Getting Kinda Spooky (And Shorter)

I got another haircut today. Over the past few years, my hair has become progressively shorter to the point where I'll probably end up bald the next time. I can only think that would be an improvement with the humidity, because right now I start looking like Ziggy Stardust as soon as I step outside. Except with the face paint and/or outrageous alien sexuality. Yet.

Also, I think I posted about my obsession with the Penguin Gothic Reds series before. But let's check in again with my favorite literary crack (Hot Gimmick is more like crystal meth at this point):
I'm 60% of the way through the series. Of course I hit all the stuff promising tentacles, severed heads and swine creatures first. Their interpretation of "gothic" is... shall we say... generous. But there's no Stephen King in the mix and eleventy times more noxious fumes and creeping fungi, so I'll forgive them. Here's the roll call so far:

1. The Dunwich Horror: Oh, Lovecraft. At first I thought you couldn't possibly be the strangest of the bunch, although the story with the horrific furry critter from another dimension and the poor lodger who deals with him haunted me for months. Maybe that's because there was probably a squirrel nest above my old room. Or were they squirrels? DUNH DUNH DUNH (Rating: 8 out of 10 tentacles)
2. The Haunted Hotel: This was my staff pick for the longest time, complete with an illustrated card of why noxious fumes+ severed heads= one whacked-out good time. Nobody bought it. Everyone bought The Time Traveler's Wife. Clearly, people suck. (Rating: 8 1/2 out of 10 skeletal countesses)
3. The House on the Borderland: If Hodgson wasn't high as a dirgible on opium when he was writing this, he was doing something terribly, terribly wrong. Or terribly right. I don't know, but this book doesn't end when the horrible swine creatures disappear from the narrative. Because that's when the sinister luminous specks appear and that's when shit just gets started. (Rating: 7 out of 10 outer dimensions)
4. The Beetle: This book outsold Dracula at the time of publication and is still a rollicking good read. Sure it's Orientalist out the wazoo, but with two sassy female characters and one hilariously caddish inventor, I won't tell my post-colonial lit prof it's awesome if you don't. (Rating: 8 out of 10 Egyptian cults)
5. The Spookhouse: I was a little disappointed in this collection, since I loved An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and one of the first few stories, about a boy who encounters half of his fantasy in a forest, is amazing. But too many of them relied on "But he was DEAD!!" ghost twist endings and Civil War yammerings for my taste. (Rating: 6 1/2 out of 10 spectres)
6. Lois the Witch: The least Gothic of all the books so far, but Gaskell has a fine eye for class interaction that's very much like Austen. Gothic thrills are exchanged for non-stop depression as babies are killed, parents are betrayed and the Salem witch trials don't go anywhere good. Check out the title story, which at times shows a surprisingly progressive handling of colonialism in America. (Rating: 7 out of 10 Welsh curses)

If these go out of print before I have 10 queasy yellow spines sitting happily on my shelf, I'll be hurt. Time to go back to my old job and do a special order! I think The Lair of the White Worm should be next.