Halloween season has started strong at the Palm Beach County Library System, kicked off by the second annual "I Read Dead People" event!
"I Read Dead People" is a performance hosted by staff (ahem--dearly departed famous authors) where audiences are treated to excerpts of famous horror and gothic tales. Visitors of this after-hours event are led through the library, touring the authors' writing spaces and workshops, before enjoying snacks and a final story or two in the candle-lit multipurpose room.
The Lantana Road Branch was haunted on Sep 28. These ghostly writers recounted their stories:
- "The Grimm Fairy Tales," by the Brothers Grimm
- "The Body Snatcher," by Robert Louis Stevenson
- "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- "Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Brontë
- "The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allan Poe
Not long after, another set of spirits inhabited the Acreage Branch Library on Oct 04:
- "The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe
- "Prey," by Richard Matheson
- "The Eyes," by Edith Wharton
- "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson
For the final story told by Shirley Jackson, the audience had the chance to participate in the Lottery themselves! Each member of the crowd was given a slip of paper as their names were called off the registration list.
For now, the dead rest again . . . but next October will come soon enough. Keep your eye on the Happenings for next year's "I Read Dead People!"
