Saturday, March 27, 2010

Fits and Starts

Right after my last post about how my reading momentum was gathering speed, I hit a road block in the form of the picky reader impulse.

I picked up Sherman Alexie's new short story/poetry collection, War Dances. Since it's Alexie, I thought I had it in the bag. An easy book to get into, right? Not so much. His style in this book is very different than the books of his I love, far less dry humor, far more literary. I read a story, thought, "Eh, maybe I'll like the next one better." Half way through the book, I set it down and didn't feel like picking it up again.

Next, I opted for Chuck Palahniuk's Stranger Than Fiction, a collection of non-fiction essays. They're basically mini documentaries and lack story. I got about half way through that one, then I set it down too.

After some thought, and another trip to the library, I cracked open Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel. I figured I was in that kind of mood and now I've whipped through about half of it in no time at all and look forward to finishing the rest. Thank goodness I finally found one that fit my mood.

I'm staring down the end of the month and trying to read as fast as I can. For the sake of being on a deadline, I'm counting the half-way books. So, right now my tally is:

The last half of John Connolly's book + the whole Gail Carriger + half of Sherman Alexie + half of Chuck Palahniuk + half of Christopher Moore = 3 books. That leaves me with the second half of Moore's book and one other whole book to read by Wednesday. Doable, I think. I hope. Time to buckle down.

3 comments:

Debbie said...

And you can always 'cheat' a little by reading a YA or a comic book. ;-)

Jenny Maloney said...

I hate that--whenever I tell people I'm on a roll, I come to a stop.

You should never, never tell people how well you're rolling along.

Sassy Holly said...

haha--im so glad im not the only one who has been trying to read more recently!! ive definitely gone through 'picky reader' syndrome though, as well...good luck with your reading :)