This mini-challenge is now closed! Thanks everyone for participating. And the winners of a US$15 gift card to their online book retailer of choice are: Isa @ Chasing Quills and Abbey @ Abbey Anne’s Bookland! I’ll be emailing you both shortly!
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Hello, and welcome to A Home Between Pages! I’m Rachel if you’ve never visited before, and I’m excited to host a mini-challenge this year. I’ve been a reader for several years now, but this the first time I’m getting to host a mini-challenge. I hope you’re all holding on now that we’re getting to the harder hours of the evening. Hour 15 and going strong!
Of the two biannual readathon dates, October’s is always my favorite. Here in DC, the weather is slightly chilly, sometimes rainy, sometimes bright and crisp, but always perfect for curling up with a book. We’re also in the thick of my favorite season – helped of course by the fact that my birthday is right at the start. The changing leaves, pumpkin-flavored everything, baking, boots and sweaters, breaking out the down comforter, corn mazes, apple picking, football — it’s all fantastic.
However, as contrary as it might sound, I hate Halloween. I don’t like to be scared, intentionally or not. Horror movies are my idea of torture, and even the lamest of them scare the living daylights out me. Not at all my idea of a good time.
So even though I prefer my autumns fright-free, I love all the trappings of fall. Some of my favorite books also trend toward the fall season – or at least have a feeling of fall.
For this mini-challenge, leave a comment with your favorite fall-ish book and tell me your favorite autumn tradition. If you’ve got a picture of your tradition, posted on your own blog, Facebook, or Twitter, you get an extra entry! (Just be sure to leave a comment and link to your photo so I see it). This challenge will be running for 3 hours, and ends at 1am ET.
Need an example? My favorite fall books include The Cider House Rules and A Discovery of Witches.
And my favorite fall traditions include doing the corn maze near my parents’ house. They change the theme every year, and this year was dinosaurs! You can’t tell obviously, but it was so much fun.
And even though they got wiped out last night, watching my Washington Nationals play October baseball will become a fall tradition (I hope!!).
I’ll be using Random.org to choose two winners who will each get a $15 (USD) gift certificate to the online vendor of their choice, as long as it can be delivered electronically. So if you live internationally, you can still enter! Comment away!
Share and Enjoy
I don’t really have a fall type book. I usually get in the mood to read Poe during this time of the year. And my favorite tradition? Watching the Cardinals. Sorry about the Nationals last night!
Guh, Tammy, you’re killing me! What a great series, but oh man, am I heartbroken!
My favorite fall book is probably the complete works of Poe. I don’t really like to be scared, either, but there’s just something so perfect about his stories for this time of year. Plus, I’ve read them for so long that they’re not really creepy anymore (well, okay, I have to read them in the daylight.
What I hope to be our new fall tradition is heading to a local pumpkin patch and getting decorations. This was our first time out this year, and I loved it!
https://twitter.com/amyliz2008/status/254655915557527552
I love the fall, everything fall. Unlike you I love the feeling of being scared. One of my fav books to read during the fall is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I read it at least once every two years.
I lived in the DC area for 14 years. My favorite fall book would have to be The Danzig Passage by Brock and Bodie Thoene. I also would include Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. I guess one we used to have is the raking of the leaves on Thanksgiving day.
I couldn’t think of a book
But here’s my entry for the fave Fall tradition!
http://www.justalillost.com/2012/10/12/deweys-24-hour-readathon-2012/#Hr15
The First book that came into my mind is Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle. I read it when I was a little girl and I can still picture the description of the falling leaves in the backyard.
As for fall tradition, I have to go with pumpkin carving!..or walking over the leaves and listening to them crunch…although I’m not sure that one counts as a tradition hehe.
I think that I like any out of the Outlander books that have fall in them by Diana Gabaldon. I think it happens many times throughout the series. As far as fall traditions, it is hunting season up north in Michigan with my family!
I have a tradition of apple picking at the farm tour every year. And I like to read more non-fiction in the fall. This year it seems to be biography types; about the father of the cocktail, the Tarahumara tribe, the biggest names in sommeliers in the US.
When falls comes around I usually find myself being drawn to the classics. The books that I’ve loved since I was a young girl. Anne of Green Gables, The Little House on the Prairie and Little Women are all fall favourites of mine.
My favourite Fall event is Fantastival. It’s a local celebration at the beginning of the fall when street performers from all over the world travel to our little town in the Netherlands to perform their acts in the streets of our shopping center. Me and my husband attend every year and it has become our own little Fall tradition along with collecting what we call ‘kastanjes’ from the forest.
I don’t really have a ‘fall’ book. I have sooo many books I don’t often get a chance to re-read a book! As for fall traditions, I like to take pictures of my girls in the leaves every year. Here is one of my faves of them taken a few years ago.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/p206x206/367_107275865304_9423_n.jpg
I can’t really pick a book, but my favorite authors to curl up with in the fall would be Dean Koontz and Stephen King. My favorite fall tradition is going for a walk through Odell Park with my fiancee (https://twitter.com/NicoleMac19/status/253656707035705344/photo/1)
My favorite fall book is not even really a typical fall book. I usually read Anne of Green Gables in October so I associate it with the fall.
My favorite fall tradition is watching the start of the hockey season…Sadly I will likely not be able to do that this year because of the lockout. My other favorite fall tradition is eating and drinking pumpkin spice everything.
I live in the Caribbean so there isn’t fall here though it does tend to get a bit chilly due to the rainy season. I love the look of fall though, the colours are beautiful and I can imagine running through yards or parks filled with fallen leaves. I’ve never thought about fall books I like to read though I think I’d gravitate towards bittersweet contemporary reads like books by John Green. I love curling up with a box of tissues and coffee and losing myself in those beautifully sad books, I think I’m just in the mood for that.
I can’t think of a fall-ish book right now. My favorite autumn tradition would have to be carving pumpkins.
I’m going to go with AN AUTUMN WAR by Daniel Abraham as my favourite fall book. It doesn’t take place entirely in fall, but it does have it right there in the title.
The North American colour is also decidedly fall-coloured.
My favourite fal tradition is carving pumpkins. I buy mine right on Hallowe’en morning, since that’s when they’re cheapest, and spend the day carving elaborate designs into them.
My favorite fall books are usually of the spooky variety. One of my favorites would be “The Shining” by Stephen King. I love children’s fall books and Halloween picks too especially “The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything”…if you have kids you must read them this book during the Halloween season. It’s such a fun interactive literary experience..my favorite for storytimes and family reading!
Favorite fall traditions are roasting homemade pumpkin seeds in the oven, decorating for Fall and Halloween and of course…because I live in the South: SEC College Football. I love football Saturdays with a big pot of soup or chili in the crock pot!
Thanks for the mini-challenge!
Courtney
Stiletto Storytime
I love Halloween. Not scary, scary Halloween, but fun, fun Halloween where you plan out your costume all month. The next day is my birthday, so it always seemed like everyone dressed up just for me.
My favorite falls books are old gothic classics, things like The Monk by Matthew Lewis and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier! And one of my favorite fall traditions is to make pumpkin muffins, which I actually just featured in a Weekend Cooking post a week ago: http://readandrungirl.blogspot.com/2012/10/weekend-cooking-pumpkin-muffins-for-fall.html
I’ve always thought of Jane Austen’s Persuasion as a fall book — something about the idea of two people who couldn’t make it work at first, but who are hoping for a second chance now that they’re older and wiser.
I wouldn’t say that I have any particular autumn traditions, although autumn is totally my favorite season. I always associate it with that back-to-school, fresh-start feeling. And I love the cool, crisp weather and the changing leaves.
A favorite fall~ish book? Hmmm. This is the time of year I like to read a few scary things if possible
I don’t know if I have a fave (can’t get Cider House Rules out of my head after seeing you mention it, lol) but I did recently read both The Cutting Season and Heading out to Wonderful which were both mysterious and spine tingling!
My favorite autumn tradition is carving pumpkins with my kiddos
Happy Read-a-Thon!! Thanks for the challenge!
Hmm, a book about the fall? How about Paradise Lost?
Ha ha.
Actually, I do associate Paradise Lost with autumn — like you, I don’t care for Halloween, but after years of beginning a new school year in August or September, the end of summer always makes me think of fresh starts and mental challenges. Paradise Lost is one of the many books I came to love because I studied it in a college English class.
Tradition: long walks. I love spending time outside in the autumn when it’s finally cool enough to enjoy.
I can’t think of any books off hand but in the fall we always go to a pumpkin patch and and go our Apple hill and get apples.
I’m not really a fan of fall, mainly because it means winter’s around the block, but I do love to re-read Harry Potter this time of the year. It always just seems like the perfect time to revisit the characters and world that J.K. Rowlings’ made.
Yeah, Rachel, I didn’t realize you were hosting a fun mini-challenge! I’m game… Every year I try to read a horror novel around Halloween. Sadly, I don’t think I will be able to this year. However, my favorites in the past have been 70′s novels that were turned into equally scary movies: The Exorsist (sp?) and Rosemary’s Baby. But my all time favorite is the out-of-print Legion (Exorsist 2) and the movie version is the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen: Exorsist III, not the bad sequal with Linda Blair, but the one with George C. Scott.
I had to think about this for a little while because nothing sprung to mind as a fall book and then I remembered two very different books that I try and reread every fall for different reasons. My beloved childhood favorite “Anne of Green Gables” and one of my favorite adult books “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt.
I live in DC right now too and I do love DC in the fall because it is so nice when the weather changes from the heat of summer to the crisp weather we are having right now. I’m going to have to say that I love going for walks when the leaves are changing and eating candy apples. I like seeing harvest type decorations everywhere.
I loved The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, and my favourite fall tradition is watching the annual Oktoberfest parade, one of the largest events in our community.
My favorite fall book, The Seasons of Beento Blackbird, is not strictly a fall book, but is divided into seasons and relates how the main character spends his time during each season.
A favorite tradition is drinking hot spiced apple cider while curled up with a good book.
Ooh, what a good question. I can’t think of too many blatantly autumnal books that have made it to my favorites list–I dunno if fall is as strongly represented in literature as the other three seasons. I do get in the mood for books that are a bit spooky at this time of year, though; like you, I don’t like to be properly scared, but I do like things that are a bit eerie or appropriately themed, like Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol (a great graphic novel) or Sabriel, by Garth Nix.
I’m not a big fan of the scary stuff either -but I do like Edgar Allen Poe… go figure. He’s a good fall choice for me! And my favorite fall event? Every pumpkin flavored product that comes out for a “limited” time… yummy!
I think my favorite fall read is quickly becoming The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. My first read of it was in the winter but the last two have been in the fall and it’s just a perfect book as the leaves start coming down. My favorite fall tradition is the first day we light a fire in our wood stove and the whole house smells smoky and cozy. There’s the bonus of some extra warmth too.
I love fall as well. Fall is when the weather in the Pacific Northwest starts to get bad. It turns grey, the rain starts, and we don’t see the sun again until next August. (that’s only a slight exaggeration). In November we usually get some pretty fantastic windstorms, and I love curling up at home with a book and cup of tea and watching the crazy wind and rain.
As for fall books, any book about school usually gives me pleasant associations of autumn.
I’m actually reading a Halloween book for the ‘Thon – Dead Beat by Jim Butcher. It takes place right around Halloween, and Halloween is important in the book, but it also has Fall things too, like changing leaves and weather. It’s interesting that I can think of a few books where winter is very important – almost a character in and of itself – but not so many for fall. We need more fall books!
I also was reminded while reading the comments of The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything, which I loved as a little kid. It would have been a scary book, but if that little old lady wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t going to be, either!
I don’t re-read books very often, but I’ll often choose more classical works in the fall — a hold-over from back-t0-school time. I’m reading King Lear right now, which has appropriate fall themes and a great thunderstorm.
My favorite fall tradition is making applesauce and applesauce bread: http://www.joyweesemoll.com/2012/10/06/applesauce-bread-weekend-cooking/
My favorite fall books are the Harry Potter books-all that magical back to school fun! And my favorite fall event is visiting the local apple orchards and enjoying all the tasty pumpkin goodies! I love fall!
Oh my absolute FAVORITE fall books are both by Ray Bradbury
The Halloween Tree and Something Wicked This Way Comes! I don’t consider either to be scary but both capture the feel of Autumn and October in particular so very very well 
As for Fall traditions, I just love soaking up the Fall weather as much as I can!! I live in Southern Louisiana so we don’t get it that often!! But when we do, it’s just absolutely energizing and I love to spend the days outdoors and going to some of the many festivals we have down here 
Great mini challenge!
I can’t think of a particular “fall” book, but every time I think of “fall” reading I think of mysteries. I don’t read that genre too often, but I really want to give cozy mysteries a try this fall. I already have On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle and The Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs picked out to read sometime in the next couple of months.
As for my favorite fall tradition, I posted on my blog about my family’s annual tradition of taking a scenic ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad in NC. I posted a couple of pics too:
http://allthethingssheread.blogspot.com/2012/10/read-thon-hours-13-18.html
I would probably say something by Sarah Dessen (Dreamland? Someone Like You?) because typically the characters are going back to school and Sarah Dessen just brings out a freshness to her writing that makes me think of fall and new beginnings.
And my favorite tradition is my mom’s Halloween party. She throws the best parties! I also look forward to fall every year because it’s the start of the football season!
My favourite fall reads are gothic classics, like Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Wuthering Heights… and so on.
My favourite fall tradition is eating and drinking all things pumpkin. Pumpkin spice tea. Pumpkin loaf, muffins, etc. Also, decorating with pumpkins. I recently found the cutest book pumpkin on Etsy!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/110351904/small-book-page-pumpkin-upcycled-and-eco
My favorite fall book and fall tradition go together – I am always excited for the new Richard Paul Evans holiday book to release at the end of October! Usually they’re Christmas themed, but that’s the first holiday book I read most years, and I’m never disappointed!
I love Halloween but my hubby does not so we have a tradition to see ONE scary movie a year, always near Halloween so I get a bit of fright but he won’t have to put up with it year round.
I don’t have a favorite fall book, although I think my favorite so far has been Bittersweet Symphony. It’s erotica but with a Crypt Keeper twist. Really caught me off guard!
Hope your day is fabulous! Thanks for the challenge!
My favorite book to read in the fall is Frankenstein. I love Halloween and being scared. My favorite fall traditions revolve around that as well, carving pumpkins and cooking the seeds
A fall type book…see I usually do like horror/ mystery during Halloween…I really can’t think of one even if I really had to pick. I always say I am going to read that book on Poe and randomly lose it in the fall.
I love autumn as well! I usually read lots of mysteries and crime fiction around this time of the year (Agatha Christie in particular). As for traditions – Halloween! I live in Hungary and we don’t really celebrate it here, at least not as much as people in the US. But me and some friends of mine still get together each year to carve pumpkins, bake some Halloween cakes and watch a movie together – it’s always loads of fun.
Here’s a photo from last year!
I usually love fall as well, but this year it snuck up on me and I’m feeling a little resentful
I’m not sure I associate any particular books with any particular seasons. My first thought is Sunshine by Robin McKinley, but that’s pretty much my default answer, so I’m not sure it counts
Anyway I don’t really know what it has to do with autumn.