Stand By Me - Ben E. King

Nothing Can Change This Love - Sam Cooke

Lush Life - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman

At Last - Etta James

Just My Imagination - The Temptations

The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe - black hardover with the title and a picture of a raven in gold inlay. Nothing expensive, but it looks nice, even though it only cost me around $20.

Ah, the days of LeVar Burton reading a story on Reading Rainbow are some of my favorite childhood memories!

It's been well over a decade since I read the book, and I really do want to give it another read because there is just so much detail in the story that it's impossible to remember everything. I'm sure that in many ways, it would be like coming back to it the first time, because I'm sure I'd be like "Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about this part!" Maybe this winter after the holidays I can give it another read! I know I would have no problem getting through it again!

I love that Edmond Dantès is a much more human character than most of your heroes. You can see that being wrongfully imprisoned for 14 years has changed him a lot. He is still a good person with a good heart, but he is also much more hardened from his life experiences. He'll gladly kill a man in a duel and not lose a wink of sleep over it. The rush he gets when watching executions is something the Edmond Dantès before being imprisoned would have been repulsed by. I like the fact that he isn't the incorruptible hero that can be beaten and tortured to no end and still remain unphased by it, like you often see with fictional heroes.