Remember Those True Philippine Ghost Stories Books of the 2000s? You Can Read Them Here
Way before we were on r/nosleep on Reddit or Let's Takutan Pare on Facebook, we relied on that book series True Philippine Ghost Stories to give us a good scare. It had gloriously spooky stories, after all. Gen Zers best remember them as the books some of our teachers used to confiscate. It was justified... because who the hell needed these things in a classroom setting anyway? Hey, they were just that popular, and kids would often exchange accounts, as well. From dealing with the paranormal to Philippine folklore, these stories were the stuff of myths and urban legends.
Published by PSICOM in 2002, the first 10 volumes went on to become cult classics. Those books, interestingly, had stories written by award-winning ghost writers (one of them is a member of the PEN, ehem). And now we can read all of them online for free. Simply go to PSICOM's app and register. Go to the free e-books category and there you'll find the True Philippine Ghost Stories collection. Thank us later.
Trip mo bang matakot ulit? Complete volumes of ‘True Philippine Ghost Stories’ are FREE to read on the PSICOM app on iOS and Android.
— Underdog (@readunderdog) October 21, 2020
Happy spooky season to the terrified early 2000s version of you. pic.twitter.com/yLzblMn1Tz
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We get to relieve "The Lady in the Black Dress" and the ghouls in Baguio and a ton of those boarding house stories. Everyone had their favorites. What made True Philippine Ghost Stories so cool is that it refleted some old-timey tall tales passed around the corners of provinces, too. Okay, whether or not they were actually real doesn't matter at this point. Reality is boring anyway and let's not ruin the vibe. There might be more or less 18 volumes of these things around in circulation. But we'll stick to the ones we know because, well, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
The PSICOM app is available on the App Store or Google Play.
