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Spooky Book of the Day: October 24

Dana — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 14:04:01 +0000

Who doesn’t love Roald Dahl? Well apparently he was as into the spooky stuff as we are. He read over 700 stories in order to pick the spookiest 14 featured in this book!

ROALD DAHL’S BOOK OF GHOST STORIES

From the Publisher:

Who better to investigate the literary spirit world than that supreme connoisseur of the unexpected, Roald Dahl? Of the many permutations of the macabre or bizarre, Dahl was always especially fascinated by the classic ghost story. As he relates in the erudite introduction to this volume, he read some 749 supernatural tales at the British Museum Library before selecting the 14 that comprise this anthology. “Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story,” Dahl writes. “It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts.” For this superbly disquieting collection, Dahl offers favorite tales by such masterful storytellers as E. F. Benson, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Rosemary Timperley, and Edith Wharton.

Writers Fight Illiteracy

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:54:49 +0000

Authors in Britain are putting pressure on the Prime Minister to nip illiteracy in the bud. 545 authors signed a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressing their concern over poor reading skills among British youth. An official statistic released showed that one in five 11 year old British school children are not able to read to the minimum standard.

They could be scared of a plummeting book sales, but my bet is that they and many others are scared of a world where kids aren’t well educated enough to read and savor Roald Dahl. Seriously, childhood without Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or The Witches can barely be called childhood.

And before anyone even suggests it, the movies do the books no justice. Grab a cup of cocoa, snuggle up with your favorite Dahl book, and relive your childhood this weekend. I know how to recognize a witch, do you??

Original article

(looking for some Dahl for Christmas?)