Dracula's appearance, second time's the charm
Whoops. Republishing again with photographs this time. Sorry about that.
Synced my Apple Books notes to my Second Brain (using Obsidian for that, see: the Core Insights for Obsidian Beginners thread on Reddit for more info if you are interested in this mode of future-proof note taking), and took this opportunity to reread my highlights from that particular copy of Dracula. In my ebook highlights, I found two vivid descriptions of the Count, and since August seems to have already given up--it was 58 degrees Fahrenheit in Virginia this morning!--I accept this forfeit to spooky season, and shall post them.
Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without a chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open door.
His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.
So it reads that the film Bram Stoker's Dracula, a favorite of mine, did well...excepting the unibrow, perhaps.
Do you plan your reading for spooky season ahead of time? Does the season start for you when Starbucks busts out the Pumpkin Spice Latte? They already have this year, as of yesterday! I do, and it does, no surprise, I, lover of lists and wanting to know what's going to happen next, and embracer of coffee. But more in the way of gathering the horror I have been meaning to read and making a TBR guilt pile, then jumping into it like Linus van Pelt jumping into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker. In other words, an effort is made. Let me know what's queued up for you, or if you want some sub-genre suggestions from this cupcake-seeking ghoul.
One of my spooky reading goals is nonfiction: once I finish the 1184 pages biography of Sylvia Plath, I shall tackle the 672 pages of Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal. I am chomping at the bit, but I won't cheat on Sylvia.
I just counted, and I have four editions of Dracula: annotated, Penguin clothbound, Edward Gorey, and ebook. My Frankensteins need to catch up (standing at two: ebook and the 1811 original text). Do I need them? ...No...? But part of being autistic is surrounding ourselves with our favorite things--nesting. Disclosure warning: It makes me feel safe. And these are two of my favorite horror universes.
Did I say the Edward Gorey edition, with a red velveteen cover and bats painted on the endpieces? Yes, indeed, you shall have pictures. One of my prettiest books, I do declare. I adore Gorey.
I hope you all are well and safe and finding cupcakes in the most unexpected of places. Episode 102 is coming soon, a third Boo Without Goo to welcome in spooky season properly, then 103 will take us back to House of Leaves...
And yes, though I love The Story Graph (and have returned to Goodreads, because I miss my friends--though I did detach it from my Amazon account, we will see how that works for me and how I feel about keeping it), I do use Obsidian to manage my reading, thanks to obsidian.rocks' Simple Bookshelf, and my little bit of tweaking. I added a tag readinggoal that creates a small database at the top of the library for books I intend to read by the end of the year. I can use that to organize my spooky season reads as well. If I want to get really autistic about it, I can give them their own tag...or maybe even their own separate database shelf...or maybe I should just work on the next episodes and leave rabbit holes alone, for crying out loud.
Don't forget our nascent Little Free Library if you would like to help, please. I would love to have it up and running this autumn. Just need to purchase the charter and the supplies to weatherproof and spiffy up the old dollhouse, and we are good to go. It's going to be so cute, and so sorely needed in this area. I am on the county line, and each county on either side is only served by one convenient library branch. One only has one library and one quite small bookstore, the size of a trailer; the other has one library branch thirty minutes from my home, and one library branch on the opposite end of the county, on the edge of the city of Lynchburg, with no bookstores. First step is the bilingual charter sign and number, which is 49.95. I think I am going to go ahead and get it, registering it for Labor Day and their free shipping discount. So let's do this!
Carla Pettigrew
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