Read Two Classic Books

Read at Least Two More Classic Books from the BBC List
January 30, 2014


I love to read, but I'm one of the slowest readers out there.  I've actually taken a speed reading class, but I didn't get any faster.

You may remember a few years ago when BBC released a list of the top 100 classic books.  Going through it, I was embarrassed to find that I had only read about 7 or 8.  I printed the list and kept it on my book shelf as a reminder to go back to the classics.  But that's about as far as that went.  So this year I decided to change that.

In the spring I was at Chapters and found Dracula was on a great sale.  I needed a new book and it was on the BBC list.  Perfect!

It's an interesting read because the story is told entirely through the diary entries of the main characters.  If you haven't read this book, it is the story of a vampire who feeds on a couple of women with the intention of turning them into vampires as well.  The men in their lives are obviously displeased with this and they hunt the vampire to save the women.  However, the hunt only becomes serious after the first woman is turned by the vampire and killed by the men.  I won't give away the ending, but I think we all know how things pan out.  Everyone likes a happy ending.  Dracula is just shy of 400 pages and it took me a couple of months to get through. 

Something to note is that two of the main characters are named John and Jonathan.  That's convenient.

The great thing about Dracula is that there is also a movie.  I was able to watch it and wow, did they take a lot of creative liberties!  I understand that movies often need to be different from books to keep people interested and entertained, but come on.  Mina was in love with her husband, not Dracula! 

In October I started thinking about a second book.  My sister has read a lot of the books on that list, so I asked her what she would recommend and ordered The Three Musketeers.  She said it was an easy read that would make me laugh.  I was excited.

When it arrived, I discovered that it is 700 pages!  So, there's no way that could happen before the end of February.

Instead of finding another book right away, I dragged my heals.  Finally in December we were at Chapters again and I bought The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  At 180 pages I knew this was my best option.  My version had a basic cover with stickers on the inside so that I could create my own cover art.  We were off to a good start!

I didn't seriously start reading this book till January, but then I got through it really quickly.  If you haven't read this one, it's about a man who lives on earth and his friend Ford, who is from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. The earth man, Arthur, has no idea that Ford isn't from earth till Ford saves Arthur from the demolition of earth by taking him hitchhiking on an alien space ship.  They get thrown off of the ship and miraculously rescued by another ship.  The second ship has been stolen by the president of the galaxy and is trying to find Magrathea, a fabled planet that no one believes really exists.  They do find it, only to discover that the people of Magrathea are creating Earth 2, to replace the demolished first version, which was also created by Magrathea. 
 
It was an easy read and had some humor to it, but I wasn't all that excited by it.  To me, it didn't seem like there was much of a climax to the story.  Some exciting things happened and luck almost always saved the day and then it was over.  Perhaps if I read the next book or two I might get more into the story. 

Luckily, this book also has a movie, which just so happened to be on Netflix.  I watched it and was really pleased with the adaptation.  They did change a few things, adding a bit more of a climax, but they did a great job of keeping the basics together.  And the casting was perfect.   Since there are some very different words in the book (like Magrathea), I discovered that I had been saying them wrong.  I kind of liked that.

I'll continue to make my way through the list, but I'm excited to get back to some modern reads.  Chris Hadfield's book is waiting to be read and I can't wait!