Check out Haunted Nights: a History & Lexicon of Horror (book list)

Many folks like to be scared and the endurance of the horror genre proves that although this literary category has never quite achieved the credit given other brands of fiction, it isn’t going away anytime soon.  From fireside legends and ‘The Castle of Otranto’ to postwar science-fiction films and the ‘Twilight’ series, our collective nightmares and the figures that inhabit them have had an interesting history, often overlapping and merging with other genres to create something new.  These books should help familiarize you with the idea that being afraid of the dark can be quite enjoyable.

- Ben