What’s on my nightstand?

This month is the end of the semester and I’ve been quite busy with it. And yet I’ve still gotten some reading in! Yay! Though the list is not near as long as I might have liked, here is what went down this month:

DRACULA – Classic as it gets. It’s all the elements of the cliche vampire story rolled together, which sounds as if reading it all over again might be a bore, but it wasn’t. I enjoyed every moment of reading Dracula. The narrative is told through a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings and the like, which leaves gaps in persective and fills them in with perfect timing and class. Although for me the mystery of the vampire story is gone, this book was still a delight to read because Stoker’s craft of storytelling is excellent, page-turning greatness.

One thing I found odd about this novel is that the Count Dracula himself is quite absent from the story. He is there in the very beginning and at the end, but the story is not about him. The story is about Lucy and her friends. (<– if that doesn’t sound corny I don’t know what does) But fo’ real.

Give it a read, if such classics fancy you. I found it enjoyable to finally be reading the “true” epitome of vampire stories. And if nothing else, I learned this solid, unalterable fact: VAMPIRES DO NOT SPARKLE.

WIZARD AND GLASS – Number four in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The fantasy adventure story has run our heroes onto a crazy, machine-gone-human train who is determined to crash with them aboard and end their mission to the Dark Tower. Only the ability for the group to out-riddle Blaine’s machine-brain will save their lives! As exciting as this entrance sounds, it has little to do with the grand plot of the book on hand. During Wizard and Glass King takes a break from the narrative of his current story and gives readers the history of Roland, the hero of the series. He has given tidbits of it in the first three books, but at last nearly all of Roland’s past is uncovered (to readers as well as to the gunslinger’s companions) in a 400-page flashback. His love for his two best friends and his romance with Susan, the glass ball and the origins of the Man in Black’s ties to Roland are at last revealed.

I have sincerely enjoyed this whole series so far. I had never read King before (I’m not big into horror…at all.) But at the urging of a friend, began reading these books and love them. King is a phenomenal writer. Whether or not you choose to like his subject matter, it is hard to deny the man knows how to create a story and some deep characters. Number five is on my to-read for next month!

THE BELL JAR – Books such as this one make me worry about myself a little bit. Haha! But in all seriousness, it creates this question in my head: How thin is the line between sane and insane? How close are we all to just tip toppling over the edge of lunacy? This book struck a cord with me because it is narrated by a girl with whom I can very closely identify. Esther is not far fetched and I found I had many things in common with her. It’s late into the story, long after her mind has probably began to slip away from her, when I realize it is happening. (Aside: The power of the first-person narration is incredible. I forget sometimes who I am when reading such stories.) All of the thoughts and reasoning, no matter how truly flawed, begin to make sense and are understandable. It’s a little creepy.

Plath, as is known, also ended up going a little off the deep end…er….she committed suicide not all too long after this book became published. Which is easy to picture, I suppose, but it would not be too much of a stretch for me to write a book like this and I am — or I like to think I am — perfectly sane.

The workings of the mind are fascinating. Read this book.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE [my current read] – S. Morgenstern’s classic tale of true love and high adventure. Nearly every person under the sun has seen this movie (I say nearly only because I know that my mom has not seen it. Other than that, I know of no one.) And nearly every one of those people love it. It is a wonderful tale. And while the faces of the actors are forever pasted upon the characters as I read the book, it is ever as much enjoyable. I’m three hundred pages in and I feel as if I am only reading the letters of a dear friend. The characters are as familiar to me as anything and I love it all still more as I continue to read. What is so wonderful is how much more of the story there is in the book…and what is even greater is how natural it seems to be there. I do not come upon a chapter and think “Wow, this wasn’t in the movie! How odd!” But it all sinks in seamlessly. Whether you have seen the movie or not, whether you liked it or hated it…I ask you to read this book. Read it.

William Goldman’s abridgement is spectacular (Morgenstern’s original is more commentary and less story) and lets you know exactly where and why parts are cut. All of the story is still intact and in Morgenstern’s original text. And there are many parts that are verbatim in the movie. It proves that great movies can be made from books which do not slaughter the story or characters.

And that’s about it for me. Finals are this week and after that I hope to spend a great deal of time at the park or at the pool reading. I have lined up (in no particular order): Wolves of Calla (Dark Tower 5), Coraline, Fahrenheit 451, Till We Have Faces, and The Two Towers.

Just keep reading,

Hayles