I didn't want to do it, but I had to put Buckeye down.
The book came highly recommended and, while I'll likely return to it down the road, I just couldn't get into it right now. I really tried. I gave it the one-hundred-pages necessary to gather its "persuade me" pitch. It just didn't... sell it. Not for the vibe I'm in at the moment, I suppose.
There's a scene from the TV show Full House where John Stamos's character, Uncle Jesse, goes back to night-school. When he gets there, he jokes that the last time he went to school, he had this teacher he didn't like who started every class with "Read any good books lately?" John Stamos says this in a mocking droll, which is immediately followed by that same teacher saying that very phrase, with that same droll, moments later.
If I ever start to think "do I like this book?" when I'm reading something, I picture that scene from Full House. If I wouldn't bring it up in conversation when asked if I'd read any good books lately, I think it's time to set it aside.
I usually have a few books going at once, which I've written about in the past.
Morning reads are for getting my brain going and night-time reads are for down-shifting. Usually, that looks like a non-fiction-to-fiction progression. Lately, however, I've been on a fairly lengthy fiction-kick. I've spent years sponging up non-fiction so it's entirely possible I'm overcompensating by tipping the scales in the other direction. Time and again, I've heard literary icons share that the best advice they could give to other writers is to read more fiction.
So, I've heeded the call.
Harry Potter played a pretty foundational role in my early reading practice, but I drifted from fantasy for a long while in my teens and twenties. Last year, Brandon Sanderson brought me back. Since then, I've read a lot of his stuff and been really blown away by his world-building and character development. That said, I'm also taking a short intermission from his Way Of Kings series. Each of his books are like 1,000+ pages and I need to mix it up before I dive back in.
Which is how I find myself with two new books to read to close out The MAP Year Project (less than three weeks left!):
1. On Writing by Stephen King
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Read any good books lately?
onward.
For more on this daily column and The MAP Year Project, read the backstory here. And if you know someone who'd appreciate this, pass it along.