Three Very Different Books

One my first Thursday Thirteen, another blogger had a list of books that they had read and enjoyed. I copied the best of the list and off I went to the library. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was one of the two books. I finally got it through inter library loan last week and I kept looking at it, thinking to myself, I know this author, gee the inside cover sounds familiar. After a weekend of picking it up and putting it down, the light went off in my head. Yep, read this two years ago in paperback, it was a great book and I did enjoy it. Too bad I have a very poor memory for book titles.

So instead, I read this very easy, entertaining book by Luanne Rice, The Perfect Summer. It was a romance and a little mystery, with a characters that I enjoyed reading about. Slightly predictable, but I needed a light read since my last book was Slow Man, by J M Coetzee who is an award winning writer. The book is about a single older man in Australia who loses his leg in a bike accident. The first two chapters were okay, but then it just became painful to read. I didn't like the character and there is another character who just shows up and takes over his life which just made a ponderous book, like death to read. However, my philosophy is that since I am older, I don't have the time or inclination to force myself to read books where I am not learning anything or enjoying a good story. Life is too short to waste on slow reads!
Have you ever gone to read a book that was highly recommended to only find out that you hated it? What was it?