Haunted house creator likes books that focus on politics and history

Cydney Neil, the mastermind behind Rocky Point Haunted House, knows a thing or two about fright. But when it comes to reading, she looks for political, biographical or historical books.

After 26 years, producer and creator Neil will be closing Rocky Point's doors for good next spring. She said around 50,000 people each year visit Rocky Point, which was one of the first commercial haunted houses in the country. The show began in 1979 as a small spook alley in the Rocky Point Restaurant in Ogden and now spans more than 60,000 square feet and includes more than 50 interactive sets, Hollywood memorabilia and movie props.

Though Neil has always loved reading, she finds it tough to squeeze books into her 16- to 20-hour days, seven days a week.

When she isn't ushering thousands through the spooky rooms, she designs costumes and sets, shops for props, designs cast acting and leadership programs and creates all of her marketing material — not to mention doing her own accounting.

As a child, Neil said, she read everything from "Charlotte's Web" to "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn."

"I loved books on how to do something or anything I could learn from," Neil said. "I loved books that were adventuresome and whimsical as well as serious books with lots of deep meaning."

Among her favorite reads are Harry Potter books, "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown and any book by Ayn Rand. Her all-time favorite is Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

But presently she is just trying to keep up on hundreds of daily e-mails.