There is something a little frightening lurking in the stacks of every Napa County Library location. If you’ve visited any of our branches recently you may have noticed some of our shelves are getting a little scarier. Our staff has been hard at work making space for a brand-new fiction collection: Adult Horror!
Horror is an immensely popular book genre with a large reader base that continues to grow each year. In response to this trend we have decided to give horror its own space in our collection. While we always carried horror books in the past, they were mixed in with the Adult Fiction collection. There will now be a special dedicated section in every Napa County Library location to house our new Horror genre collection.
What Will Be in the Horror Fiction Collection?
Sometimes it can be hard to define what makes a book fit into the category of horror. The books that fit into this category are typically meant to elicit fear or dread in the reader while touching on themes that are of a darker nature. There are many types of horror books including gothic, psychological, cosmic, body, folk, slashers, occult, and so on. Books that fit into these subgenres will be a part of our new collection, as well as others that create a sense of unease within the reader.
Why Read Horror?
As a genre goes, horror is distinctly not for everyone and that’s OK! We all have different tastes and enjoy different styles of books. Some may consider the genre to be too scary, dark, or depressing. So why do people enjoy reading these books to begin with? Stephen King once said “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” Some readers use horror as a way to process their own fears and anxieties. Others may just want an exciting form of escapism that transports them into interesting spaces outside of their normal comfort zones.
My Journey to Reading Horror
Growing up I always enjoyed reading, but I was mainly drawn to fantasy books as a child and still love them to this day. When I was a kid the popular Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine was all the rage, and I absolutely fell head over heels for those books. I have also been a lifelong lover of horror films, and I eventually realized that books can be even more frightening. I believe another thing that draws us to these books is how weird they can be. Horror is often art at its truest form, something made by creative people to express themselves in honest and unfiltered ways.
Whatever your reason for enjoying this genre, I encourage you to check out our new collection. It might be a bit scary at times, but remember it’s just a book! If you have any suggestions on books to add to our new collection we would love to hear from you. You can submit your ideas here.
Need a Place to Start?
Here are three horror novels that I think are among the best, but also offer a good starting point if you're looking to get into the genre:
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