The time has come for thoughts to wander from barbecues and beach bodies to warm drinks and wooly scarves, and as the nights grow longer we welcome the extra cosy time with our books.
This is my favourite time of year as it feels like the calm before the storm of Christmas as it blusters in later in the year; when life becomes all about entertaining the children, visiting family, and eating a questionable amount of food. Halloween is the sort of holiday many love to have fun with, the American enthusiasm can be especially contagious, and to be honest I think we should grab any opportunity for celebration these days.
We have compiled a selection of clever, creative, and quirky gifts inspired by spooky literature in case you feel like spoiling yourself or someone special, or like us you just enjoy drooling over beautiful things!
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, with its atmospheric verse and spooky imagery, is the inspiration for this first piece. Enamel pins are all the rage at the moment and these would make a wonderful gift for any Poe fan.
“Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Find it here at The Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild
I honestly cannot pick a favourite from this collection by Nabu Online as they are all so pretty, but I am a real sucker for a vampire so pictured here is a cute bat piece featuring a quote from Bram Stoker’s Dracula:
‘There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.’ ~Dracula
Inspired by one of my all time favourite books- Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. When someone asks if I recommend a classic- that is my go-to novel! Recognising Frankenstein as wonderfully horrifying in more ways than one, ThornfieldHall has deemed this quote worthy to emblazon a long, warm, cotton scarf perfect for keeping the chill from your neck even if you enjoy a shiver down your spine.
“My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot imagine. –Frankenstein’s Monster”
Find it here on Etsy
For those more refined Reading Addicts I have found a very classy skeleton gentleman, complete with top hat and moustache, printed onto an old dictionary page. The collection is by Stay Gold Media, and includes a romantic scene of two skeletons holding hands, a unicorn skeleton, a zombie with a mouthful of worms, and much more! I recommend a little gander…
Find this piece and others by Stay Gold Media on Etsy
If the budget is tight, but your arty-crafty talents are abound then perhaps this is more your style? Artists on YouTube or Etsy offer instructions on how to create folded book art for a small fee, plus an offer to guide you if you get in a muddle! I’m not sure I have any books to fold up right now, however one of you may have an old redundant dictionary you could utilise? Or even one of those massive Reader’s Digest compilations as they come in wonderful colours and patterns? Now is the time to start getting crafty for Halloween!
Check out Book Art on Etsy
These rather adorable haunted house bookmarks made with pewter charms would make ideal gifts for Halloween lovers, or readers of horror stories. If you peruse their collection you will find more creepy treats to buy this Autumn…
Let’s finish off this list with an absolutely bonkers, vividly colourful flared skirt inspired by R.L Stine’s Goosebumps series. I devoured those books as a young teen and now as a ‘grown up’ I am sorely tempted to show up to the school run in this snazzy number…
Each skirt is made to order by CandyPantsClothing
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