Schwim’s Blog

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to read. Read actual books that is. Well, I now have an iPad and I really didn’t think I’d try, let alone like, to read ebooks. I am not too proud to admit that I was wrong. This has been made possible and quite easy by my local library allowing me to checkout ebooks. It may not have the best selection, but I have already read several ebooks plus one short e-story. Plus a new author, Kirkus MacGowan, decided to follow me on Twitter and I decided to search for his book, The Fall of Bill Hitchings on Apple’s iBook store. I found that it was only a buck so I bought it as a courtesy to the follow and I really liked it. I’ll probably check out his next book too. Another author, David Weeks, chose to follow me on Twitter as well and again I searched for his book, The Stratford Fiasco, and decided to buy and read it. It too was very good. Other authors are following me now, but I haven’t availed myself to their books quite yet. Right now I have read seven ebooks including one very short story. I also have two more waiting in the wings. Vince Flynn’s Transfer of Power and Ethan Cross’ The Shepherd.

The best part of ebooks? I can have 10 or more loaded on my iPad and it won’t be any heavier to carry. The worst part? Remembering how to turn the page on each my three different ebook reading apps. Yep, a perfect example of a first world problem.

For those of you keeping track, I am currently reading my 444th book since I started keeping tack back in April of ’96. It is Jim Butcher’s White Night. What’s next? Who knows, but I think I have finally found the app to keep all the books I’ve read and want to read in order. It is called Book Crawler. I haven’t had it for too long, but so far it has all that I want. I’ve run into a few problems, but the creator has been very helpful and has responded to all my emails in a very timely manner. Works on both my iPad and iPod Touch. Check it out.

Reading, the best way to escape.

I have finally finished reading Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. I believe I found out about this book while on Facebook. I don’t quite remember exactly, but I think there was an add for this book comparing it loosely to Harry Potter. I loved the Harry Potter books so I read a brief synopsis of this new book and thought it sounded promising. I searched for it at my local library and found that it was quite the popular book and therefore unavailable. I put a hold on it and waited. When I finally got the notice from the library that it was available, I happily went there and checked it out, literally. I got a little less than half way through before it was due and I was about to embark on a little family vacation up to Minneapolis. I figured I’d just renew it, but there were other holds on the book so I had to return it unfinished. This was a first for me. When we returned from our trip, I placed another hold on this elusive book and again waited. I started reading two other books in the meantime. I again got a notice from the library and checked the book out once again. I had smartly noted the chapter I had left off on and continue from there.

After a few weeks, I finally finished the book and I can honestly say that I have not been happier or more relieved to finish a book since I read Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, which was a big steaming pile of crap. Lev Grossman’s The Magicians was not that bad, but it certainly wasn’t good. Sure it was unique, as far as my reading experience goes, but I truly did not enjoy the book at all. Not one of the characters was worth remembering or rooting for. I kind of liked the coupling of Quentin and Alice, but when they both pissed that relationship away, I stopped caring. There were some good parts, don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a complete waste of a book like Wicked was, but I feel the author really tried to do too much and didn’t really do that great of a job storytelling. Maybe I was expecting something more episodic like in the Harry Potter novels. I’m not really sure.

This book has received a lot of praise so somebody liked it. I’m obviously not the target audience Lev Grossman was writing for. Can I recommend it? Certainly not. Do I care that there’s a second book with these same characters? Most definitely not. The only good thing about finishing this book is that now I can concentrate on finishing books I’m actually enjoying; Harlan Coben’s Miracle Cure and Jim Butcher’s Proven Guilty.

I finally updated my book’s read list. I hadn’t since mid-February, but rest assured I was still reading. I finished ‘Devil May Care’ by Sebastian Faulks at #407, a James Bond thriller, and then picked up ‘The Unquiet’ by John Connolly at my Metra train station. There’s a book shelf at the terminal where I believe the library leaves books. I’ve read a few this way. When I’m done, I simply return the book to the shelf for the next person.

The James Bond book was good, but not great. I’ve seen just about all of the movies, but I think this was the first book I had read in the series. The John Connolly book looked interesting, but what sold me was the quote on the cover by Harlan Coben. He said, “One of the best thriller writers we have”. Harlan is an author I love to read so I figured if he liked it, I might too. It too was pretty good, but I’m not sure if I’ll return to read another Connolly novel. So now on to #409. I decided to go back to Catherine Coulter and continue her FBI series. It featured Dillion Savich, one of the secondary characters from her first book, ‘The Cove’, and proved to be just as entertaining as the first book.

Well now that I finished ‘The Maze’ on the train ride home from work today, I can look forward to reading another in this series some time in the future. But now it’s back to Alex Cross in James Patterson’s latest in the series, ‘Cross Fire’. Stay tuned to read my take on this book and to find out what I’ll be reading next.

Last week I read my 400th book since I started keeping track back in April of 1996. I think that’s about 28 books a year or a bit more than two books a month. Why is that month/year significant? It was when I started my first downtown job and was able to really start reading again while riding the L.

I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. It has always been a great escape for me. In pretty sure I got the reading bug from my dad who would routinely check out 4 or more books from the library at at time. I can do that now but I usually end up renewing one or two of them. Of course my mom loves to read as well. She and I both love going to the book store. We’re like kids in a candy store. Crown was our favorite.

What do I read? 99 % Fiction. Occasionally I’ll read some non-fiction, but it is very rare. If you peruse through my list of books read, you’ll see a mass of thrillers by James Patterson, John Sandford, Michael Connelly, John Lescroart, Ridley Pearson, William Bernhardt, Harlan Coben and many others. I also dabble in some science fiction/fantasy by the likes of Piers Anthony and Jim Butcher. I’ll also read a Star Trek book now and again since I’m such the Star Trek geek. I used to be a big fan of both Stephen King and Patricia Cornwell, but the last few books I read (or tried to read) from both completely turned me off to them. No matter, there’s plenty of other books to read.

I’m a big fan of authors who write series. I will find the first book in the series and start plowing through them all, that is of course if I like the first one. I recently received a Barnes and Noble gift card and specifically searched for book 1 of any mystery series that I hadn’t read. I figured if I liked it I would add it to my collection and if I didn’t, no loss as it was free. What did I choose?

“Above Suspicion” by Lynda La Plante. Book 1 in the Anna Travis series. And “The Cove” by Catherine Coulter. Book 1 in the FBI Thriller series. “Above Suspicion” was book #400. I enjoyed it partly because it was set in London. To me reading a story set somewhere I’ve never been is always refreshing. It didn’t hurt that the story was good too. I’m really enjoying “The Cove” as well. A few more days and I should be done with that book and on to “Bad Blood” by John Sandford. It is the fourth book in the Virgil Flowers series, which is a spin-off of the Lucas Davenport series of “Prey” novels. After that? Who knows, but I’m sure I’ll find it at the local library.