what ya reading?

When I read, I like to read fun frivolous stuff. Not really a deep type of person. Let's see I've read a few things in the last few months and stopped reading mostly to catch up on my video games and watching DVDs.

Anways, last thing I've read was "Dracula," and before that "Frankenstein." The reason why I read these books is because of the movie "Van Helsing" that came out earlier in the summer. Well, I didn't actually go and see the movie, but I did buy the old "Universal Monsters" series DVD boxed set. I bought them seperate, not the huge collectors sets with the statues, because I wanted to save room for other stuff.

Well, the books I got in paper back format and were included in one volume alone with "Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde" with a forward written by Stephen King. "Frankenstein" was the first book in the volume. The monster in the book was nasty and grotesque. Way more grotesque than in any of the movies. What surprised me was that he was smart and articulate. He also had the power of speech.

I didn't feel sorry for the monster like I did in the movie, except for when he was observing this one family in the distance with the old blind man and his two children. He studied their habits and eventually learned to speak by watching them. Finally, he got up the courage to come out of hiding and introduce him to the family, and they didn't accept him, because they found him frightening and like I said before, grotesque. This set off the monster and he went off to torment Frankenstein for having creating him. It's a tragic story with a not so happy ending, but a good read. Not too long neither, I literally finished reading it within a few days, and I'm a slow reader.

"Dracula" on the other hand is a very long book. Close to 400 pages. I've always liked Bela Lugosi's dipiction of the monster, more so than the recent movie with Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman as "Dracula." The modern version of the movie is closer to the book, but they take liberties as well; like connecting the literary Dracula to the historical Vlad the Impaler. Stoker's only connection from monster to historical figure was in name only. Also in the movie, they had Dracula fall in love with Mina, which did not happen in the book. That was my gripe with the movie in the first place to begin with, because it seemed too over done and sappy, and forced and contrived.

However, my favorite parts in the books where the Reinfield parts in the Assylum, and the Van Helsing parts. Van Helsing is a frail old man, and a brilliant scientist, but he also can sound sexist at times. Like when Mina suggests some things, Van Helsing says that she must have a mind of a man. This implies that a woman can't think. He's still a likable character however, plus you have to keep in mind when the story was written, so many people thought that way back then. I loved Mina in the book she stays true to herself even after being under Dracula's spell, and make no mistake about it, unlike the movie, her heart stays true to her husband Jonathan Harker. The parts I like with her is how she stays brave while she's slowly turning into a vampire and offers to let Van Helsing hypnotize her so that they kind find out where Dracula's going next during their pursuit back from England to Transylvania. This makes Mina the heroine of the story, just as Van Helsin is with his brilliant mind and Jonathan Harker with his bravery. A great read. I reccommend it highly.

Before I read these books, I've read most of the Ian Fleming James Bond books. Got all the movies up to date on DVD last Christmas and decided to read the books. I'll talk about that on a later date.

Don't care for that part of Goldfingah aye? I like when Fleming did that kind of descriptive stuff. Like when he opened up "Diamonds Are Forever" with the scorpion in the desert thing.

I liked Frankenstein a lot too and you maybe interested to know that Hallmark of all people are doing a made for TV version that's supposed to be very true to the original text by Shelly. Supposed to premier in late October.

Check out some photos here:

www.hallmarkent.com/property.php?propertyId=Frankenstein&page=photos