Spooktober at A Book Geek: 31 Days, 31 Reads

October is the only month that encourages you to read with the lights low and your back to the wall. So we’re leaning in. Starting today, A Book Geek is running Spooktober: 31 Days, 31 Reads, a reading challenge with one prompt and one book for every day of the month.

Some picks are haunted. Some are banned. A few are both, which is the literary equivalent of a two-for-one coupon. Each one is tied to something actually happening this month, from Banned Books Week and the Nobel Prize to Winnie-the-Pooh’s 100th birthday and the October 27 release of the sixth A Court of Thorns and Roses book.

Think of it as an advent calendar, except the doors creak and the chocolate is replaced by Shirley Jackson.

The Rules (Such As They Are)

Nobody is reading 31 novels in 31 days. We’re ambitious, not delusional. Here’s how it actually works:

One prompt a day. Read the suggested book, or any book that fits the prompt. Your shelf, your rules.
Everything counts. Short stories, audiobooks, rereads, graphic novels and “I read the first three chapters and then fell asleep under a blanket” all count.
Skipping is allowed. Missed a day? The prompts don’t expire. Ghosts are patient.
Swapping is encouraged. Too scary? Not scary enough? Trade it for something on your nightstand and tell us what you picked.
Share as you go. Post your progress with #SpooktoberReads and tag A Book Geek on Facebook, X or Pinterest. On October 31, share your finished tracker. We’ll feature our favorites in the November newsletter.

Week 1: Forbidden Books and a Very Bad Prom (Oct 1–7)

Oct 1 · A book that smells like dead leaves:The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Eight trick-or-treaters chase their friend through the whole history of Halloween. It’s short enough to finish before your pumpkin spice latte goes cold.
Oct 2 · A book before it’s a movie: Verity by Colleen Hoover. The film with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson opens today. Read the book first so you can sigh knowingly in the theater.
Oct 3 · Start a reread: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Book 6 arrives October 27. That gives you 24 days, five books and a lot of faeries. Hydrate.
Oct 4 · A book about burning books: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Banned Books Week starts today (Oct 4–10), and this year’s theme is “Let Books Be.” A novel about book burning that keeps getting challenged is the kind of irony Bradbury would have enjoyed.
Oct 5 · A frequently challenged book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It’s No. 2 on the American Library Association’s list of the most challenged books of 2025. Read it in public. Feel dangerous.
Oct 6 · The first book in a trilogy 42 years in the making: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Its finale, Other Worlds Than These, publishes today. King finished it after Straub’s death, building on an idea Straub left him.
Oct 7 · A book that ends at the prom: Carrie by Stephen King. Mike Flanagan’s eight-episode series lands on Prime Video today. King’s debut is short, so you can finish it before anyone hands you a bucket. Bonus: Edgar Allan Poe died on this day in 1849. Chase it with “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Week 2: Prizes, Prague and A Bear of Very Little brain (Oct 8–14)

Oct 8 · The newest Nobel laureate: whoever the Swedish Academy names this morning (the announcement is at 5:00 AM Mountain, so coffee first). Can’t wait? Try last year’s winner, László Krasznahorkai, whose sentences run longer than some marriages.
Oct 9 · A book from Prague: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The Frankfurt Book Fair (Oct 7–11) honors Czechia this year. Kafka wrote the definitive story about waking up and not feeling quite like yourself.
Oct 10 · A book that comforts: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It’s World Mental Health Day. Haig’s library sits between life and death and has a better return policy than yours.
Oct 11 · A haunted house: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The house is the main character. The house is also the problem.
Oct 12 · Indigenous horror: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Read it on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, then add his new novel, Off the Reservation, to your fall list.
Oct 13 · Dark academia: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. The finale, Dead Beat, came out September 15, so you can binge all three. Yale’s secret societies, plus ghosts. Tuition not included.
Oct 14 · A centenarian: Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, published 100 years ago today. You’re halfway through a horror month and you’ve earned some honey. (Heffalumps are still technically terrifying.)

Week 3: Gothic Mansions and Sensible Sisters (Oct 15–21)

Oct 15 · Latin American gothic: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It’s the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month. Expect a crumbling mansion, a mold problem and a family you do not want to marry into.
Oct 16 · A portrait you shouldn’t look at: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, who was born on this day in 1854. Dorian was the original skincare influencer, and look how that turned out.
Oct 17 · Austen, freshly adapted: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. The new film with Daisy Edgar-Jones opened in US theaters yesterday. Are you an Elinor or a Marianne? Choose wisely. Willoughby is watching.
Oct 18 · A classic gothic romance: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. A dead first wife, a deeply unsettling housekeeper and the least welcoming house in English literature.
Oct 19 · The countdown book: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. Book 6 is eight days away. If your reread is behind schedule, this is the one not to skip.
Oct 20 · A Booker contender: The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout, on this year’s shortlist. The winner is named November 9. It isn’t a horror novel, unless you find it scary to realize how little we know the people closest to us. (You will.)
Oct 21 · Another world entirely: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, born on this day in 1929. The Le Guin Prize for Fiction is also announced today. Bring a sweater. The planet is called Winter.

Week 4: Vampires, Witches and Release Day (Oct 22–28)

Oct 22 · A book turning 100: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, published October 22, 1926. Bullfights, heartbreak and more drinks per page than almost anything in American literature. The scariest thing in it is the bar tab.
Oct 23 · The original vampire: Dracula by Bram Stoker. It’s told in letters and diary entries, which makes it essentially a group chat about a houseguest who won’t leave.
Oct 24 · Witches: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Midnight margaritas are optional but thematically appropriate.
Oct 25 · Short and unsettling: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. These stories are perfect for a Sunday, ideally with every lamp in the house switched on.
Oct 26 · Back to Hogwarts: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. HBO’s series premieres on Christmas Day. Reread it now so you’re ready to argue about the casting in two months.
Oct 27 · Release day: A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 6 by Sarah J. Maas. It’s the first new Prythian novel in five years. Clear your evening, silence your phone and tell your family you’ll see them in November.
Oct 28 · A cozy mystery to recover: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Four retirees, one murder and zero faeries. Your nervous system will thank you.

Week 5: The Grand Finale (Oct 29–31)

Oct 29 · A ghost story with a heart: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. A graveyard full of chatty spirits who refuse to admit they’re dead. Very relatable for anyone in week five of a reading challenge.
Oct 30 · Frankenstein Friday: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, who was 18 when she started writing it. What were you doing at 18? Don’t answer that.
Oct 31 · Halloween: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. We opened the month with Bradbury, so we’re closing with him too: a dark carnival rolls into town one October night. It’s also John Keats’s birthday, if you’d like a little Romantic poetry with your candy corn.

Your Spooktober Tracker

Save this list, pin it or print it, and tick off each read as you go.

Printable tracker.

1 · The Halloween Tree
2 · Verity
3 · A Court of Thorns and Roses
4 · Fahrenheit 451
5 · The Perks of Being a Wallflower
6 · The Talisman
7 · Carrie
8 · The 2026 Nobel laureate
9 · The Metamorphosis
10 · The Midnight Library
11 · The Haunting of Hill House
12 · The Only Good Indians
13 · Ninth House
14 · Winnie-the-Pooh
15 · Mexican Gothic
16 · The Picture of Dorian Gray
17 · Sense and Sensibility
18 · Rebecca
19 · A Court of Mist and Fury
20 · The Things We Never Say
21 · The Left Hand of Darkness
22 · The Sun Also Rises
23 · Dracula
24 · Practical Magic
25 · Her Body and Other Parties
26 · Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
27 · A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 6
28 · The Thursday Murder Club
29 · Lincoln in the Bardo
30 · Frankenstein
31 · Something Wicked This Way Comes

Share your Reads

Post your progress with #SpooktoberReads all month long. On Halloween, share your finished tracker, even if it’s only half full. Half a haunted month is still a respectable haunting. We’ll round up our favorite trackers, swaps and hot takes in the November newsletter, so subscribe if you haven’t already.

Now tell me in the comments: which book are you most excited to read, and which one are you secretly planning to skip? I promise not to judge.