Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dracula

Everyone always raves about Dracula, especially in light of the recent obsession with vampires. (Twilight, True Blood). I remember enjoying it when I read it back in 8th grade for school. I keep meaning to reread it, but just haven't gotten there, yet.

So, when I got a Kindle on my Droid X that I got for Christmas, I started searching out free books. I decided that I was going to make my way through as many of the free classics as I could. Dracula was actually the first book I downloaded on the Nook app. (Yes, I am using both Kindle and Nook on my phone.)

Pardon the pun, but I was immediately sucked in. I read it while waiting for my dinner to cook, while waiting in line at Target, at lunch at work. I even found Jonathan's account of being held captive to be somewhat scary, and I don't scare easily.

I also found it intriguing that the word "vampire" doesn't appear for at least the first quarter of the book, if not halfway through? It was almost surreal to me to know that I was reading about Count Dracula being a vampire, because I already knew from common knowledge. But the characters didn't know. And how amazing would that have been to have read that book when it came out, not knowing anything about it? Vampires are such a part of pop culture, that some of the suspense was taken away from me.

Another thing I missed was all of the eroticism that is supposed to be in the book. I keep hearing how erotic it is. Really? Am I missing something? Was the Kindle edition somehow edited to take all of that out? Because I just didn't see it. Or maybe it's because I really don't care for vampires in general. If someone would like to enlighten me, I would appreciate it!

So, all in all, I did enjoy this book much more now than I did 20 years ago. Eventually, I may try to check out the movie.I agree that it is quality literature that everyone should read. And, I don't think it is too racy for young adults. Check it out and enjoy it.