I had the perfect plan. Hurricane Ike is coming; I can see it on the news. And since electricity goes out around here with the merest breath of wind, I figured it would probably go out late Friday night or early Saturday morning, right? So what better time to read a story like this than in the dark of night with the rain pouring and the winds lashing around outside, setting up an infernal howl. Perfect atmosphere for creepy stories, right?

Only the electricity didn’t go off. Oh, it threatened to a couple of times, but at nearly 2 in the morning, I was still watching CNN and KHOU news. I’ll admit, I’m a news junkie and I just could not stop watching every freaking detail about the water spilling over the seawall in Galveston and the destruction already coming up from the gulf.

I finally turned off the TV and went to sleep exhausted. No power outage. No Dracula during the hurricane.

Although that’s probably just as well because my imagination is way too vivid and I would have scared the crap out of myself. Scaring the crap out of yourself is a lot less fun when you can’t turn the lights on and prove to yourself there is no monster creeping up on you in the dark.

I have been reading this less than 24 hours and I already learned one thing: Bram (as in “Stoker”), which is what my daughter would have been named had she been a son, is short for Abraham.

I thought I should get on with reading this, especially since I have already put it off for a year and a half. Vampires creep me out; they are so insidious. You just never know when they are going to sneak up on you and turn you into one of those pale, ominous creatures who lurk in the dark avoiding mirrors.

Come to think of it, that could almost be a description of my daughter, whom I haven’t seen in daylight (except for a week this summer) in a l-o-o-o-n-g time and who sneaked into my room last night and cornered me from sinister motivations, claiming she needed help with her biology homework. Some claim children suck the very life right out of you. And the child does have a suspect history—being almost named the same as the author of this book.

Less than 24 hours—and look at the turns my life is taking. Who says reading doesn’t change the world?

No one else can beat the classic tale of Dracula. I found the book to be more evocative and thought provoking that the film, which seems to generally be true.