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I want to talk about the different books and series I've read over the years that have shaped my imagination. I'm not going to talk about every book I've ever read, just the ones that stood out to me. There will be one or two books on here that were read for class, and one that I really hated. I'm gonna talk about what each one's about, and what I liked about it. Looking through them I think you can tell that I mostly like books about survival, animals, adventure, war, and dead teenagers, apparently...
I lowkey hated this series, though I only managed to get read through one book, The Eternity code. I don't know, I guess it's just not my thing. I guess I have (at least back then) no reason to care about some kid genius who wants to be a career criminal. And then there's the fantasy element of the series. I like fantasy - I fucking love dragons and stuff - but I guess I just don't care for fantasy that's supposed to take place in the real world, which is why I never got into Percy Jackson, and I never read Harry Potter, but I probably wouldn't like it much either. As, I sure like how Artemis has a butler who's surname is actually Butler, and Artemis is so attached to him but apparently isn't on "first name basis" with him.
This series was peak 3rd grade reading for me, and proof that I do in fact like fantasy when it's done right. It's a series about a kid named Tom and his friend Elanna who has a pet wolf, and they go around fighting these giant evil beasts (Ferno the Fire Dragon, Tusk the Mighty Mammoth, Targus the Night Horse, Aracnid the Spider King, etc.). Tom's an orphan but there was one book that started with them meeting his father, who ended up being a ghost. That was cool. I swear this series was peak fantasy, and so was Spirit Animals. When I first learned about Monsuno (I'll try to talk about that somewhere, idk where yet), I tried to write my own Beast-Quest style stories, though I didn't get very far, but oh well. Now I kinda want to go the book store to look for these books...
Except I would prefer if I could find the books with the original cover art, because looking online it looks like the covers and even illustrations have been changed. They look more cartonny than what I remember. Hell even the logo is different. I managed to find an image of one of the orignal covers, and I forgot that the Q had a monster eye in it. I gotta say, hearing about how brutal and graphic that series was in retrospect, can't say I'm a huge fan of the new art. If I can find more images of the original covers, I'll make a page showing off the old and new covers for comparison. Why oh why do publishers have to change the covers or the illustrations? Especially if it's not even as good as the original? People say it's marketing or whatever, you gotta redesign shit when sales start to slow or something, but honestly I think that's bullshit. Me personally, I might still buy the new editions, if for nothing else than for the story, but I would REALLY rather buy the old ones if I can find them. I'll buy them second hand if I have to, I don't mind. As long as the pages aren't torn out and the cover is still together, I'm fine with buying used books.
This was probably the most iconic series of 3rd and 4th grade. This is one of the series I checked out of the school library the most. I have a copy of Pearl Harbor 1941, Hurricane Katrina 2005, and The Great Chicago Fire 1871. But I've also read The Terrorist Attacks of September 11 2001, The Battle of Gettysburg 1863, The Sinking of the Titanic 1912, and I'm sure there were more but I don't remember what they were. I never read the ones about the SF earthquake or a series of shark attacks, but I kept seeing them advertised in the books I did read. There were also these magazines we read in our 4th grade Reading class. I don't remember what they were called by I have one issue laying around somewhere. Anyway, there one story in there written by the author of I Survived, and it was about the Lusitania when it was shot by a U-Boat.
I actually fucking hated this book. It's an R. L. Stine story, but I'd say it's worst I've ever read from him (I'm told there's some lack luster Goosebumps stories but i haven't read them). It's about some star quarterback (cliche, cliche, cliche...) who wants to go to some Ivy League school and he's upset because his girlfriend wants to go to another school (whoop dee doo). And of course she's the lead cheerleader, and of course she has a rich daddy, and of course he has an absent father and has to go to a good school so he can provide for his mom and brother, and of couse he and his girlfriend have been together since 6th grade (cue Peter Griffin). Don't get me wrong, being that kid who's relying on a bright future for yourself so you can make one for your family is fine. I think that's the most relatable thing in this whole damn book. But that's about all this book has going for it. Also, the book says all the teachers loved this quarterback and cheerleader couple, which totally isn't creepy especially in middle school. But this book came out in the 1990s so creepy teachers probably wasn't much of a thing back then.
Anyway so rich chick is going on vacation with her family and quarter boy goes to homecoming (I don't remember if she goes with him but I don't think so; you might have noticed I don't refer back to the books when working on this or the manga pages). Anyway while rich chick is away, quarter boy finds a redhead (if you know anything about redheads, you know whats coming) who broke her bike so he takes her home. He goes in and makes out with her and leaves his hat there because he's a dumbass. Anyway redhead turns out to be a crazy bitch and tries pretending she's quarterboy's girlfriend, which causes a bunch of problems when rich chick comes home. Quarter boy has nightmares about going to crazy bitch's house to get it through her head that they're not together, only to be pursued by her big brothers. And he keeps thinking that he's being followed by some big guy who lurks in the shadows who must be one of crazy bitch's brothers she warned him about. Anyway she keeps ruining his life. She kills his pet snake, kills rich chick's cat and stuffs it in quarter boy's hat, she breaks his hand so he can't play ball, and she crashes some party meant for him. Finally he has enough and goes to her house and shakes her so violently she blacks out. He thinks he's killed her, the one damn thing I've been screaming at the pages for him to do throughout the book, and instead of leaving her, tries to sneak her body INTO RICH CHICK'S HOUSE!!! And of course everyone's there waiting for him because it's a surprise birthday for him. Well crazy bitch revives and tries to go at him with a ski pole, but gets tackled by the guy who's been following quarterboy. Turns out he's a detective who's been following crazy bitch, who is an ADULT with a criminal past, no family, and she's been living in an empty house. Well quarterboy finally has to tell rich chick the truth: he cheated on her. And what does she do? She laughs it off. Yeah, this was the lamest fucking Stine book I've ever read....
The narration style of this novel certainly takes some getting used to. Instead of just one narration, it's a compilation of journal entries written by the characters, Jonathon Harker, his wife Mina, Dr. van Helsing, and some others. I watched the old Universal film years ago. Tbh I really don't like how they changed how the characters are connected to each other and some other stuff, but whatever. I won't lie I actually went through this book rooting for Dracula even though he knew he would obviously lose, just to see how it would feel. Things were definitely slow for a while, especially when Mina's friend who had three men try to court her (as if anyone cared) was dying after my guy Drac got to her. She kept weakening and then she'd feel better for a while once van Helsing and her fiance helped her. Fucking hell I just wanted her to die so the story could go on! But eventually she did. If you want to know how the story goes you can either pick up the book for yourself or read the plot summary on Wikipedia, but obviously they all kill Drac and Jonathan and his wife have kids and iirc they name one Abraham after Dr. van Helsing. I won't lie, while I rooted for Drac, I fucking loved Dr. van Helsing. He is such a fucking chad! He and Dr. Livsey both. For all the alterations Universal made, I have to give them credit for recognizing Helsing's sigma aura, because they had to include a scene in the movie that doesn't happen in the book where Dracula confronts Helsing and tries to hypnotize him, and the doctor struggles, but ultimately his wits are far too strong for the Count, so the Count doesn't get his way. Another thing I like about the film over the book is the casting of Bela Lugosi as Drac. I don't like how in the book Drac has a mustache, and maybe that's just because he's depicted without one in modern culture, but whether or not that depiction was only popularized with Lugosi, I think it's a more fitting appearance. And yeah, vampires are also drawn to have longer, pointier faces, while Lugosi had a rounder face, but I don't care, and I don't care that Lugosi was a Commie, or Hungarian instead of Transylvanian (or at least Romanian at any rate) but I don't care. He was hot and he had an accent and that made him perfect to portray a monster who's supposed to be seductive like Dracula.
And I won't lie, reading this book has gotten me seriously into vampire lore. Like, the Transylvanian locals know about them. Dr. van Helsing does, too, but in a way that sounds like there's more than just Drac and his brides. What were the vampires (or wampyrs) before Dracula? And he's a Count, a nobleman, so what was his life before he became a vampire? It's implied I think that he became a vampire after making a deal with the Devil. What was the deal? What did he do in exchange for becoming a fiend? Why did he want to become one? I just want to know who Count Dracula was as a human. I expect if he was willing to deal with Satan then he was probably a cruel noble to the commoners under him. What was his family history? There's just too many damn questions with no answers! I mean, maybe there are more answers I just didn't notice. You don't notice everything the first time reading any book.