Current Reading

In keeping with the spirt of the season, I'm rereading a horror classic - Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

I've always liked this book. Stoker was a professional writer, and it shows. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is really an amateur effort, and is fine if your expectations aren't too high.

My favorite movie vesions of Dracula are the classic with Bela Lugosi (the scene where Dracula and Van Helsing stare each other down is one of the best scenes in cinema, in my opinion), and the more recent one starring Gary Oldman as Dracula, and Winona Ryder as Mina Harker.

I'm really hoping one or the other of these will turn up on cable soon. Another version which is just a lot of fun is Dead and Loving It, starring Leslie Nielsen and Mel Brooks. It's a satire on the whole Dracula thing and is hilarious.

Later in the fall, I'm planning on rereading Walden by Henry David Thoreau for the nth time.

And when it gets so cold outside that the winds threaten to tear the frozen flesh from your bones, I think it will be a good time to revisit Jack London.

In between all of that, I'm also working on the first volume of a three volume set on the martial art, Xing Yi Quan (loosely Form Mind Boxing), the martial art Wang Xiang Zhai had mastered before he created YiQuan (loosely Mind Boxing or Intention Boxing). The book was originally written by Di Guoyong, a famous Chinese martial artist, and is being translated by Andrea Falk, a Canadian martial artist. She's planning on publishing the next volume about a year from now.

Her website is www.wushucentre.ca Please pay her a visit.