Sometime in middle school we had to read Dracula. It doesn’t really matter what you have to read at that age, you just assume it’s no good that moment when you look at the stack of books against the wall and the teacher says “you have to get a copy.”

But Dracula truly wasn’t good. It was an edited version to be more appropriate and shorter for kids. Bland and safe, I doubt I even bothered finishing it. It left me with this permanent dislike for horror fiction.

Nearly twenty years since that experience I have finally gone back and read the real Dracula and it was cool. It was twisted and sexual and bloody and a whole lot of great quotes.

Anyways, there isn’t really a point to this. I just wonder how many books and how much of my judgement of literature has been skewed from those reading experiences back in school.

If you want to go back and read it you can check get it at Gutenberg.

*Sad note: according to wikipedia, the book didn’t make Bram Stoker much money at all. In the US the book was always public domain.