Frankenstein

I just finished listening to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein on audiobook.
I have a hard time reading books for several reasons.
Some of the heavy hitters are I'm slightly dyslexic, after a page or two my eyes wig out with astigmatism, I'm a little A.D.D. and I have a hard time finding time to sit down to read.
Solution: Audiobooks. Love 'em! I can put on an audiobook while I'm at work doing low brain activity stuff like Photoshop and simple After Effects projects.
I can let my imagination go nuts for a few hours at a time and I can plow through an audiobook in a couple days. I think it took me almost a year to read through the Lord of the Rings books and a week and a half to listen to the audiobooks.

I've had Frankenstein in my to-listen-to list for a while. I've just been working on some projects that I wouldn't be able to multitask very well.

As a kid I was familiar with the pop culture Frankenstein from television and movies. There was everything from Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein to Fred Gwynn's Herman Munster to Franken-Berry cereal. I had seen the film Mary Shelly's Frankenstein directed by Kenneth Branagh back in 1994 and the classic Boris Karloff Frankenstein (1931) directed by James Whale on television when I was a kid. I think it was one of those Sunday afternoon scare-a-thons hosted by Elvira around Halloween.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a dark and tragic tale that sucked me in.
There are some wonderful themes that were never quite captured in film format.
(or breakfast cereal format either)
I enjoyed the dramatic roller coaster of Victor and the Monster.
I enjoyed how themes crisscrossed. You meet Victor when he's creating the monster. You are scared of his character. He's truly a mad scientist bent on his experiments to unlock the mysteries of life itself.
By the end of the story you are very sympathetic for the hell he has created for himself.
When you are introduced to the Monster you are sympathetic towards his character. Before he becomes self aware and educated he is a selfless kind creature who's first act is to do anonymous charity work for a family who is living in poverty. After he is rejected, hurt, and educated of what he is and how ugly and cruel the society of man is, his second act is to have revenge on his creator. He begins killing those who are loved ones of his creator.
There are a lot of elements and themes that you can pull out and compare to life today which goes to show how great of a writer Mary Shelly was since it was written way back in 1817.