Reading!

Okay, so a week off from the day job leads to two things: lots of writing (nearly 10,000 words this week -- newest novel is nearly finished!) and lots of reading (3 books this week!). Will hold off telling you about the latest work in progress (will save for a later post when the first draft is done. Don't want to jinx it.) but here are the four books I read:

Decided I didn't want to wait to borrow the rest of the Hunger Games series, so went out and bought Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I really liked Suzanne Collins' writing style. She's clean and sparse, yet I never had trouble envisioning the characters in my head. Am I the only one, though, who sees a young Sean Astin in the role of Peeta? Good reads all the way through.

Just before break a friend handed me a copy of The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein and told me I was going to love it. Sorry. Didn't. It isn't that I don't like philosophy books hidden inside novels, I do. My favorite is Illusions by Richard Bach followed closely by Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. My husband is reading Eat, Pray, Love  by Elizabeth Gilbert and tells me I'm going to like it when he's done (saw the movie and enjoyed that, so looking forward to reading the book).

No, I'm afraid I'm just not the target audience of The Art of Racing in the Rain, kinda the same way I'm not really the target audience for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance --and pretty much for the same reasons. The metaphor just doesn't resound with me. I'm not into car racing, so didn't relate to Racing because Stein used that extended metaphor to get his philosophies across. Plus, I'm not a dog person. Don't really like dogs (have been afraid of them ever since I can remember) and while the narrator of the book (Enzo, the protagonist's dog) is one cool animal, I still am not a dog person.

So don't let my shrug towards The Art of Racing in the Rain dissuade you. You like dogs? You'll enjoy it. You like the races? You'll like this book. You like philosophy? You'll like this book. Me? I'm just odd that way...

Play safe, everyone!
Diana
PS. Do you find the links helpful? I'm never sure if anyone uses them to learn more about the authors or to look at the books? Drop me a comment or an email and let me know?