BBAW: Found on a blog ...

Today's Topic: A Book I Read Only Because of Another Blogger

One of the great things about book blogging is the overwhelming number of books I've heard of that I never would have found out about otherwise. Most of the books that end up on my TBR list are ones that would interest me no matter where I heard of them - a blog, a bookstore, from a friend, whatever. Every once in a while though, there is a book review that completely captures my attention and makes me want to venture outside my "reading comfort zone" ... and that's what I'm sharing with you today.

I found it on a blog ... and I loved it.

I don't like scary movies. I don't like scary books. I'm not into mysteries other than Sherlock Holmes. So you can imagine my shock when I found myself adding Bram Stoker's DRACULA to my TBR list last year!

I came across a review of this classic horror novel at The Sleepy Reader and I was intrigued. For some reason I got the impression from her comments that the story would be quaint and almost funny. That isn't exactly what she said in the review, but that's what I got from it. I decided to read it, figuring that it wouldn't be scary at all and that I might even get a laugh out of it. Boy was I wrong!

Although it took me a while to get used to the flowery language (and I admit, I did skim some sections), when I read the description of the Count crawling straight down a cliff wall, clinging to it like a bat, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up ... and I was hooked. I couldn't put the book down after that. It was never really scary, but it was definitely creepy - and there was nothing to laugh about.

Never in my life would I have picked up DRACULA in a bookstore, not even to browse the back cover. And yet, because of one book blogger's review, I not only read it but loved it too.

Oh, and I had a ton of fun writing my review of DRACULA. I included clips from movies and answered questions from other bloggers - check it out here if you like.

*** Coming Soon: Dueling Monsters! ***

Because I had so much fun with DRACULA I decided to try reading FRANKENSTEIN as well. To make it more fun, I'm hosting a read-a-long of it in October. AND my friend Jill at Fizzy Thoughts is hosting a read-a-long of DRACULA. It will be a month of dueling monsters! Want to join us? Leave a comment here and we'll make sure you're included on the participants list.