Book Binge

I've gotten myself onto a reading kick. I have this idea that I want to write a book some day. It's like a bucket list kind of thing. I don't know what it would be about, but I used to write for fun as a kid: fiction, short stories, poetry. And I'm a kick ass professional writer now in all of my work correspondence. But I like the idea of producing something creative. Something also that maybe could earn me a book deal some day? :)

But since I've graduated from school I've very much fallen out of the habit of reading. I love reading. Bookstores and libraries are the most inspirational of places for me. In fact, a friend just talked about going to see the movie Julia and Julia. It's about a woman who decides that she's going to spend a year of her life cooking through every single recipe in Julia Child's Cookbook. When I heard about the concept, I loved the idea of cooking through an entire cookbook, but the next thought that popped into my head was, I wonder if I could read through an entire library A to Z. Uh yeah, that would be a dream come true but may take me about ten thousand lifetimes.

Anyway, I made a trip to the library recently. I thought I would try out downloading some audio books on my ipod. That way I could listen to literature while walking the dogs and getting some exercise. I found a book on CD on the shelves called "The Good Wife" by Steart O'nan. The plot snagged me immediately. It's about a young pregnant couple who one night the wife gets a call in the middle of the night from her husband who's "gotten himself into some trouble." Turns out he was involved in a burglary which went awry and a woman accidentally got killed. The book basically goes through the trial, conviction, and 25 year prison sentance of the wife trying to hold their marriage together, raise their son on her own, and survive their separation until his release. Well I checked it out, downloaded it to my ipod, and listened to it on a few walks. What I discovered was that I was really into the book, but I was not good at listening to it audio style. The CD skipped around and my mind wandered before I could catch it. So I took it back to the library and exchanged it for the old fashioned hard bound book. Burned through the entire 300 pages in two days. It was a great read and I highly recommend it. Made me think about my own marriage and the lengths I would go to before I would ever give up on my partner. It also shed light on the sad subject of our prison systems and how unrehabilitative they really are. But although it sounds depressing, their are also firm nuggets of wisdom and inspiration that make this read worth while.

After finishing that book so quickly, I had the reading hunger, so I moved on to the next one on my coffee table (I checked out three at the library). This one was called "Remember Me?" by Sophie Kinsella. This one was very much more of a Chick Novel with caligraphy title and flowers on the front, sure to be full of drama and fluff. To give you an idea, the author is most known for her title "Confessions of a Shopaholic." I haven't read the book but supposed to be a New York Times Best Seller. So quite a bit different flavor than the last book but I thought I'd give it a try. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with her writing style and found myself thinking I could do it better. But the idea or concept of the book was pretty fun. It's about a girl who's life is in shambles to start. Her career is going no where, her boyfriend is a loser who treats her like crap, she's broke, overweight and out of shape. She gets in an accident and wakes up in the hospital trying to remember what's happened. As she comes to it's explained to her that that accident was three years ago. She's had a second accident, only she has a sort of temporary amnesia where she can't remember anything that's happened in the last three years. Come to find out she has the "perfect life" now. She's lost weight, she's married a handsome millionaire, her career has taken off, and she seems to have all the success she's ever wished for. The story is about her trying to unravel the mystery of what's happened to her in the last three years and come to grips with her new happily ever after as she comes to realize that maybe this dream life isn't all she dreamed it would be. To be honest it wasn't until the last 100 pages of the book that one of the plot hooks finally got me and her writing started getting better. Still I burned through the book in a few days and really enjoyed the ending. Don asked me why I was spending all this time reading the book if I didn't think it was that good. My answer was that it's been a while since I have felt this hunger for books and I want to feed the craving, build the habit and keep it going. Plus, I really did like the idea of the book, I just thought it could have been executed better. Like, maybe I could do it better even. So we could call it good research for the book that I may someday write. We'll put this in the research category of how not to suck.

So with two recent books under my belt, I'll be turning to "Nature Girl" next by Car Hiassen. I don't even know how to describe this one. The description is pretty long and complex. But let's just say it's one of those "chaos and hi-jinx ensue" kind of books with crazy characters and even crazier plot twists. So three different books, three very different flavors. I hope I can keep up with this reading bug although I'm going to have to learn to balance better reading while still getting stuff done. Let's just say that the chores and the treadmill have been a bit neglected over the past week.