The Good, The Brutal & The Unreadable

[@AnonymousAnonposter]

I agree with your comparative view of Dracula vs Frankenstein, the later is a true classic that is worth rereading and analyzing in new ways.

[@asdfhjklacew]

Sorry for the random comment. Hello there. You are someone I look up to in terms of books. I admire your taste and find myself connecting to what you say. I hear you and subconsciously nod a lot. I was thinking about reading "The Shadow of the Torturer" and wondered if you had a take on the book/series. Thanks friend. Wishing you health.

[@bookjack]

Wow I took a break from responding to comments and this was a great one to come back to. Thank you so much! I have not read Shadow of the Torturer but was recently gifted it by a generous viewer so it is near the top of my TBR

[@asdfhjklacew]

@ thank you for the kind response :) I look forward to your review if you choose to do one

[@phaedrus2633]

Your critiques seems to assume that Dracula existed, in widespread lore, before Bram's book came out. I didn't find "Dracula" nearly as draggy, and prissy, as "Frankenstein". When I read "Dracula", I was quite impressed by the nuances of the scenes, the creepy Count crawling outside of the windows of his guests. The turning of his assistant, whose name escapes me. Oh! Renfield.

[@bookjack]

Didn't mean to come across that way. I know he invented the idea and deserves credit for that. In fairness I liked the beginning with Dracula's castle and you're right, that was creepy when he crawled out the window (and when Jonathan had to do the same) Got really stale for me once they left Transylvania though

[@phaedrus2633]

@@bookjack You may have been responding to someone who had posted something to you, but I thought you were saying that you didn't need to read "Dracula" because you were already familiar with the character. I'll have to watch this video again.

[@Unpotted]

@@bookjackDon’t know how widely spread vampire lore was when Dracula was written, but I thought Carmilla, by Sheridan Le Fanu was Stoker’s inspiration for the story. 😺✌️

[@MetalGearChief]

I know it is old but The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price is a thoroughly enjoyable adaptation of I Am Legend.

[@DKBiedron]

Dracula is a fun book! Characters are built up, there’s action happening to pace it and different perspectives make it move along🧛‍♂️ Richard Matheson is the ultimate writer!

[@bookjack]

Glad you liked it. Somehow didn't work for me. 🧛 Matheson does have a quality unique to him. Completely honest to the point of discomfort which I think has become extinct

[@NITEOWLMEDIA2023]

Check your P.O. Box for a spooky treat...

[@Tetsujin-28]

Omega Man: I saw this in the theatre with my Dad. We loved it. The Vincent Price adaptation is very good too.

[@bookjack]

Oh wow I totally forgot about that movie. Saw it with my uncle a long time ago. Double feature along with Soylent Green

[@Unpotted]

I’m so curious how your 4 million word challenge is going. Update? 😺✌️

[@bookjack]

Finally put out a new video. The challenge was ultimately... too challenging 😅

[@forinthemorning0400]

enjoyed dracula but it was the first book i read getting back to reading as a teenager. of the classic creature features ive read -frankenstein, dracula, dr jekyll & mr hyde- frankenstein is my favorite for the reasons you mentioned

[@bookjack]

Glad it got you back into reading :)

[@someothercharacter]

Ohhhhhhh....I knew it was going to be Dracula. A lot of recent reviews I have watched have not been positive for old Bram. I tell ya it's these kids nowadays. With their fancy Ipads and the world wide web. I read it in '92 in a few days before the movie came out, but I remember enjoying it. There was a blacklist script for I am Legend in the early 2000s that had Bruce Willis attached to it. The opening scene would have been him falling asleep in the cemetery, waking up, checking his watch, and then realizing he didn't wind it. He lost track of time and has to rush home before sundown. Sounded like a great scene. I think they had a George Wendt type cast as his neighbor Ben.

[@bookjack]

Just like the book! Would be cool if they took another shot at it. Loved the Dracula movie because I'm an iPad kid I guess 😅

[@darronvanaria2952]

That quote “quiet desperation” refers to most of us that live our lives privately wishing things were totally different, a different job, a different wife. If we only had enough money, if we were only better looking- we are never content with how we are and what we have, flaws and all. I don’t think that applies (at all) to the protagonist of I Am Legend.

[@bookjack]

I did read something like that when I was looking up the quote afterwards. I'm sure Thoreau meant it that way, but in the alternate reality where Oscar Wilde said it I'm pretty sure he was talking about having to accept the unalterable aspects of harsh realities

[@darronvanaria2952]

@@bookjack well now I’m not sure - you inspired me to pick up Walden again and give it another go.

[@bobkeane7966]

I enjoyed Dracula, the movies make Dracula seem cartoonish where the book brought him to life

[@bookjack]

That's true I've probably seen Dracula as a cartoon more than an actual person. Might have played into my inability to take it seriously

[@davebrzeski]

I loved Dracula, but perhaps that's because I'm old, and read it decades before you were born! 😉

[@bookjack]

I'm sure it would have been mind-blowing in 1920 😉

[@eddiegolden6972]

You can watch “The Last Man On Earth”

[@araucaria5173]

I would have scored Dracula a 12/10

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

Never read Dracula the reason being people whose opinion I respect have said it’s absolutely TERRIBLE. didn’t read I Am Legend either but saw the film with will Smith which was pretty good. DNF the changeling but may go back to it . Be well.⚛❤

[@bookjack]

Glad other people share that opinion. Seems like a love it or hate thing based on some comments. Not sure if I'd recommend the changeling to anyone but it really was so specifically targeted at me that it couldn't miss

[@LeroyMustang]

I’m not continuing. The original Dracula novel doesn’t bring much to the table besides introducing Dracula? 😂😂😂

[@bookjack]

And it deserves credit for that, but I couldn't get through it on that fact alone

[@LeroyMustang]

@@bookjack May I suggest it’s because you’d essentially heard the story many times before the original? Its basic premise resides in every retelling from the 1920s to the Count on Sesame Street. It’s like saying you couldn’t enjoy a Sherlock Holmes story because you’d watched it on television, read the comic, and heard the radio play. Essentially you do like Sherlock Holmes you just didn’t read it in its original groundbreaking format, so now the original is boring? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for instance isn’t subject to the same direct interpretation. Frankenstein‘s monster in the universal film is not the same as the book. On the other hand with Dracula, nearly every retelling utilizes the original brilliant concept and plot. Also, take note of the incredibly advanced and modern form of the original novel. It’s fast paced in a modern way, short and easy to read. Its use of personal letters for the retelling was unique for the time and is still the best example of it. It was like inventing the modern horror monster, the modern vampire mythos, and the equivalent of the “found footage” genre in literature. It’s not just entertaining as a book, it’s astounding execution and genre birthing is unsurpassed, It’s fun, and it invented, along with Frankenstein, modern horror. There have been 200+ films based on the character/novel. Give it some credit for being entertaining.

[@angusmckeogh659]

Agreed. Dracula is hard boring. I was in the same boat. Should've DNF'd but I soldiered on and finished in a fit of hate.

[@bookjack]

Glad I have some company. Seems like it's a book a lot of people loved 😅

[@MrDiego0000170796]

I feel like like you could do without 25 chapters from Dracula

[@bookjack]

I liked the first section in Transylvania with Dracula's castle. Just couldn't make it all the way through

[@rachelthompson9324]

reading anything from the 19th CE ain't easy. Shelly is easier. Even Agatha Christi is a little too much of that style but she is way more readable.

[@bookjack]

It was very drawn out like Dickens (who I like) but I think knowing every detail along the way made it too much of a chore. Then again I loved reading The Lord of the Rings a few years ago (which is very slow, and which I knew every detail about) Not sure, but wasn't for me

[@nstents7781]

Curiosity compels me to ask what, beyond our own existence, makes you pretty convinced there's intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy? So many variables being based on wishful thinking...

[@phaedrus2633]

I agree with you, as an Ayn Rander, it is an orphaned concept, that is, a concept that has no ties back to the concrete. For those who believe in life beyond earth, I can only say, that they have no comprehension, whatsoever, at how distant the stars are. Is it worth mentioning, that no species is going to jump in a spacecraft and spend, at the least, four years to get here. It's really silly.

[@bookjack]

Not sure if I claimed that belief in this video, but I do choose to believe it based on wishful thinking and because it would be interesting. Not at all scientific, but since no evidence exists either way I'd rather believe in something as opposed to nothing

[@bookjack]

Not an Ayn reader but why can't life exist independent of Earth? They don't have to contact us to be out there

[@nstents7781]

@@bookjack well. I actually posted this to Sabine Hossenfelder After watching her more recent video. Either my browser or YT put it here for some reason! So, thanks for the great answer!

[@phaedrus2633]

@@bookjack Very good. Yes, good point, I agree, there is no reason that life can't exist outside of earth. It's just encounters with us that is very, very, very unlikely. It would seem likely, in the million billion stars, that life would have to exist on one of those systems.

[@melindamassey14]

Abraham....ah.....now it makes sense as to why Christianity was blasphemed by attaching vampires to a Christian European hero.

[@bookjack]

That's probably why he chose to go by the nickname

[@melindamassey14]

@bookjack Wow thank you for calling it out! We need more "noticing" And if you could do more on their movies and tv.

[@sid1gen]

Sorry, I could not finish your video because the shallowness of your critique of Dracula betrays a certain shallowness of thought, and I would hate it for it to be the case, since I tend to enjoy your output. Nothing I write will change your mind, so Dracula is definitely not for you. But the glib attitude, the snarky asides towards one of my favorite horror books, tell me that you may be a far less careful reader and that I might have misjudged you. I've told you that I tend not to agree with Bookpilled recommendations; however, even when he doesn't like a book or author I do, his critiques are valuable, they add something to the conversation. You trashed Dracula and probably thought you were very smart by saying that this book adds nothing and is just an old, classic waste of time. You could not get past its epistolary style, and the slow way it describes its world in a universe without films, TV, or internet. The shallowness of your comments is appalling because it reflects a sad ignorance of an entire literary world that will not appeal to anyone who believes books should be transliterations of video games. Taste is all, of course. Yours is valid, but terribly unsuited to the subject matter you have chosen. Perhaps you should stick to schlock and books written after 1970. Or maybe this is a one-off on your part and you'll get better.

[@bookjack]

I said the book has value. I said I'm reading it through a modern lens. These are my honest, subjective thoughts delivered in a way that is genuine to who I am. I'm glad you liked the book

[@sid1gen]

@@bookjack True, it was your opinion. But my opinion is that your critique could have been deeper and it could have used an absence of snark. You, however, were far too busy being you without bothering to even try to delve deeper into the subject matter. Nobody is asking you to like the book, but try to articulate something beyond "it was boring" as if you were still in high school. About you saying that the book had value, it got buried under the cringe shallowness. Best of luck with your channel.