The last book I read

Reading is essential for a good writer. You can get into the book and escape into the story, which is what I love most, or you can study a book for its craft -- style, setting, pace, dialogue, you name it. While I do both, I prefer to get into a book and escape into reading it without much thought of anything else.

So, what was the last book I read? THE LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown. I bought the book when it first came out but couldn't get into it. It didn't grab me at first. But I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and charged through it. It's well-researched -- Brown is known for that -- and well-written. Oddly, the thing that struck me the most was the shortness of his chapters -- an average of about three or four pages. Some are as short as one page. That means his 500-page novel has about 130 chapters.

The next two books I plan to read are THE SWAN THIEVES by Elizabeth Kostova and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson. This is Kostova's second novel and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And I was suppose to read DRAGON TATTOO in a reading group earlier this year but never got to it.

The funniest book I have ever read was WITHOUT FEATHERS By Woody Allen. What can I say? It's classic Woody Allen. I read it decades ago and it still makes me laugh out loud.

My favorite series are the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and Harry Potter by, well, you already know that. Evanovich's writing inspired me to write my last novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR, in first-person. In fact, a lot of the style of the novel was inspired by Evanovich. I tried to keep it light and funny, but moving quickly and with escalating tension.

As for Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling created a wonderful world of magical creatures and with a escalating sense of danger with each new book. I do think the books tended to get bloated further along -- Books five and six, in particular -- but the continuing story of Potter and his friends is compelling.

(This spring I tried to read the Twilight series and just couldn't. I guess I will have to try the films.)

While I like to read merely for the escapist enjoyment, one of my favorite novels is THE TEARS OF AUTUUM by Charles McCarry. It is a book that got me thinking. It's about the assassination of President Kennedy and who was behind it. While I believe Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy, if there was a conspiracy, our racial and ethnic prejudices would never allow us to seriously consider the villains in the book as the ones responsible for one of the worse crimes in American history. And because of that, if they did do it, they would get away with it.

It's a great theory.

So, there is some of what I have been reading or have read, and why. If you'd like, tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.