Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

This week, The Broke and The Bookish gave us the topic of a Halloween Freebie for our Top Ten Tuesday. I love Halloween. It's a fun time of year, between the costumes, the candy, the spooky decorations.... but I'm getting ahead of myself. I decided to make half of my list five books that would be good to read around Halloween, as well as five reasons why I love Halloween.

Ghoulish Books

10: Of Dubious and Questionable Memory by Rachel McMillan

Mystery stories always seem Halloween-ish to me. Who wouldn't love to sit outside on a nice fall day with a cozy mystery and a cup of tea? That sounds like the perfect day to me. Rachel McMillan is my favorite mystery author and Of Dubious and Questionable Memory, which takes place in the fall, would be the perfect quick read for a rainy day.

9: Thrillers and More Thrillers

This is a collection of thriller stories from different authors. I haven't read all the stories, but there are some spooky good tales in this book.

8: For Elise by Hayden Wand

This little novelette is a delightful and quirky story that is just the thing to read on Halloween.

7: Dracula by Bram Stoker

This is the book I'm currently reading as a "Halloween read." I don't think I'll finish it by the end the of the month, though.

6: The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar AllenPoe by Edgar Allen Poe

No list of books to read during the Halloween season would be complete without Mr. Poe. Reading a collection of his poems and stories during the month of October will certainly put you in a spooky mood.

Why I Love Halloween

5: My birthday

My birthday is four days before Halloween, and I think this plays into my love for the holiday. It just makes it that much more fun for me.

4: The costumes

In the past I've done some pretty elaborate Halloween costumes. My favorites have been Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Bride of Frankenstein. I don't have any plans other than watching Hocus Pocus this year, put I'm still planning on doing some fun make-up for Halloween.

 

3: The pumpkins

This is probably a pretty typical answer, but I do love pumpkins. It just makes me happy to see those pops of orange appear everywhere. I love all the different ways you can decorate them. Contestants on Halloween Wars on Food Network always do such neat things with carved pumpkins. And then there are the painted pumpkins. This year I painted some pumpkins to look like Jack and Sally. I've seen people paint them white and then use black paint to write lines from The Raven on them, and that is really neat. Aside from decorating pumpkins, I love to eat them, too. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake (!!!), pumpkin bread and muffins.... I just love pumpkin.

2: The movies and television specials

I'm not a horror movie enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination. I don't like gory or super scary movies, but I love to watch quirky movies like Tim Burton's films and the like during October. And I love watching Halloween specials of my favorite shows.

1: The decorations

I love decorating my room for Halloween. It's so much fun. I have string lights in candy corn colors and green/purple. I put pumpkins here and there and spooky looking lights. Jack-o-lantern garland, anything black-and-white-striped. It's just the best.

I understand that Halloween isn't for everyone, and I respect that, but it's one of my favorite times of the year. For those who celebrate, what are your favorite parts about Halloween?

-Miranda Atchley