Oct 14

BOTNS Books Podcast #48: October is Spooky Books Month

By Michael Kindness Podcasts Add comments

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Books on the Nightstand, Episode 48 (24:31)

I’m back from my short BOTNS family leave (though, since we prerecorded a few episodes, it’s like I was never away!). Finn is two weeks old and very cute, but he’s seriously cutting into my reading time… these days, I’d rather just stare at him!

A quick reminder to please call our voice mail line with your story of a book you loved that you heard about here on Books on the Nightstand. We’d love to include several of these in our 50th podcast episode. Please call in by Wednesday, October 21st, so we’ll have time to put the episode together for 10/28.

Over at our Goodreads group, Stephanie started a discussion thread asking for suggestion for spooky reads for the Fall. We here at Books on the Nightstand have decided to name October Spooky Books Month, since so many of us set our sights on those kinds of books this month anyway! On that discussion, some of the suggestions included Fragment, The Amityville Horror, The Graveyard Book, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Strain and The Terror. Ann and I reminisce about reading John Saul as teenagers and Ann talks about reading his current book, House of Reckoning, and his storytelling is just as good as she remembers! Ann also talks about Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, which is part of the NEA’s Big Read, and is the book that Ann’s town is currently reading.

Ending this segment on spooky books, I need your help remembering a supremely creepy short story. In the podcast, I mention thinking that it was written Arthur C. Clarke or Ray Bradbury, but now I’m pretty convinced it was an Isaac Asimov story. I still can’t remember the title though! It is a very short story (just under 2 pages or so, I think), that involves a bunch of scientists who see the face of the devil in the footage of a mushroom cloud that they are analyzing. It gives me shivers just thinking about it! [UPDATE: Thanks to Sibylle who solved the mystery! The story is by Asimov and is called Hell-Fire. Sibylle even posted a link to the story online! Go read it and tell me if it freaks you out as it did me!]

This week’s book I can’t wait for you to read is The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, a non-fiction look at John Charles Gilkey, a man who stole rare books, just so he could add them to his personal library. Also included is the story of Ken Saunders, self-proclaimed “bibliodick,” who makes it his mission to catch Gilkey. Ann’s choice for this week is Orhan Pamuk’s new novel The Museum of Innocence, which is about Kemal, a young man in 1970s Istanbul, who is in love with Füsun, a woman society forbids him from being with. He responds to this denial by creating a museum of everything Füsun touches. Interestingly, Orhan Pamuk has opened a museum to preserve items of everyday Turkish culture. You can read more about the museum here.

(You can listen by using the player at the top of this post. If you’re using Internet Explorer, click twice to listen. If your browser does not support javascript, you won’t see the player; click the link below the player to listen, or right-click to download the episode. If you are receiving this post by email and cannot see the player at the bottom of the message, please visit http://www.booksonthenightstand.com to listen)
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We encourage you to write down or print out the title information and shop at your local bookstore. Titles link to LibraryThing, a social networking site that allows you to catalog your home library. LibraryThing also links to various online purchasing options. Here are the books from this post:
Fragment by Warren Fahy, Delacorte Press hardcover 
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, Pocket Star mass market 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins hardcover 
‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, Pocket mass market 
The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, William Morrow hardcover 
The Terror by Dan Simmons, Little, Brown and Company mass market 
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, HarperTorch mass market 
The Omen by David Seltzer, Signet mass market
anything by John Saul, including House of Reckoning, Ballantine hardcover 
Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Vintage trade paperback 
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett, Riverhead hardcover 
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, Knopf hardcover

(all information is for the U.S. editions).
  • Shona

    Ann & Michael,
    You asked for us to call in and talk about a book we loved that we heard about on BOTNS. Unfortunately I can’t call – I’m in Germany – but wanted to be part of this! I’ve taken a lot of your recommendations and I’ve loved all of them. You’ve had some great ones – Some of my favorites from your recommendations – Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd; Mudbound by Hillary Jordan; Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Shaffer and Barrows; The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley; The Alienist by Caleb Carr; The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. And of course, Steig Larrson’s books were a hit. But you have introduced me to two authors & books who I have absolutely fallen in love with – The first is The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper. Great story and now I’m hooked on his books. I’ve read three more of his books since then. And my all-time favorite is A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz – I can’t tell you how much I love this book. I’m so looking forward to him writing something else. Anyway, thanks so much for the wonderful recommendations. Keep up the good work – we’re all listening!

  • Shona

    Ann & Michael,
    You asked for us to call in and talk about a book we loved that we heard about on BOTNS. Unfortunately I can’t call – I’m in Germany – but wanted to be part of this! I’ve taken a lot of your recommendations and I’ve loved all of them. You’ve had some great ones – Some of my favorites from your recommendations – Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd; Mudbound by Hillary Jordan; Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Shaffer and Barrows; The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley; The Alienist by Caleb Carr; The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. And of course, Steig Larrson’s books were a hit. But you have introduced me to two authors & books who I have absolutely fallen in love with – The first is The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper. Great story and now I’m hooked on his books. I’ve read three more of his books since then. And my all-time favorite is A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz – I can’t tell you how much I love this book. I’m so looking forward to him writing something else. Anyway, thanks so much for the wonderful recommendations. Keep up the good work – we’re all listening!

  • http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

    Congrats on the new baby – Finn is a great name! My son was having surgery on 9/29 so it looks like it was THE day to be at a hospital. :)

    I’m not a fan of horror or gory books, but I do enjoy some suspense. That said, I’ve recently found that I LOVE the classic “horror” books Dracula and Frankenstein. I don’t find them “scary” but they are definitely a bit creepy. I highly recommend them to anyone who has never read them!

    As for creepy suggestions, I remember seeing a movie version of a short story and I’d love to know the title and author of it. It had two children repeatedly watching a nature film where lions were off in the distance eating their prey, and by the end you get the idea that anyone the children don’t like becomes the lions’ prey. Does this ring a bell for anyone? That short movie gives me creeps to this day!

  • http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

    Congrats on the new baby – Finn is a great name! My son was having surgery on 9/29 so it looks like it was THE day to be at a hospital. :)

    I’m not a fan of horror or gory books, but I do enjoy some suspense. That said, I’ve recently found that I LOVE the classic “horror” books Dracula and Frankenstein. I don’t find them “scary” but they are definitely a bit creepy. I highly recommend them to anyone who has never read them!

    As for creepy suggestions, I remember seeing a movie version of a short story and I’d love to know the title and author of it. It had two children repeatedly watching a nature film where lions were off in the distance eating their prey, and by the end you get the idea that anyone the children don’t like becomes the lions’ prey. Does this ring a bell for anyone? That short movie gives me creeps to this day!

  • http://www.chadintheazdesert.blogspot.com Chad Sayban

    Congratulations on the new little one! I remember those days.

    I have The Children’s Book, by A.S. Byatt on my Christmas wishlist due to your review, so thank you.

    As far as spooky, absolutely anything written by Stephen King will work just fine for me.

  • http://www.chadintheazdesert.blogspot.com Chad Sayban

    Congratulations on the new little one! I remember those days.

    I have The Children’s Book, by A.S. Byatt on my Christmas wishlist due to your review, so thank you.

    As far as spooky, absolutely anything written by Stephen King will work just fine for me.

  • sibylle

    Michael: The Asimov short story is called Hell-Fire. See http://www.tep-online.info/short/hell.htm

    Hope this helps :-)

  • sibylle

    Michael: The Asimov short story is called Hell-Fire. See http://www.tep-online.info/short/hell.htm

    Hope this helps :-)

  • Suzanne

    Ann, do you know if The Museum of Innocence was excerpted in The New Yorker? When you were describing the book on the podcast it sounded familiar to a fiction piece I read in the magazine not that long ago.

  • Suzanne

    Ann, do you know if The Museum of Innocence was excerpted in The New Yorker? When you were describing the book on the podcast it sounded familiar to a fiction piece I read in the magazine not that long ago.

  • http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

    Ok, so … I was listening to Tor.com’s podcast “Geeks Guide to the Galaxy” and they mentioned the story I was wondering about in my original comment all those months ago. The story is “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, and it is part of the book THE ILLUSTRATED MAN. Here’s a link to the podcast in case you’re interested: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=59374

  • http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

    Ok, so … I was listening to Tor.com’s podcast “Geeks Guide to the Galaxy” and they mentioned the story I was wondering about in my original comment all those months ago. The story is “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, and it is part of the book THE ILLUSTRATED MAN. Here’s a link to the podcast in case you’re interested: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=59374

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