In preparing for Halloween, I’ll revisit a CNN poll on scary books. A few years back, CNN Interactive conducted an informal survey to determine what respondents felt were the scariest books of all time. In no particular order, the results were:

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Shining by Stephen King
• The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
• The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Special mention should go to The Exorcist, the inspiration for the American Film Institute’s 3rd most thrilling American film.

My personal favorite for most creepy book is Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, about a girl who ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others. Not exactly the feel-good read of the season.

Happy Halloween!