Boo!

So do books scare you? Have you ever changed your life because of a book? I have.

The first book that scared me enough to actually change my environment was 'Salem's Lot.

Thanks Stephen King, for the enduring horror of having to sleep through a horrible Calgary heatwave in July with all my windows shut, so that the vampires wouldn't float up and ask if they could come in. And I was terrified that if they should, I might turn over, half asleep, and ask them in. There are no such things vampires, you say? Prove it.

My electrical bills went up that summer too, as I decided that sleeping with the lights on would at least allow me to see the horrible monster as it crossed from my closet to the bed before it killed me. Maybe I could come back from the dead and let someone else know what it was (I mean, you have to have the right ammunition to kill these things, silver bullets for werewolves, stakes for vampires...). And wasn't Cujo, the rabid 300 pound St. Bernard, scary enough on his own? Why did there also have to be a monster in the closet?

Yeah, Mr. King seems to be tuned into a lot of my own personal fears and is excellent at phrasing them in just the right way to permanently scar my psychi.

How about It? Anyone staring down the drain in your sink while you're brushing your teeth and thinking that maybe dentures would be more adventageous than a blood sucking clown racing out of the drain to take you away?

Now, from 'Salem's Lot to It is many years over the life of Stephen King. Why didn't I just stop reading his books, you may ask?

Because we all love to get scared. But that's a whole other subject.

Happy Halloween and hope you read a good book today!