I read one ghost story every evening in October. With 80 stories, it should last a few Octobers more. My favorite stories this time around were "The Shadowy Third" by Ellen Glasgow, "A Ghost's Story" by Mark Twain, "Pacific 421" by August Derleth, and "Journey Into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert. ( )

This was a pretty fabulous and comprehensive anthology. There was enough in this volume to keep me busy during my October horrorfest. Most of the great writers of the genre have been included. I enjoyed it thoroughly. ( )

The Big Book of Ghost Stories- Otto Penzler – Editor-is a 2012 Vintage Crime/ Black Lizard publication.

If you love Pure ghost stories, this book is one you do not want to miss. Every fall, like many other people, I find myself in the mood for a good old-fashioned ghost story. However, in my search for a pure ghost story, I am often disappointed. Not this time, though!!

The book is broken into sections- such as-

“I’m not dead Yet, I’ll Love you- Forever ( Or Maybe), This Old House, Kid will be Kids, Stop- You’re scaring Me, A Séance, you say? Classics, and much more!

Most of these stories are short- some are a bit longer than others, and several are just a few pages in length. Ghost stories are not just for Halloween, of course. For me, any dark, cold winter night is the perfect setting for a nice ghostly tale. But many of these stories are also suitable for a good campfire Spine-Tingler, too.

In other words, this is a compilation one should not feel obligated to read from front to back- all at one time. I got my Halloween ghost story fix this year, by skipping around between sections, and by choosing to read stories by some authors I did not know much about. However, there are many recognizable names in this collection- some of which, I was surprised to learn, had ever written a ghost story.

Each story begins with a brief note about the author, which is also a nice touch and gave me some reference points so that I could check out more of their work.

Of this massive collection, there were only a handful of stories I recognized, so overall, these are all new to me. Of the stories I have read so far, only one of them did not fit my criteria for a ghost story. It was a good story but was more fitting for an episode of The Twilight Zone, or something. A few of the stories are a little flimsy, but overall, this has proved to be splendid, very comprehensive, and goose pimply collection of ghost stories and hauntings!! ( )

Lost ghosts, vengeful ghosts
ones that just want to be loved
dead, and dumb as hell. ( )

Nice collection though very long, too long to finish from the library. I will be buying this one sure enough ( )