Review: Tomes of Terror by Mark Leslie

Published September 27th 2014
by Dundurn Group 

Do you like ghost stories? What about ghost stories that are supposed to be true? I do. Tomes of Terror: Haunted Bookstores and Libraries by Mark Leslie is full of such reported hauntings. Many of the stories have first person accounts of encounters.

I can easily believe that a library or bookstore could be haunted. I worked in one bookstore where the general consensus was that we had a resident ghost with no idea who or why it was there. Many of the occurrences attributed to ghosts in this volume are similar to what we experienced: books that fall onto the floor for no reason, alarms that go off when they shouldn't, doors that swing open or shut with no one there. Others have more intricate hauntings including footsteps and even apparitions. One haunting even seemed to be specifically for a particular book.

Mark Leslie covered bookstores and libraries in both Canada, the United States and a few abroad. There are footnotes and appendices backing  his information. In particular I enjoyed the Further Reading and Additional Resources for the Bookish at Heart.

If you enjoy reading about things that go bump in the night, then this book might be for you. The only thing I might have changed in the book would be to group the hauntings further by geography. For example, all the hauntings that take place in a particular city or state grouped together instead of just by country. That way it would be useful for people who might want to visit the spots close to where they will be.

Otherwise I think that Tomes of Terror is an excellent book on accounts of hauntings in bookstores and libraries. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I like it very much and would share it with my fellow bookish people.

Have you ever been in a bookstore or library that was supposed to be haunted? Have you ever experienced a haunting at all? Feel free to share in the comments.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in order to give my honest opinion.