This Week’s Essential Reads

The people have spoken! This weekend, dive in to the “The Flipboard 5,” the stories, galleries and videos that were the most popular on Flipboard over the past seven days. Read all the articles, which include the most perfect pies of the season, the scariest use of an iPad ever, and dramatic photos of the natural world.

Halloween articles kept popping up like an army of zombies this week, but this piece of iPad wizardry was among the most shared. Your eyes won’t believe what Simon Pierro can do in this truly modern horror story.

Bon Appetit’s Flipboard section recently got a top-to-bottom makeover, including all-new recipe pages and sharper photos.

Be proactive. That’s the key to success — and main message of this guest post from James Altucher, an entrepreneur, programmer, and author of six books on investing.

Over 10,000 pictures from photographers in 105 countries were submitted to this year’s Environmental Photographer of the Year contest — and these are the winners.

This rustic abode belongs to Japanese denizens Setsumasa and Mami Kobayashi and is located two and a half hours northwest of Tokyo. It’s quite possibly the coolest country house you’ll ever see.