Thread: Halloween Library

Tweet

I got all of my Halloween library* together the other day and took pictures:



I think they're all documented here, along with a few other books I'm aware of but don't own (anymore).

Funny thing, I have a couple of duplicates. One book, I kind of panicked when I realized I couldn't find it, so I ordered it again. While I was gathering up all the books for the "shoot," I looked down and the book was in a drawer. Sigh. I also have two copies of the last Martha Stewart Halloween special. I bought one, then my husband surprised me with a copy. What a sweetie!

*Fiction and any ghost stories are not pictured.

Wow, that's awesome, I'm totally jealous of your library!! I love books and reading, and anything to do with Halloween, of course. So what are your favorites? Which one did you "panic" about not having? If someone was going to start their own Halloween library, what would you recommend?

The one I panicked about was Halloween Crafts: Eerily Elegant Decor by Kasey Rogers (Mrs. Tate on Bewitched). A) It's out of print, so I was afraid if I didn't order one right away, the price would go up too much. B) While there isn't an entire theme I would use, there are several really cool ideas that I can pull out and use separately. She was more into the elegant aspect of it, but she did LOVE Halloween.

Personally, I don't recommend anything by Better Homes and Gardens (unless you have small children and are gearing projects and props toward them). You could probably also skip anything with "Scary" in the title. (They're never scary!) My faves:

• Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween by Joseph Pfeiffer
• A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne
• God help me, but I still love the Halloween book from Martha Stewart, as well as the first Holiday (2000). From that same year, the October Living was excellent.

My focus is more on the party aspect. I've planned dozens of them in my head.

Also good, but just for flipping through and reading: Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past by Diane C. Arkins (lots of info. about Halloween between 1870-1930) and Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics (Icons) by Steven Heller (wish it was BIGGER, and it would be nice if the most excellent images didn't go across 2 pages!).

Woah that is an awesome library! I'm hoping to get some more Halloween books from Amazon this year as it would be good to have a hard copy of some recipe/decorating ideas rather than just my millions of internet bookmarks :lol:

Honestly, there are a lot better ideas online than in some of these books! However, I love to have a book to pull off the shelf and flip through while watching an old horror flick. You can't do that w/ the Internet! (Unless you print a lot.)

Speaking of stuff online, I've started to print-to-PDF any page that catches my eye. Too many neat sites have gone bye-bye, and I'm not aware until I do my semi-annual link check (for my site). I don't have paper copies, but at least I have an electronic copy.

Melissa - that's so true, there's nothing worse than going back to an old favourite website to find inspiration and finding that it has since disappeared! I may start printing out internet recipes and things and make my own book/home file hehe

If you know the URL, and the site was up at least 6 months in the past, it might be available via something like www.archive.org. I wish I'd known about it before I just started deleting broken links!

Originally Posted by Geekmidwinter

If someone was going to start their own Halloween library, what would you recommend?

1. Diane C. Arkins, Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear, Pelican Publishing Company (2000).
2. Diane C. Arkins, Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past, Pelican Publishing Company (2004).
3. Lesley Bannatyne, Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History, Facts on File (1990, Pelican Publishing Company, 1998).
4. Lesley Bannatyne, A Halloween Reader. Stories, Poems and Plays from Halloweens Past, Pelican Publishing Company (2004).
5. Phyllis Galembo, Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costumes and Masquerade, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (2002).
6. Lint Hatcher, The Magic Eightball Test: A Christian Defense of Halloween and All Things Spooky, Lulu.com (2006).
7. Jim Heimann (ed.), Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics, Taschen, 2005.
8. Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford Paperbacks (2001).
9. Jean Markale, The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year (translation of Halloween, histoire et traditions), Inner Traditions (2001).
10. Mark B. Ledenbach, Vintage Halloween Collectibles: An Identification & Price Guide, Krause Publications (2003).
11. Lisa Morton, The Halloween Encyclopedia, McFarland & Company (2003).
12. Nicholas Rogers, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Oxford University Press (2002).
13. Jack Santino (ed.), Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, University of Tennessee Press (1994).
14. David J. Skal, Death Makes A Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, Bloomsbury USA (2003).
15. Ben Truwe, The Halloween Catalog Collection. Portland, Oregon: Talky Tina Press (2003). Contains a groundbreaking and well-documented history of trick-or-treating.

wow nice! i wish i had that many books!!!(on the topic) lol

Melissa, excellent collection. I also have that book by Kasey Rogers, and it did have some good ideas, some kinda lame. I made the butler one year, and those cute little chamoya squash with the felt hats were fun.
The Martha Stewart book is like my bible, I just love the pics.