Good books

Have you ever read a book that you knew you should read, or that someone told you to read, but that you weren't really into?  I have.  It takes me a long time to read them.  I have to actually set aside time and break it into smaller pieces so it looks like a manageable task.

Sometimes those books get better as they go.  I finished the Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman.  The first one was pretty fast, but the second and third really took a long time to get through.  I had to renew each one three times at the library in order to finish.  That's twelve weeks to read these Young Adult novels.  They ended up being good, but take a while to get into.

On the other hand, last week I picked up the new CJ Box novel, Force of Nature.  I absolutely love everything he writes.  His novels are brisk.  The action starts fast and there's tension on almost every page.  The characters are real and easy to connect to, and you get to know them by watching them talk and act in the book.  I finished it in six days.  Couldn't put it down.  Started acting like an idiot by failing to do much more important things with deadlines, but the book was just so good!

My next book is Sergeant Rex, about a military bomb-sniffing dog in Iraq.  I read the first two pages and my heart rate sped up.  Here's hoping it's one that makes me act like an idiot in planning my time.  I love those books.