In the US and looking for something offbeat to do for Halloween?

The New York Public Library’s “LIVE from the NYPL” Program has scheduled an eerie-sounding event for October 27: a panel called “The Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries.”

Ann Wroe, described as “the editor of some of the best obituaries in the world,” will be discussing “the making of obituaries, their thrills and pitfalls, their rewards, and their insidious influence with Marilyn Johnson, who has studied the art and peculiar habits of obituary writers around the world….”

A somewhat strange departure from the LIVE program’s usual events (past panels have included author-scholar Samantha Power, travel writers Pico Iyer and Simon Winchester, and filmmaker Spike Lee), the obituary panel should, nonetheless, be well-attended by the living– LIVE’s events regularly sell out.

For more information and ticket prices, visit LIVE’s website here.

Photo: Curious Expeditions (Flickr creative commons)