The Devil’s Dictionary, 1958 Dover ed., Ambrose Bierce
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve found this filed under “Occult/New Age”…

The Canterbury Tales, 1981 ed., Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill
One of the many copies of this book I have. I’m not a fan of “translated” editions of Chaucer, but I’m willing to overlook it in this case because the book is packed with annotated period illustrations.

The Call of the Wild, 1965 Scholastic ed., Jack London
When I was a kid, I liked White Fang much more, because the doggie got to have a family in the end. As an adult, a story about being true to your intrinsic nature resonates with me more.

The Three Imposters and Other Stories, 2001, Arther Machen, S.T. Joshi ed.
I actually like Machen quite a bit more than Lovecraft. There’s just something about his particular brand of…Welsh dread that resonates with me.

Deals with the Devil, 1959 abridged edition, Basil Davenport ed.
It’s hard to fault a book that opens with LeFanu and Dunsany, but for a book about Satanic pacts there’s a notable lack of Irving, Hawthorne and Benet.
Dig that mod Satan.

The Turn of the Screw, and other short novels, 1963 ed., Henry James
I’m always amazed that whether or not the ghosts are real in this story is a matter of contention. It’s not like James didn’t write plenty of other ghost stories. The real question is what, exactly, did those evil brats do?

The Castle of Otranto, 1963 ed., Horace Walpole
Classic Gothic novel, complete with secret passages, ghosts and a giant. Whose helmet crushes the villain’s son to death.
It’s a bit weird.

World Apart, 1986, Camilla Decarnin, Eric Garber and Lyd Paleo, eds.
Not a bad selection of material (Delany, Tiptree, Varley, Russ) and it almost entirely avoids the “not really gay because aliens” issue.

Welfare Wonderland, 1968, Belva Detlof
In one of those charming reminders of how everything new is old again, this screed from the late sixties, full of unsourced anecdotal evidence about welfare cheats and furious anger at deadbeat children asking for medical care and freeloading seniors wanting pensions, pretty much sounds exactly like the rhetoric you’re hearing from the GOP Presidential candidates. Right down to the “let them die” declarations about the uninsured.
It would be funny, except for, you know, being utterly horrifying in its callous disregard for people who have the nerve to not be wealthy.

Waves of Glory, 1925, R.E. Winsett
And, sometimes, I just grab the first thing that’s at hand and put it on the scanner.