Last week I mentioned the Blind Date with a Book book-swap idea, and intrepid reader xJane commented:

This. Sounds like fun. It also sounds like the kind of thing that Amazon (or the like) needs to enable for ebooks. I have a bunch of books that I think it would be fun to spring upon you and your unsuspecting readers you and your readers might enjoy, but since they’re not physical, it’s harder to share them.

Well, we may not be able to share them, but we can at least recommend ’em. I’ll go first.

I’d like to suggest Dan Simmons as an author whose oeuvre should be up my readers’ collective alley. Some of his novels (there are several more) include:

Song of Kali – An American journalist travels to Calcutta and encounters a horrific cult which worships Kali.

Carrion Comfort – Multiple timelines weave together a story of “mind vampires” who can use their powers to completely control anyone.

Drood – Fictionalized account of the last few years of Charles Dickens’ life, explaining why his final novel remained unfinished.

Prayers to Broken Stones – A great collection of short stories, covering topics as diverse as the familial implications of returning from the dead, a combat theme park in Vietnam, and a barber’s guild with a dark secret.

Summer of Night – A Stephen King-esque tale of five pre-teen protagonists who discover something terrifying in an old school building. Its sequel, A Winter Haunting, finds one of them as an adult encountering something that was left behind.

The Terror – Fictionalized account of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, a lost Arctic expedition.

Now it’s your turn: What books do you think other readers of this site might enjoy? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Oh wow you guys: Intrepid reader Cookie has found the motherlode of information related to carnival sideshows. Sideshow World is “dedicated to preserving the past while promoting the future of sideshow for fans and performers alike.”

Their historical section covers all the old standbys: Feejee mermaids and flea circuses and medicine shows and fortune-tellers and loads more, copiously peppered with vintage photos and artwork. They also have a useful “Ask the Staff” page where you can get help identifying photos or request information about sideshow acts of the past.

There’re discussions of carnival games and photos of taxidermied “freaks of nature.” Recipes for midway-style corn dogs and descriptions of various types of conjoined twins. Sword swallowers and tattooed ladies and dime museums and snake oil.

They’ve also got a large section devoted to modern sideshows, with performer bios, event listings, and heaps of links to related resources.

If you’ve ever considered a carnival-themed party, needed reference photos for sculpting a shrunken head, or wanted to frame some vintage midway posters, this is the place to look. Great stuff.

(Thanks, Cookie!)

The What Happens In Storytime… site recently suggested an interesting idea which was meant for fellow librarians, but which would also be a fun group book-swap idea. (And the librarians who read this blog–of which there seem to be a surprising number–can obviously use it in its unaltered form as well.)

It’s a super-simple idea, and is essentially a book exchange with a Secret Santa element: The books are all wrapped in plain paper, so you don’t know what you’ve gotten until you take it home and unwrap it.

To do this with a group of friends, ask everyone to bring a book they’ve enjoyed reading wrapped in plain brown paper (or gift wrap if they’re feeling fancy). Ask them to put their name and contact information on a label inside the book if they want it returned after reading (although this would probably work most smoothly if the participants didn’t expect to get their books back). Have everyone choose a book from the pile, then you can have a mass-unwrapping and see what new thing you all have to read.

Limiting the books to a particular theme–such as horror–would reduce the chances of someone getting a book they have no interest in at all. The other option would be to ask everyone to write their book’s genre on the outside of the wrapper to help the selection process.

This would be a great (and easy and cheap) excuse for an informal get-together with a bunch of friends. And as a bonus, everybody gets a new book to read.

Novelty sites written in a particular persona are hard to do well, but Thug Kitchen is entirely wonderful. Its tagline is “Real talk about real fuckin food,” and it is a celebration of healthy eating. Like a thug.

Last week I overdosed on a cup of these [strawberries] and my vitamin-C level was 136%. Went to the hospital for a flu shot and the doc was all like “Whoa you healthy as fuck, son. Blood pressure is all normal and shit.” and I looked him in the eyes and told that smart ass son of a bitch “I straight don’t give a fuck. Thug life.” and then I paid my co-payment like a fucking boss.

It’s light on recipes but has interesting meal suggestions and useful nutritional tips. Even if you aren’t interested in the lycopene content of a tomato, the site is worth a look for sheer entertainment value.

Over at BoingBoing, Xeni Jardin has been blogging her fight against breast cancer. She finished her treatment a couple of months ago, and a friend presented her with a great “Kicking Cancer’s Ass” medal. He made it simply by finding an appropriate award medal (in this case, “Science”) at a site that specializes in trophies and awards; the message and her name was part of the standard customization.

This is a gift I’d never thought of before, and I love the idea. It turns out that there are a lot of Halloween-themed medals, trophies, plaques, ribbons, and other awards, primarily meant to be used as prizes for costume contests or parties. Crown Awards, Trophy Depot, and Dinn Bros. all have nice selections, and searching “Halloween award” will turn up plenty of other vendors. (Most cities also have a trophy shop or two, in case you’d rather go the low-tech route.) Most of the awards are surprisingly inexpensive, as well.

These would make a lovely and unique gift to help someone celebrate a special achievement. (It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as beating cancer; even “Congratulations for not strangling your boss!” would be just fine.) It’s a great way to make someone feel extra-special; who doesn’t like getting a medal?

The Hairpin occasionally does “Get This Look” articles which feature style suggestions based around a particular theme: Royalty or Rainforest Animals or what-have-you. Last Halloween they did a few inspired by famous ghosts, and I love the idea of building a spook-themed outfit. My only quibble is that their combinations might be somewhat problematic to actually wear (or it’s possible that I simply don’t get invited to the sorts of parties where a ballgown and knitted armlets are appropriate).

I’ve put together a couple more, based on other famous ghosts.

Black Aggie is a shrouded statue which used to be used as a grave marker in Maryland. It was long rumored to be haunted and since so many people broke in to the cemetery at night to visit it, the exasperated family finally donated it to the Smithsonian.

La Llorona is a Mexican legend about a woman who drowned her children in order to be with her lover. Regretting her decision, she now wanders forever, weeping and kidnapping children.

Anne Boleyn is probably too well-known to require much of an introduction (at least on this blog). She runs around headless, yo.

Screaming Jenny is a ghost in Harper’s Ferry, West VA. She’s said to have been a woman whose dress caught on fire; in a panic, she ran out of the house and onto the railroad track where she was struck and killed by a train, which is an extremely Wile E. Coyote way to meet one’s demise. Her fiery phantom is said to still haunt that section of track.

Great googly moogly you guys: This stuff is astonishing.

Tom Spina Designs is a group of artists and propmakers who do a lot of work for movies and TV and also, y’know, will make you just about any custom sculpture, prop, themed furniture, or decorative item you could possibly want. (Assuming you can afford it; I hesitate to even guess what a few of these installations would cost.)

So they’ll make you your own “carved stone” skull throne. They’ll help you devise a display for that authentic Invisible Man costume you have laying around. And they’ll also build you a King Kong-themed home theater, complete with giant ape-hand easy chairs and Kong himself peering at you over a sturdy wall. I could not love this more if I tried.

Check out their various galleries for fantastic inspiration: A wishing well and incredibly-detailed tombstones carved from foam, an amazing giant spider, and a full-blown “man cave” designed to display a large collection of horror movie props (with all kinds of great details like a rock formation featuring a spooky face).

There’s some phenomenal stuff here, either as a source of project ideas or just plain old coveting. Take a look!

Oh. Wow.

Jen of EPBOT decided to create a female steampunk Darth Vader costume, because why not. She’s been documenting her progress in stages, detailing her adventures in turning a flashlight into a lightsaber, not to mention the epic hackery that turned a plastic Vader mask into this steampunk confection.

She’s finally finished, and has revealed the entire costume. There are dozens of splendid little details, like a belt buckle made from a vintage compact (which doubles as a business card holder), and feathered epaulets.

Most of the costume was made from thrifted bits, and her build notes are full of great ideas for adding a steampunk vibe to plain articles of clothing. The whole thing is a fantastic source of inspiration; check it out!

Did you know these were even a thing? Because I certainly did not.

In much the same way that many zoos offer live “animal cams” that let you watch pandas and wolves and naked mole rats cavorting, a number of purportedly haunted sites have set up “ghost cams” to give viewers the opportunity to glimpse something supernatural. There’s a suprising number of them.

The Willard Library boasts a “grey lady” and has several cameras in different locations. They also allow users to submit screenshots of possible sightings, and have a gallery of past submissions online.

Ordsall Hall apparently has a number of ghosts. Since the Hall is open to the public during the day, their cams only operate at night.

The Knickerbocker Hotel has several live feeds, plus videos and EVPs from past “encounters.”

David lives in a haunted house and has both live cams and running commentary on odd happenings in the residence.

The Paris Catacombs have an infrared cam set up in one of the tunnels, although you have to manually refresh the page to update.

Ireland’s Eye has a ghost watch at an old linen mill and invites visitors to report unusual sightings.

There are several others, although apparently a number of UK-based ones that were hosted on the BBC site have all gone defunct at once.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, some of the cam locations are nicely creepy.

Bonus link: There’s a Pyramid Cam of the pyramids at Giza. Neat.

Help me out here, guys: I recently pared down the site blogroll quite a bit to get rid of dead links and other cruft. This leaves me plenty of room to repopulate it with useful new links. So…suggest some!

Are there gothy/crafty/DIY/home decor sites that you visit regularly? Would your own site interest this site’s readers? Lemme have it in the comments!