finished reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. no wonder it's a classic. it's the kind of book i would want to read in one sitting (but of course i did not). it's impossible to read it in one go because of the "old english" used by the author. i took 6 days, around 2 hours per day, to read the book. actually, that's the longest time for me to finish a book. back then (wow, i sound old), i used to read a John Grisham novel in only one day. anyway, that's not really my point :)

the book is amazing. i like the way how stoker describes people and events; his descriptions are so precise, that really get a clear picture of how they looked like. more than that, it's amazing how he managed to keep the suspense all throughout the novel -- all 400+ pages of it (ok, minus 5 or so pages that i skipped). another thing that i liked about Stoker is that he was not a sexist (in my opinion). unlike authors of the past, he gave the female, Mina Murray Harker, a huge role in the story -- and not as a villain. yes, there were also negative portrayals of women in the characters of the vampire women, and the heroes were mostly male. but without the Mina, the men would not be able to solve the mystery and destroy the Count. I'm glad that he made her beautiful, strong, intelligent (though he describes her as having a "man-brain") and compassionate.

my one complaint though (well, not really) is that the ending was a little vague and well, "rushed." the story went on for 400 pages, and only ended in 10 (of course i'm just estimating). but anyhow, i liked the book. the story made popular by Stoker is indeed as timeless as Dracula himself.