A book I love and one I didn't

Aahhhh reading. One of my favorite hobbies that I don't indulge

in nearly enough anymore. It used to be that I would make biweekly trips to the library and never come home with less than a dozen books. As a child, I always read at least 4 grade levels above where I was and it was nothing for me to devour a novel in a matter of a day. My teachers loved me and I drove my mother insane with my choices. The day I brought home Helter Skelter in fifth grade is the day I think I almost caused her to have a stroke. My library privileges were nearly stripped away that evening. I had to promise not to bring home any more books on murderers and my father had to promise to keep a closer eye on my reading selections. Neither of us kept our promise, I just became sneaky about bringing my books into the house and my dad knowingly turned a blind eye.

Years upon years and books upon books have created a list of perennial favorites as well as a list of utter bombs. Books that I love and books that I hate. Ask me my favorite movie or song and I would tell you it depends on my mood, but I could easily give you my preferred genre. Ask me my favorite book and I will immediately blurt out "The Great Gatsby", yet I wouldn't be able to pick a favorite genre of book. Weird, right? What's really odd, is that I didn't used tonlike this book.

I originally read The Great Gatsby in high school and I wasn't a fan. Most likely because I had to read it to soak up every last detail in case of quizzes and not for my own personal reading pleasure. These days, I pick up my battered copy and read it cover to cover at least once a year. In fact, my love for Gatsby led me to read all of Fitzgerald's novels and short stories. To me, none of them compare to his magnum opus, but they are pretty good reads, as well.

For those of you not familiar with the book, The Great Gatsby is a tale of friendship, romance and tragedy. Since this isn't a book report, I won't go into all of the details. However, I will explain why I enjoy this book so much. First of all, I feel that the characters are intelligently written. They all have good and bad residing within them, which brings a true sense of humanity to the book. Fitzgerald also does a beautiful job writing in the background details for all other major players. The setting for the book is described in good detail and really sucked me into the story. Jazz age America was a selfish, hedonistic time and Fitzgerald does a brilliant job of letting the reader see that. The symbolism is subtle and most readers will be sure to pick up on it. All in all, I find The Great Gatsby to be a well written book about a bygone era.

Now, for a book that I didn't love... Immediately Bram Stoker's "Dracula" comes to mind. I read this book the summer after I graduated from high school and I really wanted to enjoy it. Instead, I walked away from it on numerous occasions before I finally took several days and forced myself to read it cover to cover.

I was truly surprised by how much I disliked this book. I love the horror genre, I immensely enjoy classic literature and the early 90's movie based off of this book is one of my favorites. So what was it about Dracula that I found so dreadful? Simply put, it moved way too slow for me. The characters are well written, the story itself is a great one, the setting and attention to detail are superb. I just found this to be a slow and ponderous read. It may be one of the greatest horror novels of all time, but it just wasn't meant for me. If you have ever wanted to read Stoker's classic vampire tale, please do not let my assessment stop you. It may very well become one of your favorites.

So what books do you guys love and what ones do you hate? I am getting ready to set up a new blog, a book blog, and would love to hear your opinions! There's a very good chance that I will be using your suggestions for upcoming book reviews.