Thursday, July 7, 2011

Spooky Summer Reading

As a part of my summer reading (not that I don't read all year round--what's with that term, anyway???) I picked up The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories. Don't let the name fool you; by modern, they mean 20th Century and onward. Suffice to say there are some classic must-reads collected in this volume. The highlights include:

"A Man From Glasgow" by Somerset Maugham
"The Visit To The Museum" by Vladimir Nabokov (of Lolita fame)
"The Bowmen" by Arthur Machen (which I wrote about before in the post on mysteries of Mons, Belgium)
"The Ghost of U65" by George Minto is along the same lines, but a much better story thatn Machen's
"Money for Jam" by Sir Alec Guinness (yes, THAT Sir Alec Guinness), which is ostensibly based on true events much like Minto's telling.
"The Lady's Maid's Bell" by Edith Wharton is a wonderfully atmospheric tale that reminds me of Rebecca.
Speaking of which.... "The Pool" by Daphne du Maurier is included as well.
On a humorous note, we find H. G. Wells' "The Inexperienced Ghost" and "Another Fine Mess" by Ray Bradbury.
And rounding it off is probably the best story in the whole collection: A. E. Van Vogt's "The Ghost".

If you're looking for a chill this summer, I recommend this collection.  As well Mammoth has a host of other compendiums on modern and classic horror fiction and nonfiction titles as well.

2 comments:

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

Thanks for the heads up. Definitely adding it to my collection!

Cheers!

Sharon Day said...

Okay, that's gotta go in my collection!