It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the folks at the Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is the oh-so-seasonal “Top Ten Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit.” Now, I love a good old ghost story, so this is a fun challenge!

1. The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. An early example of the “haunted? or is the protagonist crazy?” school of ghost story. A young governess at an isolated estate in charge of two young children who are being “influenced” by ghosts of their previous governess and her lover.

2. “The Old Nurse’s Tale,” by Elizabeth Gaskell. A short story about ghostly retribution.

3-4. Carmilla, by Sheridan Le Fanu and Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Good ol’ Victorian vampire stories.

5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Chilling depictions of both crime and science gone awry.

6. “The Mezzotint,” by M.R. James. Every time the viewers see the print, something in the image has shifted, depicting a gruesome tale.

And…to be a little more modern about things.

7. It, by Stephen King. I remember wanting to crawl under a blanket and hide while reading this when I was a teenager. For those clown-phobics out there….beware.

8-9. Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck!, by Christopher Moore. For the lighter side of vampires (I haven’t read the third book, Bite Me, yet).

10. Plum Spooky, by Janet Evanovich. A between-the-numbers Halloween dose of Stephanie Plum and some supernatural cohorts.

What would you recommend for “getting into the spirit of Halloween” reading?