Books I Purchased This Month

Books I purchased this month

20 Haunting Books

It’s spooky season so I’m recommending 20 books that may, or may not, terrify you.

I have linked to free editions where possible and links with an asterisk are affiliate links for UK Bookshop.org. You obviously don’t need to use those links.

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The Monk by Matthew Lewis (1796)

A gothic horror novel that revels in the darkest of taboos

It can still horrify readers over 200 years after it was first published

Project Gutenberg / Oxford World's Classics*

The Italian by Ann Radcliffe (1797)

A response to The Monk

Dark, sombre, and sinister

Public Library UK / Oxford World's Classics*

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)

Gothic horror with a scientific twist

A story about scientific experimentation, humanity, and monstrosity

Read the 1818 edition!

Project Gutenberg / Oxford World's Classics*

The Vampyre by John Polidori (1819)

A thinly veiled reference to Lord Byron and his tendency to drain the life out of the people that were enamoured with him

Short but creepy

Project Gutenberg / Oxford World's Classics*

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy I’ve come home, I'm so cold Let me in-a-your window...

A book about awful people doing awful things to each other

Set in the bleak Yorkshire moors (oh, Yorkshire, my beloved)

Project Gutenberg / Penguin English Library*

The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (1859)

Eliot tapped into the emerging tradition of Victorian horror

Very different to her other works

Project Gutenberg / Oxford World's Classics*

The Grey Woman by Elizabeth Gaskell (1861)

A spooky Gothic tale

This would also be perfect as a traditional Christmas Eve read

Public Library UK / Penguin Classics*

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

What could be scarier than the potential evil that lurks in yourself?

A mixture of genres

Project Gutenberg / Penguin Classics*

Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

The most famous vampire book ever written (maybe?)

I always want to make chicken paprikash after reading this book

Project Gutenberg / Penguin Classics*

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)

This book never loses its edge

Psychological horror

Project Gutenberg / Oxford World's Classics*

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James (1901)

I really like M. R. James' short ghost story collections

A twist on classic Gothic tropes

Project Gutenberg / Oxford World's Classics*

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson (1949)

Suburban horror

Some of these stories still haunt me

Penguin Modern Classics*

I am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)

Post-apocalyptic horror

A very tense story with a great ending

Orion Publishing Co.*

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King (1975)

Terrifying

Hodder Paperbacks*

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (1979)

Uses traditional stories - fairytales and folklore - and transforms the horror that was always in them into something more potent for a modern audience

Focuses heavily on gender issues

Vintage Publishing*

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (1984)

One of the best contemporary Gothic novels I've ever read

A Victorian-style ghost story

Vintage Publishing*

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (1994)

A little different to the other books on this list

Haunting and sad

Vintage Publishing*

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell (2018)

Historical fiction

An unsettling book

Bloomsbury*

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton (2020)

A book that is full of suspense and terror and confusion

Bloomsbury*

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)

A wonderful, strange mixture of Gothic horror and Gothic terror

Compelling characters and an intriguing mystery

Quercus Publishing*

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Happy reading!

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Mozart and his weird sense of humor

“I wish you good night, shit in your bed all your might.”

"Oh my ass burns like fire.” (To his cousin)

"Write to me and don't be so lazy. Otherwise I shall have to give you a thrashing. What fun! I'll break your head." - (To his sister)

"To every good friend I send my greet feet; addio nitwit. Love true true true until the grave, if I live that long and do behave." - (To his cousin)

In 1782, Mozart wrote a six-voice canon. The canon’s title translates to “Lick Me In The Ass” :

"Lick my ass nicely,

lick it nice and clean,

nice and clean, lick my ass.

That’s a greasy desire,

nicely buttered,

like the licking of roast meat, my daily activity.

Three will lick more than two,

come on, just try it,

and lick, lick, lick.

Everybody lick his own ass himself."

“Yesterday, though, we heard the king of farts/ It smelled as sweet as honey tarts/ While it wasn’t in the strongest of voice/ It still came on as a powerful noise.” (To his mother)

There is a whole wiki only dedicated to Mozart and his love for ass jokes:

1.no 2.yes 3.yes 4.yes 5.yes

Almost😅

No self-proclaimed bookworm has all five:

1. Reading every day

2. A good grade in English class

3. Trying books outside their preferred genre

4. Realistic dating standards

5. The ability to pronounce the words you read

To all theatre and book nerds out there: Who is your favourite play writer? (Expect for the good old Willy shakes of course) I need more recommendations.

I think Goethe is hugely underrated!