reader rabbit

Last night I felt so tired so early. I headed up to bed around nine, feeling really weird about it still being light out. I ended up finishing A Room on Lorelei Street and then reading another entire book.
I enjoyed Lorelei, I really did. I just didn't like it as much as I expected to given all the hype. I've read a lot of messages on listservs and heard from a number of people that it's the best book they've read this year. I'm just not feeling that. I wanted more. Opal is such a compelling character and so important to Zoe's experience but we hardly got to know her. Another issue I had with the book is that almost every chapter seemed to end on a stress note. Now, in theory, this works - leaving the reader with the same gnawing-worried-stomach feeling Zoe has - but to me it got old quickly. I want to be drawn into the next chapter, but after a few chapters finished feeling like everything is a big hopeless ball of stress, I wanted to put the book away rather than keep going. It's too much of an effective technique.

After that, I picked up a book I'd requested via MeLCat, The Underminer. I don't remember where, but I read something that made me want to read this. I'm guessing it must've been reviewed on someone's blog? It makes me think of This American Life, so maybe it was excerpted there? At any rate, it only took me about an hour to finish it. Which I take to be a good thing. You recognize the characters and situations even if they are exaggerated and despite the fact that everything stays the same throughout - no one truly changes. It's one joke that works, continually built upon as the main character's life gets (at least in the eyes of the speaker, the titular "casual best friend who destroys your life") increasingly worse. There were lots of pop culture references and the characters are only just slightly older than I am so identifying with this book was easy. Overall, a fun read.

And now it is time for yard work!