Making It Cool to Read : Chris O’Flaherty, who had no peers to discuss books with when he was growing up, starts a club for fans of Goosebumps series.

“Manny’s shrill scream cut off my words. We all turned to him and saw his horrified expression . . . ‘My face! It’s falling off! . . . ‘ He had his hands cupped. They trembled as he held them up. And I saw that he was holding a pale blob of his own skin!”

--from R.L. Stine’s

“My Hairiest Adventure,”

the Goosebumps series

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It wasn’t long ago that Chris O’Flaherty was a scrappy 9-year-old boy growing up in Reseda. Like most of his friends at the time, he played sports--baseball, basketball and maybe even a little neighborhood kick-the-can.

But O’Flaherty also had another secret passion--reading.

“I would have given anything to talk about books with my friends,” said O’Flaherty. “But that just wasn’t done. (It was) definitely uncool.”

Instead, between school and team practice, he became a closet book-lover, reading just about anything he could get his hands on, then discussing it with his mother, an equally avid reader.

Today, 16 years later, O’Flaherty’s wish has come true. As founder of the . . . bumps club! at Bookstar’s Woodland Hills location, he dissects plot lines and character development with about 50 kids each month.

What is . . . bumps?

As any parent of a 7- to 12-year-old knows, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series is absolutely the latest in cool reading. With almost 33 paperbacks in print, the writer has created a mixture of “Twilight Zone” meets “Highlights,” offering the flavor of Stephen King for the preteen crowd.

Stine’s flare for blending the ghoulishly outrageous with an almost comic-book-style (“One Day at HorrorLand,” “Welcome to Camp Nightmare,” “The Girl Who Cried Monster”) resonates with young readers.

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Last spring, O’Flaherty, then a salesperson at Bookstar, and one of his co-workers noticed that each month, when a new title hit the stands, the store would sell out almost as fast as the books could be stocked.

“They were hot,” O’Flaherty said. “So I read one. And you know, they were pretty good. They’re fun.”

So he decided to start a book club aimed exclusively at Goosebumps readers, with monthly meetings and a newsletter every other month.

“The response has been overwhelming,” said O’Flaherty, 25, whose mailing list exceeds 120 children.

Although he no longer works for the bookstore, O’Flaherty continues to lead the discussion groups, which also include a small craft project. Kids who come to talk about the books wind up their session making Goosebumps Pogs or writing letters to the author. Barnes & Noble bookstores in Northridge, Encino and Studio City have also latched onto O’Flaherty’s . . . bumps club! idea and now offer periodic discussion groups themselves.

But not everyone is initially attracted to the series. Some parents are concerned about the contents, especially since the cover illustrations are often shockingly macabre.

“I was very skeptical about letting my daughter read Goosebumps,” said Lois Greene of Encino. “They looked, well, kind of gross. But she kept insisting, and she hadn’t shown much interest in books before this.

“So I read one first. They’re really harmless fun. And most important, she likes reading them. She’s finished about 15 now.”

Greene said she was surprised to learn that many of the titles contain female heroines or narrators. “I just assumed that Goosebumps were mostly for boys,” she said. “Was I ever wrong.”

“We have a pretty good mix of boys and girls in the club,” said O’Flaherty, who hopes one day to have his own fiction published. “I really wish there had been something like this when I was younger. But I’m just glad that this helps make it cool to read.”

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: . . . bumps club!

Location: Bookstar, 21440 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills.

Hours: 7 p.m. Monday.

Price: Free.

Call: (818) 702-9515.