This is a VERY short read, and can be completed in a day without trouble. As with all short story collections some will be more to your taste than others. None really packed the punch of "Dracula" but then few tales do. My personal favorites were "Dracula's Guest" in which a British fellow fails to head the warning of the locals and ventures into a hellish evening of wolves and the supernatural... and we are left with the feeling that his next venture may prove even worse for him. "The Judge" was also interesting... though I really would have liked for there to be more to this story. A learned man takes up residence in the local haunted mansion to get some peace and quite while studying. He gets more than he bargained for in the end. This was a very interesting and dark tale with "Twilight Zone" or "Tales from the Crypt" written all over it. It is very cinematic in tone and could have been much longer. In all there are tales of vengeance, redemption, the supernatural, pacts with the Devil, angry black cats, beggars run amok, murderers, insanity... if you love the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, then you really need to pick up this collection. If you have read and re-read Dracula and can't get enough, then pick up this book...