It’s that time of year again when the ghouls and ghosts come out to play their dangerous games and we get to spend our nights tucked in bed with the covers drawn over our heads quaking with fear because of what’s lurking on the other side. I can hardly contain myself!! It’s going to be an awesome good time.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IV challenge is only a few days away. I can almost feel the fright dripping down my spine. (Can you tell that I love all things spooky, scary, and unexplainable?)

Staring at my current read (A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb), one might say I cheated and got an early start, and one would be correct. The past couple of weeks, my reads have been on the darker side, but to be fair, I fully intend to read four additional creeptacular books (plus some short stories) during the months of September and October.

I’ve decided that my reading pool will consist of titles I already have on my shelves since it will give me a chance to whittle down my TBR pile at the same time.

In no particular order (though I’m extra anxious to read the ones in bold):

• The Mediator by Meg Cabot
• Bad Things by Michael Marshall
• Devil’s Footsteps by E. E. Richardson
• Beloved by Toni Morrison*
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange
• Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters
• The Host by Stephenie Meyer
• The Ferryman by Christopher Golden
• Soulless by Christopher Golden
• Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
• The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker
• Swoon by Nina Malkin
• Story Time by Edward Bloor
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Pharos by Alice Thompson
• Inventing Elliot by Graham Gardner
• The List of Seven by Mark Frost
• The Dark Room by Minette Walters
• The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
• Ruined by Paula Morris (done and reviewed)
• Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (done and reviewed)
• Insomnia by Stephen King*
• Salem’s Lot by Stephen King*

* These would be re-reads, but I really loved them the first time around, so this might be a good opportunity to revisit them.

For my nearly endless supply of short stories, I’ll be turning to:

• The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories edited by Peter Haining
• The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories edited by Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert
• The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
• Ten Great Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Tomb and Other Tales by H. P. Lovecraft
• Being Dead by Vivian Vande Velde (done and reviewed)
• M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman
• Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King*

* This is one of my favorite compilations of short stories by King and I’ve read a number of the stories more than once. (The Moving Finger, which traumatized me for a week the first time I read it, and The House on Maple Street come to mind.) In fact, my copy—which I’ve had for nearly fifteen years—has seen better days.