What I read over Christmas break (in chronological order):
1. Freakonomics
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Angels and Demons
4. The Broker
5. Me Talk Pretty One Day
6. The Tipping Point
7. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
These, along with the hours I spent reading book-jackets in Barnes and Noble, have led me to the following conclusions:
- I really don’t care for Dan Brown. DaVinci Code was, eh, okay. Deception Point … not too great, but entertaining enough for the train ride from Berlin to Munich. Angels and Demons, not so much. So no more Dan Brown.
- John Grisham sold out to the bestseller list. The Broker was 419 pages of bland non-substance. I will give up my whole closet (shoes and all) if the John Grisham of A Time to Kill and The Pelican Brief lore would only return.
- I am rather sick of fiction. I think this stems from my current thoughts on life: a big pot of nothin’. Maybe it would be more satisfying to embark on journeys in search of fake treasures in fake places with fake people if I even had a flicker of an idea about what is up with my real life.
- Maybe I’m only sick of bland bestseller fiction, the ones whose back covers are decorated with “Thoroughly thrilling! A joy-ride!”, but end up being empty sell-outs with plots that appeal to housewives with too much time on their hands (not that there is anything wrong with being a housewife).
- Barnes and Noble and airport newstands are huge ripoffs. Buy your books on Amazon; everything I’ve searched for so far has had discounts of 20-25%.
And the obsession continues …
–My current read: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.
–On the deck: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. (The second one is bestseller fiction, but there was a semblance of nerdy-cool to the title that drew me in).
–In transit, from Amazon.com: Bringing Down the House (I’ve never read it), He’s Just Not That Into You (because I need some self-help, and this book was so raved about), and What Should I Do With My Life? (by Po Bronson, recommended by a friend who is ditching science for teaching, and maybe, just maybe, this book will help me to learn to enjoy fiction again).