling.
• Lukundoo, by Edward Lucas White.
• Caterpillars, by E. F. Benson.
• Mrs. Amworth, by E. F. Benson.
• Ancient Sorceries, by Algernon Blackwood.
• Confession, by Algernon Blackwood.
• The Open Window, by Saki.
• The Beckoning Fair One, by Oliver Onions.
• The Celestial Omnibus, by E. M. Forster.
• The Ghost Ship, by Richard Middleton.
• The Dunwich Horror, by H. P. Lovecraft.

Thats it ChrisW, Thanks!

Hey Cadaverino!!!! Its been forever since I've seen you! Hope things are going well. That is quite an impressive list, thanks!!! Makes me wanna play hookie from work and go bookstore hopping! Im a rebel, I know...