DAY 23 – Book you tell people you’ve read but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)

Now I don’t usually go around claiming to read books I haven’t even touched. But there is one book I’m not exactly forthcoming about not reading: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus

There was this one time when, while discussing the Gothic classics with someone, I casually threw the famous novel into the conversation. In case you didn’t know, I like to read non-fiction books concerning the horror genre too, so I know enough about Frankenstein (like the fact that it’s not the name of the monster (who’s nameless), but the name of the Doctor/creator) to come across as having read the book.

I do have my reasons however for not reading it as yet.

I was always under the impression that Frankenstein is science fiction, a genre I’m not too keen on. It was mainly due to this fact that I tended to ignore it whenever I came across it in the library or the bookstore.
In an ironic twist, my brother bought me a book a long time ago called the Frankenstein Omnibus, compiled by that king of Horror Anthologies-Peter Haining. My brother no doubt assumed I read Shelley’s novel (I didn’t bother to inform him otherwise!) when buying this book for me. It is a collection of short stories based on or influenced by Frankenstein in some way. I read a few of the stories and to be honest, it was not my cup of tea. Maybe I need to read Frankenstein to appreciate these stories more, I’m not sure. Anyways, this book also contributed to my lack of interest in the famous novel.

Recently however, I’ve met many people (bloggers included) who claim that Frankenstein is a brilliant book. Some of them are not even fans of horror or sci-fi but enjoyed it nevertheless. So I made up my mind to add this to my reading list. Finally!

The days of reading about Frankenstein are over. It’s time to read the classic itself.

NM 🙂