Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings has a challenge right up my alley — the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril challenge. I have heard of his challenges on other book blogs I read and wanted to participate in one for some time (and nearly did the last Fairy Tale challenge), but it seemed I always found out way too late (good argument for Carl now being in my RSS reader) or got way too busy at that particular moment. But the good news in this case is that I had already started without realizing because Twilight is a perfectly acceptable choice for the challenge! Beside that, I am all for ushering fall in this year with a stack of gothic books. I haven’t completely decided which books (in addition to Twilight) that I’ll read yet, but some ideas include:

• Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
• Macbeth, William Shakespeare* (I’m teaching this one for the first time this year!)
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
• The Ghost Writer, John Harwood*
• Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman
• Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë*
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
• The Ruby in the Smoke, Phillip Pullman
• The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield*
• Possession, A. S. Byatt*
• Dracula, Bram Stoker*
• The Season of the Witch, Natasha Mostert
• New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
• Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (I’m taking Sarah to Meyer’s signing for this book on 9/14)

I’m still thinking, so after you’ve checked out Carl’s post for requirements (which are very loose), please feel free to suggest titles. The starred titles would be re-reads, but I don’t think that’s necessarily cheating. I would like to firm up what I’m reading fairly soon, and I am totally up for suggestions.

Oh, and I nearly forgot to add that one my student’s parents invited Sarah and I to take part in her mother/daughter book club, and some of these books would be perfect!

[tags]r.i.p. challenge, literature, books, reading, gothic, mystery, horror[/tags]