Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Now the nights are drawing in and Halloween is approaching, my eye is turning towards the horror/thriller shelves of the bookcase. There's nothing nicer than curling up on the sofa with a glass of something warming, a cheery fire (even if it is fake electric flames) and a spooky story.

So, what will everyone be reading this Autumn? Any good recommendations?

I've got a couple of weeks off coming up and have already compiled a towering stack of books I probably won't get around to (it's almost as much fun imagining what you might read as it is actually reading them). On the shortlist is:

It's years since I read this, and I think a re-read is in order before moving on to the sequel,

This has been on my shelf for so long I can no longer remember when or why I first bought it, or even what it's about, but it sings to me from the bookshelf and needs to be read.

All the Will Self books I've read so far have blown my mind. They're hard work, but so so good. This is next on my mission to read all the Will Self.

I love Gothic classics, but this is a major gap in my reading which I want to plug soon.

I'd also like to read some Dickens, but I'm unsure which one to go for. I want something that's not too dense, as I haven't read any since school and that has rather put me off. Maybe something a little bit funny... Can anyone recommend a good one for a wary beginner?

As for recommendations, I've got a couple for you. First is , which I read this Summer and wished I'd saved until the Autumn as it's so deliciously spooky and windswept. I adore Daphne du Maurier - she really knows how to whisk you away into another world. The BBC are doing an adaptation, so now's a good time to read the book, before it arrives on the screen.

And if you really don't like to be scared, then try this . It's a murder mystery (in fact, one of the first ever murder mysteries) written by a contemporary of Dickens, and the same man who wrote (which is also really good). The Moonstone is brilliantly funny and entertaining and not stuffy at all.

I'd love to hear some of your Autumn recommendations :-)

I love Jamaica Inn, I always seem to reread it around Halloween. I hadn't heard about an adaptation, very excited now! fingers crossed it will be better than the Frenchman's Creek one that aired a few years ago.
I'd recommend any of Neil Gaiman's short story collections as autumn reading. They're all such eclectic collections, the stories differing so much in tone and genre that they reflect the changing weather.
I have The Crow Road, A Secret History and Persuasion waiting to be read. I've just seen a trailer for The Book Thief that looks very good so I think I need to reread that too, I was blown away when I first read it.

Frenchman's Creek is the only one of the Cornish novels I haven't read yet, so I might add that to the pile for my fortnight off. I also really fancy The House on the Strand - it has such an interesting premise with time travel and the sort of weirdness that you wouldn't usually associate with Du Maurier.

Neil Gaiman's great, though I've only read a few of his short stories so far. Talking of short stories, Roald Dahl wrote some fantastic ones for adults - they were used as the basis for the Tales of the Unexpected series that ITV did many years ago and would be perfect spooky fireside reads.

I would certainly recommend - I'd forgotten about this being on my Kindle (ok - my excuse being that I downloaded it whilst on holiday!) and then stumbled across it the other day. It's a really goog thriller, and flows nicely - seen it described as Stieg Larsson crossed with Dan Brown (althought I'd say more Stieg than Dan!)

Next on the reading list (after I've finished the current book ( ) - avoid - not one of the better books I've read!) will probably be or possibly (another book sitting on the Kindle since I've had the damned thing!)

On the non-fiction side, one challenge for me is to finish reading (I can see me biting the bullet, and getting this on Kindle, as the book is a monster!)

That's some interesting crime thrillers you've got there. It's a good time of year for that sort of book too. I'm just finishing off The Sixth Soul by Mark Roberts, which is a pretty good serial killer yarn.

I stumbled across this list of the 50 scariest books, and I quite fancy tracking down a few of the ones I haven't read. There are some fantastic books here that sound really terrifying.