One of the books I had to read in 2009 to complete my book club’s Diversity challenge was something I kept putting off until the last weeks of December: a Dracula spinoff entitled Mina by Marie Kiraly (Book #234 of 2010).

It was a partner-recommended book and not something I’d pick up on my own — I’m wary of  literary adaptations and I cringe at the thought of paranormal bodice-slashers. Even though I’d mooched two copies of the book (one hardcover and one trade paperback), I had my apprehensions about it.

But the deadline was looming, and I’d run out of reprieves, so I decided that I might as well get it done with.

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For Halloween this year, I had a bunch of readings that fell into the theme – Bloodline and Vampyre from my Dracula hangover and the 24-hour read-a-thon; and Perfume, left over from my derailed book discussion back in September that finally pushed through on Halloween weekend.

In this post are reviews of these three chillingly good reads (books #156-158 for 2009), as well as a recap of the latest Flips Flipping Pages book discussion.

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I’ve been meaning to read the classic Dracula ever since I read (and reread) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. With all the vampire fiction that’s been coming out recently, I realized I really abhor the glamorized vampire and prefer the good, old-fashioned Dracula, and so I grabbed the chance when I spotted the Viking Studio illustrated edition featuring comic book artist Jae Lee at last year’s Cut-Price Sale at National Bookstore, for about P200, along with a copy of Jane Eyre from the same line, also P200.

I knew I read Dracula when I was in 6th grade but it must have been abridged, or maybe I covered my eyes over the scary parts (Rich Hall has a sniglet for it — “snargle” — to lessen the visual impact of a horror movie [in this case, a book] by filtering it through one’s fingers) because I don’t remember much of it.

Anyway, I had to read Dracula because I need to read the book “Mina” by Marie Kiraly, a Dracula spin-off assigned to me by another Flipper for the Flips Flipping Pages Diversity Challenge this year. I also have some more Dracula-themed books in my TBR that I’d like to read so I figured I needed to read the original for comparison.

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