The Goosebumps Gold series. It was originally announced in like 2000 but got scrapped probably because of licensing issues. Books that were supposed to be released were The Haunted Mask Lives!, Happy Holidays from Dead House, and Slappy New Year. However, Slappy New Year was later released under the Horrorland series, but I'm unsure if it shares the same story as the one originally planned.

depends on the book. Sometimes I like going completely blind and other times I feel like having some type of background knowledge is nice to know. I was recently reading Frankenstein and I could not believe Mary Shelley started writing it at only 18 years old.