In which Jonathan finally has enough and grows a spine! Go Keanu!
This entry marks the end of our time in Transylvania. We read the first few bits of what is happening in England earlier but they were largely introducing us to the rest of the cast.
Iāve been getting into a bad habit of missing several days and catching up later (since Iām trying to be more consistent with my Spanish), but at least Iām caught up?
June 30 marks an important transition point: at this point Jonathan has attempted his final escape from the castle. Will he be successful? Thank you for the quick overview @nopenopenope; howās everyone else doing? Do we still have some other participants?
I am currently reading it in English (I already read it in Spanish years ago), mostly as a refresher - Iāll probably attempt to read it in Japanese next year, should be fun 
I have definitely fallen behind, but I will play catch up eventually. 
Small update for today:
More observations on Renfield; his pets are slowly sizing up. For some reason I find the Spanish word for sparrow, āgorriĆ³nā, oddly cute.
A new update!
Ah, Iāve always really liked the Demeter setup; itās a perfect little slice of horror and not just because of all the new sea/boat vocab. Did anyone see the move they recently released? Like, last year or so? Know if itās any good?
I havenāt. Nor Renfield though that was supposed to be rather bad. But it does speak to the cultural power that Dracula continues to have, that even the tertiary characters and short interludes like this continue to fascinate. I did check the listing at my local library and the Demeter DVD has a spanish dub, could be worth it for some?
And, yeah, this was a fun chapter.
In which Renfield ends up doing the inevitable (oh! poor little sparrows!). And Dr Seward reminds us that none of us are as far from madness as weād hope (oh! the things heād like to do to poor little renfield)
In which we return to the Demeter for a short update in which the captain makes the mistake of heading straight past Gibraltar rather than sunning himself and his crates of dirt under the wonderful Andalucian sun for a few weeks. The Alhambra is fantastic and they do a moonlight tour that even Drac would enjoy. I suspect that the Captain will regret passing up this opportunity.
since, Iām not allowed to post 3x in a row, Iām adding this here ā¦
In which the Captain of the Demeter is definitely regretting not going to the Alhambra when he had the chance.
This is also my last contribution for awhile. Iām turning off my internet for a few months of self-care so as to avoid turning into a crazed, little Renfield, endlessly doomscrolling and stocking up flies in anticipation of the end of the world.
Iāll continue reading along but from a little greater distance.
Happy reading!
Posting for you, though looks like you wonāt need it for a bit. I hope everything goes well for you, and look forward to hopefully seeing you again!
I havenāt had my normal Spanish copy on me for the last few weeks; instead Iāve been reading the Querido Draculario version. So I donāt know if itās different than my usual, but anyway: I think this might be the first entry with a character speaking with a heavy accent. Iirc the Japanese translation I read didnāt bother trying to recreate any of them beyond a token effort; the translation given in Querido Draculario does appear to have some dialectal speech, but again it doesnāt seem all that thick. In addition, interestingly, the dialectal speech is italicized, which ends up being kind of handy. One look and I know whether Iām not understanding a āstandardā Spanish word or not.
Weāre rolling right along~ Itās been an interesting week or so; weāve been bouncing between the mostly-idyllic English countryside and ship of horrors Demeter. Mostly still set-up; I suppose nothing can really get rolling until the Count reaches dry land.
Anyone else here still reading along who doesnāt mind putting down their thoughts every once in a while? Iām at the 3 post limit, and while I may be exempt due to being the thread creator, Iām not sure thereās much point in me continuing to post if I just talking to myself.
I have fallen behind, but I like reading your thoughts. 
One advantages of having poor memory and having reading this book so many years ago, is that I canāt remember almost any of the details 
I imagine our dear Count doesnāt plan to eat (drink?) every person on the ship as he probably needs it to reach harbor safely and not get the cargo where heās in inspected.
I enjoy the Demeter entries since they have this classic horror feeling of something dreadful lurking in the shadows, so itās a bit sad they are so short (but makes sense for a captainās log, I guess).
Iād love to read this book again with fresh eyes. I suppose thatās one reason why I like to re-experience stuff I like in different languages: trying to chase that high of first contact.
August 1 marks the first day in a long while that I can officially move my book progress forward on Natively. 
15% ā 18%! Just since the daily entry jumps around so much, I end up having jerky progress from waiting for the sequential page count to tick forward.
Finally, the mystery is solved! I canāt believe the captainās second-in-command killed all those people; you never can tell with people these days, I suppose. 
You know, Iāve always wondered, how often does the Count eat? Heās going through these sailors like candy; is it because heās that hungry, or needs to look āhealthyā for his London debut? Or heās concerned about witnesses seeing all his boxes of dirt and wanted to off them early? 
Which then makes me consider, how well does he know his way around ships? Like, I always kind of assumed he was picking people off strategically so as not to interfere with the running of the ship, but maybe heās just gotten lucky?
(And Iāll need someone to post after me, thanks~)
Same questions.
At this point thereās no way to properly maneuver the ship to the point it might sink. Can the Count swim? I mean, generally the tradition is that vampires donāt breath, so their lunges donāt have the air to stay afloat. Then again, maybe he can breath, just doesnāt need to? Maybe he can just turn into mist or a bat !?
Vampires also have a thing about running water and/or large bodies of water, right? They canāt cross them?
