*whew* Finally I can put away Grisham’s A Time to Kill. I finished it off a few days ago, but haven’t had time to update my blog with my latest reading pursuits. I much preferred the book to the movie, despite the million years it seems to have taken to complete the book. I liked the fact that the movie’s saccharine sweet ending was a Hollywood invention. Sure, all ended well – but it wasn’t all due to the great actions and abilities of Jake Brigance.

My lack of reading this past week boils down to a scheduling conflict – not a lack of interest. Since I’ve managed to finish two new books in the last two days, I think I’ll be back on track soon. Figures, I go on vacation and finally have time to sit down and do some quality reading.

As for those two new books, I read Jay Russell’s Blood and John Grogan’s Marley & Me.

Russell’s Blood was a disappointment. The dialog was a filled with foul language and crazed ranting that may have fit the author’s mental picture of the characters but really made for difficult reading on my part. Some of the time I spent trying to figure out what the expression was supposed to mean and I found of a lot of it seemed more poised for shock value than developed to move the story forward. It certainly wasn’t the edge-of-your-seat thrill ride crime & horror novel that was advertised in the book reviews.

Grogan’s Marley & Me is a different story entirely (pardon the pun). A friend offered me her copy of this book about a week ago and her description its contents immediately drew my attention. As she put it “Marley was a really bad dog. He probably makes your dogs look like angels.” It’s hard to imagine that there might be worse behaved dogs out there than mine, but after reading Marley & Me I’m happy to report that Grogan’s dog Marley does make mine look like well behaved sweethearts. Grogan’s writing is open, heartfelt, and has a healthy dose of humour. Dog owners will love spending a few hours reading this book.

I’ve updated my Shelfari reading list to list all the books I’ve read so far – a dismal 7 to date. Hopefully I’ll manage to get a bunch more complete in the week I have off between Christmas and New Years.

Technorati Tags: read-a-ton, book, reading, John Grisham, John Grogan, Jay Russell

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