I am reading Andrew Gross'
The Dark Tide. It is fantastic. When I sit down to read it, I get lost in it and when I finally resurface to reality, I've taken in about 100 pages.
On another note, speaking of book clubs, I attended the "big reads" book club meeting on Wednesday night. The book being discussed was
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.
As the group was assembling, I realized that I was the baby of the group. At 43, I was half the age of many of those assembled. It was amazing to hear the comments from these older women. None of them liked the book. They said this Vietnam historical fiction was too intense for them and they could only read it in small doses. I devoured the book in 2 days. The librarian discussion leader said that she's found this to be true of those who served in Vietnam and younger.
It wasn't until a man who had served during Vietnam showed up that I was the only person who enjoyed the book. Yes, it was dark. Yes, it dealt with stories that were hard to read. I think I enjoyed it because I've always wanted to take a class on this subject but I never had the opportunity to do that. It is educating me on a war/conflict of which I have no first hand recollection.
I found it interesting to see, first hand, how age and experiences influence our reading enjoyment.
I did find out that the author is going to be in town this coming Thursday. I plan to attend one of his lectures. I think hearing why he chose to write this as fiction instead of non-fiction should be interesting and I want to know why he set up one of the scenes in the book having a daughter when IRL, he has 2 sons and no daughter. Plus, I can get my book signed.
Looking for something a little less formal (for lack of better word.) And most of the books they read do not interest me as much.
