books

I am a reader. I love to read. I've read all sorts of books in my lifetime, and I am always looking for the next great read. In fact, sometimes the greatest quandary I experience in a day is ending one book and trying to decide what to read next. So many to choose from!! I recently finished reading Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. It was a fantastic book, an autobiography of a friendship, a memoir even. A rich guy, a homeless guy, and the woman who brought them together. It is full of simple, yet profound truths about faith and friendship. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with the inclination to read.

However, maybe its due to pregnancy, or the lack of sleep pregnancy causes, but my emotions can only handle so much heavy material at one time. So, when I finished that book, having cried through the entire last third of it, and found myself looking for something new to read, I decided I needed something light, fun, an easy read in today's English. When it comes to literature, our bookshelf at home is filled with the classics, mostly written more than a hundred years ago. And though these are without a doubt some of my favorite books ever, they're not exactly what I'd call light, fun and in today's English.

However, as I was looking for a book at 10:00 at night, I had to grab SOMETHING, so I decided to grab a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. Who doesn't love Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson? I'd read some of the stories before, and figured the short stories would be a nice break until I could figure out what to read next. I brought it upstairs, snuggled into bed with all my covers and my pillow behind me, opened the book, and found this:



At first I thought maybe just the first couple pages were printed this way. You know, to show some historicity to the Sherlock Holmes stories and how they were originally printed in a newspaper. But no ... the ENTIRE book was printed this way! I swear that font can't be any bigger than 6-point. Its ridiculous! I read a couple pages before giving up and turning out the light. As I fell asleep I determined to head to the library the next day for a greater selection of light, fun, and in today's English books.

This is what I found:



Intensity by Dean Koontz, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (don't ask me how to pronounce his name, I don't know). Intensity was a recommendation by Stephen King, whose books I don't read, because I'm afraid of them, but whose opinion as an author I respect. Nineteen Minutes is my chick lit / murder mystery pick, and the Oscar Wao story was a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2007, I believe, and got a lot of attention in major publications as one of the great books of that year.

So, with three weeks in which to read my three books, I headed back from the library ready for my light, fun and in today's English books.

I started with Intensity last night. Now, I don't know what I was expecting in a book recommended by Stephen King ... maybe not kittens and ponies and how they love each other, but ... and I've never read Koontz before, so I didn't know what to expect of him, but ... I had no idea that after just the first two chapters I'd have to pray warfare prayers just to fall asleep! The first two chapters describe a grisly murder in minute detail, full of all the fear and, well, intensity, that a survivor is experiencing, only to end with that one survivor ending up on a motor home WITH the psycho killer! Its certainly riveting, and I actually can't wait to get back to it, but I won't be reading it before bed any more.

So much for light and fun, though Koontz does write in modern-day English, which I appreciate. Koontz is a fantastic writer, about that Stephen King was spot on. Even though the story scares me, I can't wait to find out what happens ... as long as its in the daylight hours. I'll let you know how it goes.