Neil Gaiman is out to start a new holiday tradition, All Hallow’s Read. You can read the particulars on his site but the idea is simple: give friends and family scary books (new or old) around Hallowe’en time, in addition to the sugar high goodness of trick-or-treating. It is a gracious and inspirational idea, one that embodies the fun of gathering together on holidays to share stories, tell old tales and make up new ones….
Tor.com will be participating in All Hallow’s Read in a number of ways leading up to Hallowe’en. We will run our book sweepstakes in pairs: winners will get one prize to keep and one to give away. On Hallowe’en itself we will will run a 24 hour sweepstakes marathon, giving away books every o’clock from witching hour to witching hour. Lastly, we’ll be publishing free monster stories on Tor.com every day from October 24th through the 28th, so everybody wins!
Of course, new traditions grow stronger, better, and faster when people join in the fun and start taking part, so take some pressure off your book shelves and give away a couple books, or support your local bookstore and buy some new ones to share. It’s more filling and less caloric than candy corn, we promise!
An excellent idea!
I’ve reposted this on the Sleeping Hedgehog site with a link back here and a link to the All Hallow’s Reading site as well.
May I suggest Gaiman’s The Graveyard Game as a superb book to give to folks as part of this endeavour?
Sleeping,
A recommended list, that’s a good idea.
I’m certainly going to make sure we give out two of Adam Rex’s Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.
This makes me want to print out H.P. Lovecraft short stories and hand them out on Haloween.
@Asiak That is a brilliant idea, and if I was going to actually be home on Halloween I would totally do that.
Otherwise, since I am very cash-strapped at the moment I think I will send a few scary short stories to people in liu of buying a book, unless of course I’m lucky enough to actually win something here…
What a fun idea! We’ll be participationg at Darkcargo.com. Any more reading list suggestions?
I love the idea of giving books in addition to candy. We’ll be making frequent stops to the Goodwill for books in Sept and Oct for YA. I think we’ll offer the books to the trick or treaters who want them, rather than having the books end up in the trash.
And, of course, we’ll be watching for the giveaways on TORdot!
–Elizabeth
Not exactly scarry, but it’s the perfect time of year for “A night in the lonesome october” by Roger Zelazny: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/11/playing-for-keeps-and-for-fun-zelaznys-a-night-in-the-lonesome-october
You can now get a CD that has Zelazny reading A Night in the Lonesome October. It might be on the Audiable website for downloading as well. It is indeed well worth hearing.
Fun! I fully support this plan.
I love this idea na dgoing to try getting others in the area to do it as well. thank you all for the suggestions too.
This is a great idea. Being as I’ve considered halloween to be a type of “christmas” for so many years, something like this really only validates what I feel about this holiday.
Read Ray Bradbury’s “Halloween Tree” or “Something Wicked this Way Comes” if you haven’t!
I had picked out “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale” for Halloween read-aloud this year, so this suggestion is much to my liking, Mr. Gaiman.
Oh that is a fabulous idea. I cannot wait to share that with my class and my Girl Scouts. Neil Gaiman you rock! Tor, you do too :)
Love this idea, and love Neil Gaimen’s books too. Thanks for such a ‘spooktacular’ giveaway, Tor!
Absolutely spook-tacular! Love the whole concept!
This is an Awesome Idea! Just picked up Nancy Kilpatrick’s Danse Macabre short story anthology. Nothing quite like celebrating All Hallows Read in good oldfashioned campfire style.