Dark and Stormy Nights

Last night I finished (and loved—why have I not read this book before?!) Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables. I thought his (very long!) descriptions of the setting and characters were quite wonderful. I enjoyed the gloomy old house and family curse so much that I’m planning to stick with a gothic theme for the month of October. Next up is going to be a re-read of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Edith Wharton's ghost stories, and an A. S. Byatt book of short stories entitled the Little Black Book of Short Stories, whose back cover promises “shivers”. Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an old favorite that I read every other year or so around Halloween. While I make it a point to avoid reading anything truly horrifying, I do love just a bit of old fashioned spookiness this time of year.