Scary Halloween Books to Download for Free!

Looking for some scary books to get in the Halloween mood? Below, GalleyCat  (Jason Boog) has collected 25 free scary books you can download right now.   How much scary fun is that! 

Have a look at the video at the end of the post!

In 2010, novelist Neil Gaiman created the “All Hallow’s Read,” literary holiday, a night to give someone you love a scary book. The writer explained the new tradition in the video embedded above–here’s more from the official site:

Obviously, we support bookshops and authors, but more than that, this is about making a holiday tradition of book-giving. So feel free to give second-hand books or books from your own shelves. And feel just as free to buy a beautiful new book from a small independent bookseller, or from online or… look, there’s no wrong way to buy a book. You can even gift it to their Kindle … If you do not know what scary book to give someone, talk to a bookseller or a librarian. They like to help. Librarians will not mind even if you admit that you are not planning to take out a book, but instead you are going to buy one and give it to someone.

Top 25 Free Horror eBooks on Project Gutenberg

1. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker

3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

4. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

5. The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs

6. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

7. The Vampyre; a Tale by John William Polidori

8. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

9. Varney the Vampire by Thomas Preskett Prest

10. The Monk; a romance by M. G. Lewis

11. The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood

12. Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker

13. Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker

14. The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

15. Wieland: or, the Transformation, an American Tale by Charles Brockden Brown

16. Edgar Huntly by Charles Brockden Brown

17. The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker

18. The Beetle by Richard Marsh

19. The House of the Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck

20. The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker

21. The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce

22. The Damned by Algernon Blackwood

23. The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

24. Clarimonde by Théophile Gautier

25. Curious, if True by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Will Iran Lift Book Censorship?

Here is an interesting potential turn of events, not to be expected by the west.  And although I never write of political goings-on, I thought this of sufficient importance to include the material in my blog today. 

The Iranian cultural minister Ali Jannati has said that the government will reconsider allowing books that had previously been censored in the country. According to a report in The Guardian, Jannati said that “books subjected to censorship or denied permission to be published in the past will be reviewed again.”

The move comes as a new president has taken power in Iran. Here is more from The Guardian: “The new move come under The minister’s words suggested an opening-up of the country’s publishing industry under new president Hassan Rouhani, who has already signalled his willingness to make changes by agreeing to the first presidential telephone conversation with the U.S. since the 1979 revolution.       

Under the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran censored many books including Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With a Pearl Earring and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.  

What do you think will be the outcome?  Please leave a comment on your thoughts about this all important human consideration.

Quriky Things Famous Authors Did as Regular Routines

Since the first vignette is about John le Carre, I will tell you a little thing that happened to Mr. le Carre and to me.  

While walking with friends in Hampstead, London, I saw an older gentleman and presumably his wife, walking toward us on the sidewalk.  As we met, I lost my footing and inadvertently pushed the man off the sidewalk and into the street.  After many apologies on my part and nothing but kindness on his, we all went on our way.  Our friend, who lived in the neighborhood, said, "You just pushed John le Carre into the street!"  All I can say is, 'What a nice fellow!'


 As an MI5 officer, le Carré spent his 90 minute train rides from Buckinghamshire to London penning his debut novel, Call for the Dead. Le Carré quipped, "The line has since been electrified, which is a great loss to literature." 

Instead of hopping in an actual tub, every morning Benjamin Franklin took what he called "tonic baths" in the open air of his bedroom-he'd shed his clothes and work naked, for up to an hour ...

Agatha Christie had two important demands for the renovation of her mansion. She informed her architect, "I want a big bath, and I need a ledge because I like to eat apples." Christie constructed her plots in a large Victorian tub, one bite at a time.

 Maya Angelou writes in the isolation of a hotel room. To ensure there are no distractions, she requests that everything be removed from the walls. Her own essential tools, which she brings into the bare room, include yellow pads, a dictionary, a thesaurus and a Bible. She used to also bring sherry and an ashtray.
And perhaps the strangest of all:

Dame Edith Sitwell had a ritual of lying down before she set pen to paper. Rather than reclining on a bed or a couch, though, she chose to climb into an open coffin. In those morbidly tight quarters, the eccentric poet found inspiration for her work.

Celia Blue Johnson is the creative director of Slice, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit literary magazine. She is the author of several books, most recently, Odd Type Writers: From Joyce and Dickens to Wharton and Welty, the Obsessive Habits and Quirky Techniques of Great Authors.

Thank You, Literary Classics International Book Awards!

It is always exciting and fulfilling to win a book award after one's hard work in writing it.  I am truly happy and honored to announce that my children's book, Katrina and Winter:  Partners in Courage, (Guardian Angel Publishing) has been chosen for two awards by the prestigious Children's Classics Awards.

Katrina and Winter won the Literary Classics Seal of Approval, 2013.  The second is s Literary Classics Silver Award.  I am so delighted to accept them both.

What are the Children's Classics Awards?  In their own words: 

At Literary Classics, we believe literature is a critical component in the development of young minds.  Through well-crafted literature we foster creative thinking, enhance word recognition, improve cognitive skills and help achieve a greater understanding of people and the world around us.

At Literary Classics, we provide book reviews for children's and young adult books.  We offer an international book award program, and we endorse exceptional literature through our Literary Classics Seal of Approval. 

 
On behalf of Katrina Simpkins and Winter, the dolphin, of course, I am pleased to accept these two awards.  It is my hope many of you will read the book.  Katrina and Winter are truly inspirational on their own.  As a team, they are unstoppable!

100 Great Kids' Books from the Past 100 Years

Authors Judy Blume and Eric Carle were on hand to celebrate New York City Public Library's list of 100 great kids'books.  

The list includes picture books for preschoolers as well as books for older readers like "The Hobbit" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."  Others included in the list are:

"The Cat in the Hat," "Pippi Longstocking" and "Where the Wild Things Are."  The exhibit on children's literature at the library's main building in midtown Manhattan.  Blume and Carle joined librarians for a reading and panel discussion.

"Viewed over time, children's books are the collected memory of our hopes and dreams," said moderator Leonard Marcus, a book critic and the curator of the exhibit. "They are the message in a bottle that each generation tosses out to the next generation in the hope that it may wash ashore and be read and be taken to heart."

Blume, whose "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" is on the list, said that when she was in the fourth grade herself she always had stories in her head.  Of that, she said:

But I never told anybody about them because I thought if I did they would think I was weird.

Since Blume began publishing in the 1970s, many of her books dealing with subjects like racism, divorce and sexuality have been banned by authorities who considered the topics inappropriate for children.
  
Books that are loved by children are often the books that scare adults.

Carle made the library's list with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," his 1969 picture book about a voracious bug that becomes a butterfly. He said he created the caterpillar by folding and manipulating paper; he first thought of the character as a bookworm, Willie the Worm.

And I had this wonderful editor and she didn't like the worm so much.

Carle read his brand-new book, "Friends," about a boy who swims across a river and climbs a mountain in search of his friend.

Who Is Your Favorite Nobel Prize Winning Author?

Who is your favorite Nobel Prize winning author? The Nobel Prize for Literature website listed the “Most Popular Literature Laureates” on its website, and some of the names might surprise you.

This blogger's favorite winner is Winston Churchill's The Second World War, given in 1953.  Run down the list to see if there is one that draws you.

Since 1901, 105 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded to 109 laureates. The average age of these laureates is 64 years old and only 12 women have received the prestigious prize.

Below, is the the entire list–complete with links to their biographies at the Nobel Prize website.

Year	Author	Famous for
1901	Sully Prudhomme	Parnassian poetry
1902	Theodor Mommsen	History of Rome
1903	Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson	Synnöve Solbakken
1904	José Echegaray	El gran Galeoto
1904	Frédéric Mistral	MIRÈIO
1905	Henryk Sienkiewicz	Quo vadis
1906	Giosuè Carducci	Rime Nuove (New Rhymes) , Odi Barbare (Barbarian Odes)
1907	Rudyard Kipling	Jungle Books
1908	Rudolf Eucken	The Problem of Human Life as Viewed by the Great Thinkers
1909	Selma Lagerlöf	The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
1910	Paul Heyse	Children of the World
1911	Maurice Maeterlinck	The Blue Bird
1912	Gerhart Hauptmann	Die Weber
1913	Rabindranath Tagore	Gitanjali
1915	Romain Rolland	Le Théâtre du peuple
1916	Verner von Heidenstam	Karolinerna
1917	Henrik Pontoppidan	Lucky Peter
1917	Karl Gjellerup	The German Student
1919	Carl Spitteler	Olympian Spring
1920	Knut Hamsun	Growth of the Soil
1921	Anatole France	The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
1922	Jacinto Benavente	The Bonds of Interest
1923	William Butler Yeats	The Wild Swans at Coole
1924	Wladyslaw Reymont	Chłopi
1925	George Bernard Shaw	Arms and the Man
1926	Grazia Deledda	Anime Oneste
1927	Henri Bergson	The Two Sources of Morality and Religion
1928	Sigrid Undset	Kristin Lavransdatter
1929	Thomas Mann	Buddenbrooks
1930	Sinclair Lewis	Arrowsmith
1931	Erik Axel Karlfeldt	Arcadia Borealis
1932	John Galsworthy	The Forsyte Saga
1933	Ivan Bunin	The Gentleman from San Francisco
1934	Luigi Pirandello	Lumie di Sicilia
1936	Eugene O'Neill	Anna Christie
1937	Roger Martin du Gard	Les Thibault
1938	Pearl Buck	The Good Earth
1939	Frans Eemil Sillanpää	People in the Summer Night
1944	Johannes V. Jensen	Poems 1906
1945	Gabriela Mistral	Piececitos de Niño
1946	Hermann Hesse	Siddhartha
1947	André Gide	Fruits of the Earth
1948	T.S. Eliot	The Waste Land
1949	William Faulkner	The Sound and the Fury
1950	Bertrand Russell	A History of Western Philosophy
1951	Pär Lagerkvist	Fruits of the Earth
1952	François Mauriac	Thérèse
1953	Winston Churchill	The Second World War
1954	Ernest Hemingway	The Old Man and the Sea
1955	Halldór Laxness	Independent People
1956	Juan Ramón Jiménez	Platero and I
1957	Albert Camus	The Plague
1958	Boris Pasternak	Doctor Zhivago
1959	Salvatore Quasimodo	Giorno Dopo Giorno
1960	Saint-John Perse	Exile
1961	Ivo Andric	Anxieties
1962	John Steinbeck	The Grapes of Wrath
1963	Giorgos Seferis	Turning Point
1964	Jean-Paul Sartre	Nausea
1965	Mikhail Sholokhov	And Quiet Flows the Don
1966	Nelly Sachs	Eli: A Mystery Play of the Sufferings of Israel
1966	Shmuel Agnon	The Bridal Canopy
1967	Miguel Angel Asturias	The President
1968	Yasunari Kawabata	Snow Country
1969	Samuel Beckett	Waiting for Godot
1970	Alexandr Solzhenitsyn	One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
1971	Pablo Neruda	Canto General
1972	Heinrich Böll	Billiards at Half-past Nine
1973	Patrick White	Riders in the Chariot
1974	Harry Martinson	Aniara
1974	Eyvind Johnson	Here is Your Life!
1975	Eugenio Montale	Occasions
1976	Saul Bellow	The Adventures of Augie March
1977	Vicente Aleixandre	Shadow of Paradise
1978	Isaac Bashevis Singer	Gimpel the Fool
1979	Odysseus Elytis	Worthy It Is
1980	Czeslaw Milosz	The Captive Mind
1981	Elias Canetti	Crowds and Power
1982	Gabriel García Márquez	One Hundred Years of Solitude
1983	William Golding	Lord of the Flies
1984	Jaroslav Seifert	The Plague Column
1985	Claude Simon	The Flanders Road
1986	Wole Soyinka	The Bacchae of Euripides
1987	Joseph Brodsky	Love Song
1988	Naguib Mahfouz	Chitchat on the Nile
1989	Camilo José Cela	The Hive
1990	Octavio Paz	Collected Poems, 1957–1987
1991	Nadine Gordimer	The Conservationist
1992	Derek Walcott	Omeros
1993	Toni Morrison	Beloved
1994	Kenzaburo Oe	A Personal Matter
1995	Seamus Heaney	The Spirit Level
1996	Wislawa Szymborska	Some Like Poetry
1997	Dario Fo	Archangels Don't Play Pinball
1998	José Saramago	Baltasar and Blimunda
1999	Günter Grass	The Tin Drum
2000	Gao Xingjian	One Man's Bible
2001	V. S. Naipaul	In a Free State
2002	Imre Kertész	Fatelessness
2003	J. M. Coetzee	Disgrace
2004	Elfriede Jelinek	The Piano Teacher
2005	Harold Pinter	The Birthday Party
2006	Orhan Pamuk	The Black Book
2007	Doris Lessing	The Grass is Singing
2008	Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio	The Interrogation
2009	Herta Müller	The Land of Green Plums

*This information is also provided at GalleyCat by Jason Boog.

47% of Americans Participated in Some Type of the Arts Last Year

Here is an interesting slice of across the board arts consumption of adult in the U.S. in 2012.  You may be surprised.

The National Endowment for the Arts released its annual Public Participation in the Arts report, revealing that 54 percent of adults read books that were not required for work or school last year. Are you surprised?

Beyond that figure, 45 percent of adults read novels or short stories. As you can see by the chart embedded above, electronic media was the dominant medium for art consumption.

Adults are included in this category if they did at least one of the following types of reading in the preceding 12 months: Books not required for work or school (54 percent of adults) Literary reading (47 percent of adults). Types of literature may have included: Novels or short stories (45 percent of adults) Poetry (7 percent) Plays (3 percent) … adults’ rates of literary reading (novels or short stories, poetry, and plays) dropped back to 2002 levels (from 50 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 20.)