Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is my answer. I remember when it came out in my country, I was in my last year in high school. I loved the premise. Mysteries and Dracula. Finding out the truth about him and I wanted to know how he was shown in the book, the real "Dracula", Vlad the Impaler. At the time, though, I was a huge Anne Rice fan. I wasn't ready to read some other vampire descriptions and stories. Also, the prospect of college scared the living hell out of me, to be honest and I didn't have time to read what I wanted.

In the years that followed, I discovered many books, many vampires, many authors, many genres. And with each book I read, my TBR pile got bigger and bigger. For some reason, The Historian got pushed back. I don't know if I'm ready yet to read it. It may sound stupid, but it's like I'm afraid of being disappointed. I do want to read it, so maybe I should make it a goal: read the book before the year ends. I think I'll do that, actually.



So, what about you? Do you have a book that's been sitting in your shelf for a long time, waiting for you to pick it up?


Blurb (from Goodreads):

For centuries, the story of Dracula has captured the imagination of readers and storytellers alike. Kostova's breathtaking first novel, ten years in the writing, is an accomplished retelling of this ancient tale. "The story that follows is one I never intended to commit to paper.. As an historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it." With these words, a nameless narrator unfolds a story that began 30 years earlier.

Late one night in 1972, as a 16-year-old girl, she discovers a mysterious book and a sheaf of letters in her father's library -- a discovery that will have dreadful and far-reaching consequences, and will send her on a journey of mind-boggling danger. While seeking clues to the secrets of her father's past and her mother's puzzling disappearance, she follows a trail from London to Istanbul to Budapest and beyond, and learns that the letters in her possession provide a link to one of the world's darkest and most intoxicating figures. Generation after generation, the legend of Dracula has enticed and eluded both historians and opportunists alike. Now a young girl undertakes the same search that ended in the death and defilement of so many others -- in an attempt to save her father from an unspeakable fate.