"You think to baffle me, you with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in a butcher's. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you! - - - My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side."

Small town library. Me when I'm between 10 and 12. I'm bored, but I've already devoured all the children's books that interested me. I shuffle down to the mysterious adult fiction shelves, and almost immediately I'm enthralled by the scary cover of Dracula. I take it to the desk and the slightly intimidating librarian lady asks me: "Are you sure you want this?" I say yes, but in my mind I'm going through all the times I've read the infamous Noidan käsikirja (Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World) cover to cover. How bad can it be?

Re-reading Dracula after all this time made me love it even more (a lot of it was probably too boring for a young kid). The realistic epistolary format further enhances the creeping dread (especially when we're given information that not all the characters know), and many eerie scenes are still effective today: the Carpathian mountains at night, Jonathan's experiences at the castle, the ship Demeter and its mysteriously disappearing crew, Dracula's nightly visits, the sightings of a "bloofer lady" in Hampstead Heath etc.

It's always scary to revisit literary memories, but luckily I found all the familiar things I loved the first time around and discovered many new things. For instance, it's easy to dismiss Mina as just a damsel in distress, but not only does she and Jonathan have mutual respect for each other and a healthy unusually non-19th century relationship, she's caring, intelligent, skilled, and has an active role in defeating the count. With the words of Van Helsing: "She has a man’s brain – a brain that a man should have were he much gifted – and a woman’s heart".

Dracula is so seeped into the popular culture that it probably feels both strangely familiar and unfamiliar when you read it the first time, but it's not a novel you want to skip. It deserves its status as a classic, and I would argue that Stoker's writing (beautiful descriptions, atmosphere building etc.) deserves even more credit.

And, you know, it's just fun to see the hang-ups of Victorians be blown to smithereens by a lurking vampire who enjoys slurping the blood of pretty maidens (or a pretty maiden licking his chest).