Literary Love at first word
So, this morning I read the last lines of the latest Simon R Green book in his Nightside series. Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth. As with the previous stories I find these books to be a veritable pool of prose. Dive in and swim around in a most excellent story. These books are the definition of escapism. The world could go to hell in a hand basket and I wouldn’t know it. They are simply that good.
Now by good I don’t mean that they are Pulitzer Prize material. (Speaking of which I am now 90 some pages into the 2005 winner Kavalier and Clay) But rather they are good in the sense of thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, funny, and creative to the point that the author must be a Mensa member. He has so many interesting ideas personified in these books.
Give them a try. You won’t be disappointed.
My dad always says that life is too short to waste on a bad book. I have put away just one of those books recently. It is James Hynes novel Kings of Infinite Space. The idea behind the story was sound. And I was anxious to read it. But something about it just doesn’t work for me. The annoying thing is there is some kind of creepy thing in the ceiling at the protagonists workplace which hinges the whole story together. So of course I want to know what the hell is up there and why all the weird shit happens to the guy but the actual act of finding out has become painful. I can’t even tell you why. It’s not badly written. But for whatever reason I am struggling.
It may simply be the fact that the main character drowned his girlfriend’s cat in the bathtub on purpose. (on the plus side though the cat haunts him and makes everything he owns smell like cat pee) But still you can’t rally around a person with that big of a character flaw.
So, the book will sit for now. I have a morning ritual with Sophie that includes her eating from her food bowl and me sitting next to her on the kitchen floor having a cup of coffee. I guess I could get through the story slowly but surely that way. I mean, I’m not doing anything anyway. Just sitting with my baby girl drinking coffee.
Happy reading.
2 comments:
Yeah, I had a book like that once. Just on a whim, I picked up a copy of "Invasion Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard. I must have started and stopped reading that book about a dozen times; the writing was just abysmal. Refusing to be defeated by a book, I took it with me on a flight to San Francisco. Finally read it all the way through, and tossed it in the trash on the way out of the airport.
My personal rule on books is that if it doesn't grab me within the first 20 pages, it gets set aside. I usually give it one more try at another time just in case I wasn't in the right frame of mind when I first picked it up.
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