Sucked In

That's actually a really bad pun, even if you don't know it yet.

I must confess that my lack of serious craftiness is because I've been reading.  I love to read, but I go through spells as to how much I read.  Earlier in the year, it was taking me over a month to read a book.  Currently, I'm about to finish my second book in about a week. 

I was an early reader.... I could read before Kindergarten.  I was reading Nancy Drew probably by the second grade and just haven't stopped reading since.  I remember in high school even reading my mom's trashy romance novels because I had nothing else to read.  That's desparation there.  ;)  Trashy romance is where I have to draw the line.  I'm sure some of what I read toes that line, but if there's a woman swooning and falling out of her corset into the arms of a Fabio wannabe, I can't make myself read it.

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Exactly.

However, since I do read for entertainment, I read almost entirely fiction.  I have no desire to read a biography of anyone.  I only passed History in school because I have (or rather, had) a freakish memory that would at least get me past the tests.  I really couldn't have cared less about it.  But honestly, I only read to be entertained and to escape.  And I'm not going to be reading the classics for fun.  I do enjoy some of them, but some are just like walking through mud.

I love Dean Koontz and Stephen King, Jodi Picoult and Iris Johansen (NOT her romance books, but like her Eve Duncan books).  One of my new favorites is Jasper Fforde.  He is amazing.  I have my guilty pleasures, too.  I was late to the Evanovich party, but I am hooked on the Stephanie Plum books.  I have resisted buying the new one.... I'm waiting for the library to have it available.  And the books that have me hooked at the moment - Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. 

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My sister loaned me the first two books months ago, along with The Eyre Affair by Fforde.  I ended up hooked on Fforde, and I'm just now getting back to the Harris books.  I do have to admit, she's not like some phenomenal writer, technically... it was kind of hard to get back into the books because she isn't as smooth as Fforde, but she's a good story-teller.  Being a good story-teller can redeem some not-so-great writing, in my opinion.  You can at least be so caught up that you don't realize how badly what you're reading sucks.  Take the Twilight series.  I'll admit to reading them.  I'll admit that I read all 4 monster-sized books obsessively in a week and a half, even buying one of them in hardback, which I never do.  But Stephenie Meyers sold her soul to the devil for those books because they're really not that great.  I was addicted to them, though.  Heck, Evanovich has kept people reading about the same stupid love triangle for seventeen books now.  And I'm sure once I reach the end of the Sookie Stackhouse books, I'll be wondering what I was thinking there, too.  But I'm entertained and that's all that really matters.

So, what are you reading?  I'll be done with the Sookie books in no time at this rate and need to figure out where to go from here.  I still have some Fforde books I haven't read.  Believe it or not, I still haven't read a single Harry Potter book.  I'm intrigued by the Hunger Games books.  Between reading, crocheting, sewing, and knitting - in addition to just LIFE itself - I need about 20 more hours tacked onto the day to be satisfied.