11.09.2008

But seriously, we have to find Halloween Night

We were in Utah during Halloween. I hadn’t planned on wearing a costume that day, but my friend who is a Librarian at the Orem city library gave me one. During the month of October, her library had been celebrating one of the best books ever (of course I mean To Kill a Mockingbird) with programs for kids and adults. They also had some giveaways, and the most popular was this button:


So I dressed up as a To Kill a Mockingbird fan. I was even complimented by two or three people.

Something else that helped me catch the mood of the day was the book The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Here I was just complaining that I couldn’t find a scary book, and then The Historian comes along. It’s a modern-day (well, 20th century modern – it takes place partly in the 1930s and partly in the 1950s and partly in the late 1960s, I think) story of a multi-generational search for . . . Dracula!

The Historian isn’t a shocker, like when someone is waiting oh so silently outside the bathroom door, making sure her shadow doesn’t show along the little opening between the floor and the bottom of the door, waiting for you to finish brushing your teeth, and she waits . . . waits . . . waits . . . then you open the door to come out and she says “Boo!” No, it’s not shocking like that. While you’re reading it, you don’t shriek in a high-pitched tone that dogs all over the neighborhood could hear, and you don’t jump six inches into the air and clutch your chest like you’re having a heart attack. Also, you don’t chase your mother down the stairs yelling how mean she is.

It’s the kind of book that builds up the suspense page by page by describing strange or eerie occurrences, and occasionally there’s a scary incident where you can hardly wait to find out what happens next. It was very effective at keeping my interest and giving me the occasional chill. Yay for books like that. I don’t think you need to have read the original Dracula by Bram Stoker to enjoy this book, but I was glad I had because I knew what the author was talking about the few times she mentioned stuff from that book.

So, yeah, a scary book and a great costume: what more could you want for Halloween? Except maybe a Mounds candy bar, which I also got.

3 comments:

Jared and Megan said...

is you chasing your mother (or someone chasing their mother) referring to an actual incident? actually, I can picture you doing that to Ian... whether it really happened or not. You two are crazy sometimes.

Shannon said...

hmm...reminds me of something...

Brian & Veronica said...

I love how you write. I love how you think. Sometimes I wonder if I knew half as much as what you know now, before I came to earth. You're so funny. Even if you don't mean to be. How do you do that?