Halloween Reading

Okay, September’s over a week old and we’ve had some of the hottest summer temps this year.  The humidity has bullied away that little crisp nip in the air that rekindles my annual love affair with autumn.  Perhaps the crisp will be here next week when the girls and I have our birthday parties.  Regardless of the unseasonability of the season, I am musing on what will be my Great Halloween Reading this year.

Cool October always brings the urge in me to read something scary, something eerie, something odd and unnerving.  In the past I’ve read short stories and novellas by Poe.  I’ve read The Haunting of Hill House, The Amityville Horror, Magic, and A Voyage to Arcturus.  I’ve read “nonfiction” on “monsters,” both historical and legendary.  Coming from a heavy background in horror literature reading I don’t necessarily want to revisit, it is a fun way of connecting with both my past and the current seasonal atmosphere.

So – what to read this Halloween, a scant six weeks away?

I’ve narrowed it down to two options, two books long sitting on the shelf awaiting (re)reading. 

A) The Quest for Cthulhu, an anthology of Lovecraftian short stories by August Derleth

I bought a huge omnibus of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu” tales at the beginning of the year and spent two whole months slogging through it.  Some good, some eh, but it was the Mythos as opposed to the mechanics, the substance over the style, that interested me in those 75-year old tales of long-sleeping evil in the deadwoods of Massachusetts, the fang-shaped glaciers of Antarctica, the hot swampy lost islands out at sea.  Derleth, a combination Lovecraft contemporary and groupie, continued the mythology after H.P.’s untimely death, and I have a 400-page omnibus of his stories long-sleeping on my bookshelf to read.

or

B) Weaveworld, a fantasy/horror novel by Clive Barker.

I read this book – quite a riveting read it was! – overlooking the barren October / November moonscapes of the three acres of my parents’ weekend home outside of Lake George, NY, in 1988.  Spooky, weird, pseudo-occultish, it left me feeling as if I was reading something forbidden.  Yet what a climactic ending!  Always love when the baddies get their comeuppance via the clever intelligence of the heroes, rather than via blunt brute force.  And if I chose this to re-read, it would tie in nicely (Barker being a modern horror writer) with my plan to read Stephen King’s 11/22/63 this November.

Which one to read?  Hmm?

Might come down to a coin toss, or a simple inexplicable nudge for one over the other …