Thursday, October 24, 2013

Halloween Countdown Day 24: Spooky Books from Scottie's Books!

Today's post is a purchase I made TODAY! I stopped in at a used book store that I don't go to as often as I really should (or as often as I WANT but probably shouldn't...) called "Scottie's Books". It's a cave of a place, with the whole front room literally a chaotic mess of stacked books you have to squeeze past to get to the good stuff that's organized in the back. The guy who runs the place doesn't have letter-head with "Scottie's" on it, but he punches his receipts with this:


Awwwww.... isn't that just the cutest ever? Anyway, I picked up 12 books total at Scottie's and paid a buck for each and every one. I found some REALLY fun stuff there that isn't Halloween themed too... but I'm saving it all for when the countdown is over. Here we go!


First, I found this "Which Way Book" Vampires, Spies, and Alien Beings which is a poor man's "Choose Your Own Adventure" gaming book... and I am just EXACTLY the "poor man" to bring it home! 


Next up is this pretty awesome novelization of a bunch of "Tales from the Crypt" comics for YA readers. The stories themselves are not exactly mild... but they're fun, and snippets of the comic panels are included in each chapter to help illustrate the tales. This is easily one of my favorite finds of the day!


I picked this one up out of sheer nostalgia. It is a Nintendo, Worlds of Power, Castlevania II, Simon's Quest novelization. It's filled with game hints and once upon at time it included a Worlds of Power Trading Card that has long since been torn out. Doesn't get much more Halloween than Castlevania, does it?


Next up is this bizarre illustrated Scooby-Doo novel from 1980. It includes Scrappy-Doo as a character if that gives you any hint as to its quality... When I was a kid I liked Scrappy-Doo quite a lot, but as an adult I find him grating to the point of just not being able to watch the episodes he appears in. This book is bizarre in that the illustrations are all very obviously taken from stock images that look like they came from a coloring book. They all look very stiff and unnatural. 


Next we have the Twilight Zone: The Movie adaptation by Robert Bloch. It's one of those that has a collection of photos from the movie in the middle of the book. This adaptation being written by Robert Bloch is actually pretty hilarious. For instance, Robert Bloch is writing an adaptation of a screen-play by Richard Mattheson... based on a story by Jerome Bixby. The whole book is sort of like that. Each of these stories is filtered through a filter through a filter. But I love the 80's Twilight Zone film, and I love cheesy adaptations of films... so this was sure to come home. 



And last but certainly NOT least are these two collections of essays about Stephen King by various other giants in the industry. I like the idea of a bunch of people writing essays to worship Steve King. All of them brown-nosing their way into getting their thoughts on "The King" published. I find it hilarious actually. And I genuinely hope there are some interesting insights to be read it here as well. 

Well that's it for tonight kids! I hope you're all getting as excited for Halloween as I am! I'll be back soon with some Goosebumpy Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting! 

Be sure to check out all of the great blogs participating in this year's Halloween Countdown! You can do so by clicking this link, or clicking on the Cryptkeeper 2013 banner on the sidebar to the right! Also, check out the "Blog-O-Ween" Halloween Blog collective, again by following this link, or through the badge on the sidebar! Thanks!

4 comments:

  1. That's an awesome assortment of literary wonders.

    I remember borrowing the same Castlevania book from a friend of mine and keeping it for a few years. I can't recall if I actually got it back to him or if it simply disappeared. Either way, I wish I still had it.

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  2. Sweet scores Derek and that vampire on the cover of the first book kind of reminds me George Hamilton as Dracula in the movie Love at first bite from 1979 lol.

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  3. Good stuff! I found a few things recently at a Used Book Superstore that I'm going to post soon. Oh man, I'd forgotten about Which Way books. They had some good covers.

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