The Spooky Season Book & Film Syllabi
It's that time of year again!
Happy October!
It’s still hot here in Texas, but I’m going to pretend it feels like autumn because my spooky season is already in full swing!
If you’ve been following me for a while (thank you!), you might remember that last year, I leaned hard in my nerdiness and decided to make myself a syllabus to study horror fiction and horror film.
I had a ton of fun with the process for the first few weeks and worked my way through several books and movies. However, because of a family crisis that happened a few weeks into the project, my plans got derailed. So, this year, I’m calling for a redo!
I’ve taken my original syllabi, removed the books and movies I completed last year, and replaced them with some new ones. I also changed up a couple of categories (like adding small-town horror for books and animated horror for movies). In addition, I incorporated a “read one short story a week” element instead of tackling short story anthologies as one big read. Horror short stories are a rich tradition and I want to give them their due.
Otherwise, the structure stayed the same. One book and one film a week that fits the category assigned for that week. For instance, this week was monsters/cryptids, so I watched An American Werewolf in London (which was a delight!)
I’m enormously excited about the project because I adore a deep dive and I love a (flexible) plan. This gives my nerdy heart the structure I crave, gamifies things a bit (I get to highlight things to mark them off as I go), and I get to learn more about a favorite genre in the process. (If you’re a fellow writer, I talked more about how I created templates to review the movies and books to help with the learning in this post.)
Why am I sharing this?
So, why am I sharing this with you? Well, like I mentioned last year, a syllabus can be used for all kinds of fun projects. You can do it as a way to power through your TBR pile. You could set theme weeks for your reading or movie-watching for the last quarter of the year. (I’m thinking a Hallmark movie syllabus could be really fun for December.) You could deep dive into any topic you’re interested in. The sky is the limit, really.
Even the process of putting together the syllabus, doing the research on what to include, organizing it, etc. can be a fun activity for certain personality types. (Hint: If you’re currently thinking, this chick has lost her damn mind, a syllabus may not be your jam and that’s okay! Lol.) But for those who got a shiver at the thought of a crisp, new syllabus on the first day of classes, this may be something worth exploring.
The Book and Film Lists
However, even if you don’t want to make your own syllabus, perhaps you’re looking for some spooky reads or movies to fill up your October. I can help with that!
Something new I added this year was collecting all the books and movies on my syllabi into lists. I now have a Goodreads list of all the books on my lit syllabus and a Letterboxd list for all the movies on the film one. So, if you’re curious, you can check those out! (Keep in mind, these are not recommendations per se. I have not read or watched most of these yet. These are books and movies I added because I’ve seen them recommended by trusted sources or they represent important works in the genre.)
So, that’s what my spooky season is going to look like. How about yours? Do you do anything special to celebrate October or the Halloween season? What are your favorite horror books or movies? Or do you prefer the cozier fall reads/watches?
OMG. I LOVE this idea. I'm nerding on Hallmark Christmas movies right now (preparing to write a spec script). This approach warms my #2 Learner heart.
I'm more like B-movies from the 50s & 60s or Vincent Price than current horror movies. The UHF movies of my childhood is about as scared as I'm willing to get.