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I used to work at a store where some of us employees liked to dress up for Halloween. One year the young woman I worked with that day dressed in her full Goth regalia (this is someone with a spiderweb tattoo), and when one customer said to her, "I love your costume," she replied, coldly and seriously, "It's not a costume." Ever since then I have thought of Halloween as the one day each year when Goths "fit in."

From whence does "Goth" come as a description of this subculture? Not from the original Goths, Germanic barbarians who sacked Rome and later founded the kingdom that eventually became Spain and Portugal. Rather, it comes from "Gothic fiction," an English literary movement (so called in reference to the architecture of castles) that dates from Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.

Such famed literature as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,...

Stumped for what to buy your friends and family this year? Forget the socks and chocs and bubble bath – our critics have chosen 40 of the best music, film and TV box sets

Pop by Kitty Empire

1 The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set (Parlophone)

At £145, the Beatles box set probably costs roughly what a small car did in the early 1960s. But the startling detail on these CDs will repay the outlay for Beatles nerds and mere mortals alike. Its sister release, The Beatles in Mono – 1960s scooter prices, at a guess – is even more desirable, audiophiles reckon.

2 Kraftwerk The Catalogue (Mute/Emi)

Eight albums by the electronic Beatles, dating from 1974's Autobahn, all gleamingly remastered. Costing considerably less than one of Ralf Hütter's beloved bicycles, this is the master text of most electronic genres – electro, techno, even hip-hop – today.

3 Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space Deluxe...