Number 23: Read Some Classics

I decided that I wanted to read a couple of classics.  It started with Dracula.  I don't know why.  I think it was around Halloween and it was free on my Kindle so I thought why not.  So I started to read it.  It was alright but I learned a couple of things.  When writers wrote in the 1800's they really take a long time to tell the story.  There are things in the book that you think will be important in the future of the book and then those things don't really come up again.  With Dracula, the first was REALLY scary, when Dracula held the guy in his broken down castle and then the guy saw him climbing up and down the outside walls, that was seriously a little scary.  Then the book travels to England and a couple of women get infected and then there is a crazy guy as part of the story and it takes forever to develop.  When they figure out that it is Dracula and follow him back to Transylvania I am thinking that there will be a big climax and scene where they capture and kill Dracula.  So another endless amount of pages about the journey and following Dracula to his castle, then in about two pages they find Dracula in his coffin asleep and stab him with no problems and Dracula was gone.  I wasn't impressed.  I did learn that Stephanie Meyers did really stay close with the original characteristics of a vampire though. 

The next classic I read was Frankenstein.  I did read this one in high school and remembered feeling really sorry for Frankenstein trying to live and love in a society that abhorred him.  So I was interested again to read that.  I have to say the second time, I still felt really sad for Frankenstein but he was more violent that I remembered against the guy who made him.  I regress, Frankenstein was the guy who created him and he was just a monster without a name.  I did enjoy the book.  It really gives a perspective of a situation that a person can create in which they have no control once they make that initial choice.  Then the monster wanted acceptance and love even from his creator and never being able to obtain that.  Really kinda a tragedy but I liked it.  I am always fascinated that it was written by a women too.  I wonder what inspired her to write it.  

The third was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  I have never read this one and actually hated the story.  The only version I can stand to watch is the muppets.  It was a choice of Phyllis at book club for December.  I came to find out later that she wanted it because her other book club was doing it and she wanted to double dip so to speak.  She also compared it to Elder Uchtdorf's talk about no regrets.  I will make the comparison at the end of the post.  Anyway so I though why not.  So I started it and it is really good.  I love the written story about a million times more than any movie version of it.   Dickens is a really fabulous writer.  He just captures the human spirit.   I found myself wanting to highlight and remember certain passages of it and I hardly ever do that anymore.  I am going to read more of his works just because I loved A Christmas Carol and his writing so much.  

Going back to Elder Uchtdorf's talk of No Regrets in comparison to A Christmas Carol.  The three things that Scrooge needed to do were the three things that Elder Uchtdorf said we should do in life.  Scrooge needed to spend time with people who he loved.  He needed to get to know his nephew and nephew's family.  Scrooge needed to live up to his potential.  He had all this money but wasn't doing anything with it.  He wasn't being who he could be.  Third, Scrooge needed to let himself be happy.  He was always just being Scrooge and not allowing himself to enjoy life and the people around him.  So it was a great book to read and start out the Christmas season for me.  I wish I could claim the credit for coming up with the Uchtdorf comparison but I have to give Phyllis the credit for that.  In her other book club she make up book markers and printed off a bound copy of the General Conference with that particular talk.  She really went all out as only Phyllis can do.   Number 23....check!