Thread: What are the most useful Halloween books you have?

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I'm wondering, what are the most useful books that you own that pertain to Halloween...be it for ideas, prop building, or whatever. Basically, I'm making a list of books that I will be buying after Christmas so that I can gain inspiration... or knowledge of how something is done... or whatever.

I have all of my Electronics and Electrical text books from College, since I use electric props comes in handy when I need to calculate power loads and look up some basic circuitry.

While I would imagine that I'll eventually get into more technical books when I finally take that leap to creating complex props, my current favorite is How to Operate a Financially Successful Haunted House by Philip Morris and Dennis Phillips (Morris Costumes, 1997). While there are probably more specific and up-to-date books out there on the topics covered, it has been a nice source of ideas. The designs are shown in a really cartoony style, but they convey the ideas well enough. I'd say it isn't a bad addition for someone starting out (as I am).

Sounds like a perfect book to me, I did have an old illusion illustration book which was very much cartoonish as well. one of the main reasons I bought is back in 1980 is it had the exact plans on how to make a dry ice fog machine, way before the liquids came out.

gotcha... well, like I look over at DC and they have prop books and all... however, I'm just wondering how useful those are when I have this forum, ya know?

Prop Builders Molding and Casting Handbook: Amazon.com: The Prop Builder’s Molding & Casting Handbook (9781558701281): Thurston James: Books

I just bought this book for a Christmas present. How To Haunt Your House

Mines not so much a book, as it's a couple of binders I've got full of pictures and tutorials I've downloaded off the web. I need to organize them better though. If I find a youtube video of something I like, I log in the URL and what's good about it, that way when I start building stuff, I can go back and check out ideas