chriswolak's reviews
1018 reviews

Bibeau's writing is at its best when he's in travel writer mode or discussing his personal experience. There are a couple chapters that read like they were originally published elsewhere, such as "Hunting Sharkey." They are interesting chapters, but just seem more journalistic and detached and so are not as engaging as the chapters where Bibeau is writing from first-hand experience. For me the best parts of this book were Bibeau's travels to eastern Europe and his brief surveys of vampire movies and vampire scholarship.

Dracula was the first "big book" or adult reading level book that I read. I remember looking through the Scholastic catalog at school and being surprised to see there was actually a book called Dracula. I loved vampire movies and thought since all of the adults in my life were pestering me to read more that I'd give it a try. I LOVED it. For days I hung out on the hammock in our yard and read that book. I remember loving the detail--the stuff that could never be captured in a movie. After that I read Stephen King's Salem's Lot and a slew of really good and not so good vampire novels. I firmly believe that I own my reading life to Bram Stoker. That burst of enthusiastic reading made the stuff I was reading for school much more palatable. I fondly remember reading The Pearl and The Good Earth from around this time period.

This is a young adult novel, but it combines two of my favorite subjects--vampires & World War I. That's why I started reading this novel at work one day (I work in a bookstore...dangerous!), but kept on reading because the story was interesting enough. Once you realize that some of the characters are the children of the characters in Bram Stoker's classic, curiosity will keep you reading!

This was a fun book to read--full of feisty feminist academics and crazy southerners--that has, at its core, a serious subject matter: the subjugation of women writers. The characters were delightful, the plot was believable (even the haunted house aspect), and the women's history lesson was a seamless part of the storyline.

Okay, so I FINALLY started reading [b:the Lord of the Rings|34|The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1)|J.R.R. Tolkien|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156043001s/34.jpg|3204327] after years of thinking about it. I'm glad I read this first book in the trilogy, but it did not light me on fire as it has millions of others. I'm going to discuss it with a friend--it is his all-time favorite--so perhaps after our discussion I'll appreciate it even more. I never thought I'd say something like this, but I'd probably have liked the book a lot more if it was shorter. The details bogged down rather than enhanced the story for me. But overall I really did like the story.

Very motivation read. It inspired me to run regularly. It also got me excited about spending a lot more time outside. I wish he would've gotten a bit more into what he thinks about when he runs and how he thinks--what struggles does he go through?