Scary Stories: All Grown Up Now

As October looms near, I can’t help but to think about making a Spooky Stories display for the library. As a children’s librarian, I am mostly gathering books for young readers. I just put on hold several of my favorites, like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz, and the thought occurred to me: what are the grown up versions of these stories?

Not that we can’t enjoy these stories as adults (I know I still do!), but I’ve also read a vast array of horror and scary stories in adulthood. I thought up some interesting pairs. Hopefully you enjoy reading these ‘grown up’ matches to a few childhood favorites.

Pairing Number One:

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Fragments of Horror 1, by Junji Itō

Longer nights: Stranger tales

You can feel it in the air, can’t you: Autumn is just around  the corner, and here at the library that means gathering around to hear some spooky stories. Once again this Fall, we’ll be presenting our ‘Ales from the Crypt spooky story time in bars around town (visit the Booktoberfest page soon for details, or mark your calendar now for one of these dates: Tuesday Oct 22, 8 p.m. – Palace Art Bar, Georgetown; Sunday, Oct 27, 8 p.m. – Tippe & Drague Alehouse, Beacon Hill; Wednesday, Oct 30, 8 p.m. – Floating Bridge Brewing, University District. We will also have a pair of spooky readings as part of this year’s LitCrawl.

For those who prefer to get scared in broad daylight, don’t miss our regular lunch hour Thrilling Tales program as we shift into the spooky season of the year:

Monday, September 9, noon: The Painted Smile, by William Kent Krueger. Ten-year-old Oliver believes he’s Sherlock Holmes, and he isn’t the only one: just ask Professor Moriarty. Krueger’s homage to Arthur Conan Doyle is full of fun surprises.

Never mind Hallowe’en: Christmas is the Original Haunted Holiday.

It’s that time of year again – a time of ghosts and goblins, of sudden chills and flickering candle flames at the stroke of midnight, of frights and haunts and things that go bump in the night. No, this isn’t a leftover post from Hallowe’en. For the Victorians, the spookiest holiday of the year was Christmas. Here’s British writer Jerome K. Jerome in 1891:

“There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas — something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails… Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters. For ghost stories to be told on any other evening than the evening of the twenty-fourth of December would be impossible in English society as at present regulated.”

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Spooky Stories in Libraries and Bars, all October!

Turn down the lights, get yourself a drink and gather round while we take you on a little trip down a dark and twisted road to the place where your fears like buried. This month we have extra spooky story times for grown ups in store, at the library and coming soon to a pub near you as a part of our celebration of Booktoberfest. Each October, our regular twice-monthly Thrilling Tales: Story Time for Grown Ups (Mondays at 12:05 at the Central Library: lunches welcome) turns to weekly Chilling Tales Spooktoberfest. Here’s what’s in store:

Spooky Stories LIVE, all October long!

Turn down the lights. Get yourself a drink and gather round, while we take you on a little trip down a dark and twisted road. This month we have extra spooky story times for grown ups in store, at the library and coming soon to a pub near you as a part of our celebration of Booktoberfest. Each October, our regular twice-monthly Thrilling Tales: Story Time for Grown Ups (Mondays at 12:05 at the Central Library: lunches welcome) turns to weekly Chilling Tales. Here’s what’s in store: