The season is changing, and as more trees take on the golden hues of autumn, one can’t help but get excited for the tricks, treats and haunts ahead. There are many ways to get into the excitement of the spooky season — carving pumpkins, hayrides, finding your way through corn mazes and creeping around corners of haunted houses. But perhaps one of the best ways is to throw on a cozy sweater, fill up a big mug of pumpkin spice coffee and curl up with a creepy book. To help get you in the spirit, we asked several UNH English professors what spooky reads they recommend this Halloween. Happy Haunting!
Recommendation: “The Eyes of the Dragon” by Stephen King
Recommended by: Seth Abramson
Abramson is an assistant professor of English and writing specialist on the Manchester campus. He has published several books, poems, anthologies and manuscripts. Halloween is his favorite holiday, and, coincidentally, his birthday! As for his personal favorite noir story, he praises Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves,” an experimental novel that he says is “a visually stunning book that engages the question of form.”
When asked about the scariest book he’s ever read, Abramson revisits his childhood and explains his fear of the wolf from “The Three Little Pigs.” “For about three years I was convinced that the wolf lived in the attic above my bed, and that as soon as the light went out he'd come on down.”
Recommendations: “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “From Hell” by Alan Moore
Recommended by: Susanne Paterson
Paterson is the program coordinator and an associate professor of English on the Manchester campus. She teaches classes on Shakespeare, British literature, early drama and English grammar. Paterson’s favorite spooky character is De Flores from Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's “The Changeling. “He's not noir, he's just horrible,” she says. “I read his lines and feel like I need to disinfect my brain afterwards.”
As seen in UNH Today (excerpts from UNH faculty based in Manchester)
