Reading: The Phantom of the Opera
It seems that this year has been a good time to catch up on classics. A few months back I dipped into two classics for two different book clubs, the first being Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom of the Opera is a story I'm well familiar with from both various movie adaptations and it's long-staying effects on popular culture. Surprisingly, I'd never actually read the book despite plowing through other gothic and horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein as a kid. What I didn't expect and found myself pleasantly surprised by is how exciting and funny this book actually is. The format of the story is one I'm fond of, it's presented as a historical work, a piecing together of different accounts, news, letters and papers that answer the question of a mysterious disappearance at the Paris Opera House. Both impeccably researched about its setting and having lot of details grounding it in the Paris, it works well as a piece of historical fiction.