Books

I read--a lot. And I always have. When I was in my middle school/high school years, I would walk through the house with my nose in a book. Every night after dinner, I had to wash the dishes and the only way I would do it was by propping a book up so I could read at the same time. I know I'm no different than a lot of people, but I DO seem to have a quirk that I don't know how many others have.

Whenever I find a genre that interests me, I seem to fixate on it for an extended period of time--and most of the books I read are of that genre. During the middle school years, I fixated on Gothic romance and read everything I could get my hands on by Daphne du Maurier, as well as authors I don't remember. This obsession went on for at least two years before it ended. After that, it took quite a while before I fixated on something else and just focused mostly on best sellers.

I believe the next genre I read through was Native American-based fiction. I then moved on to Jewish fiction--Exodus, QB VII, Trinity, and other works by Leon Uris. After that I read everything I could by James A. Michener. Michener was quite a haul, as the man never wrote a short novel--every book was an undertaking. I've gone through Christian fiction, Apocalyptic fiction, the classics, paranormal/supernatural, detective, and sci-fi. (I might have even fixated on some non-fiction along the way, but don't recall what at the moment.) Throughout all of this time, I continued to read books of various other genres, but I always floated around my obsession until it worked itself out of my system--which it always seems to do.

These days I am reading books that are a combination of genres that I have read in the past. There are three series by three different authors that I am loving at the moment. They are detective/supernatural/fantasy novels that are easy to read and I devour them like a piece of my from-scratch red velvet cake. They are that delicious.

Jim Butcher has created the character Harry Dresden. Harry is a wizard who works out of modern day, downtown Chicago. He helps the police solve magical crimes, while he is working for and against the supernatural world. I first was introduced to the character of Harry Dresden when I watched the much too short-lived series that was on the Sci-Fi channel. I fell in love with the character and the stories and needed to read the books. I am now waiting for the newest book, number 12, which will come out in April.

While I was waiting for the next Dresden installment, I found Mike Carey and his character Felix Castor. Felix is a bit different than Dresden, as he is an exorcist based in London. Still, the feel of the books in this series are quite similar to the Dresden series. Felix is only featured in two books, so far, and I am waiting for book number three, which will be available in paperback in August.

The third series I'm reading, I have just begun. Actually, I'm only halfway through the first book and am completely and totally hooked. The author is Simon R. Green and his character is John Taylor--and he does his work in The Nightside, which is 'that square mile of Hell in the middle of London, where it's always three A.M.' Besides loving the genre, how in the world can you NOT love a book that has lines like this:

"I knew it was going to be a bad day when I woke up to find my rabbit's foot had grown itself a new rabbit."

and

"Betty and Lucy Coltrane. Best damned bouncers in the business...Fiercer than pit bulls and cheaper to run. Married to each other. They had a dog once, but they ate it."

and

"Rats have been known to jump back into open sewers, just to get away from the smell of an approaching Razor Eddie."

Number 10 in the series was just published, so I will be able to read these for a while.

I really can't wait to see what my fixation will be after I'm done with these books. I only hope it won't be Harlequin romances--cause that would mean I am totally in my dotage, or suffering from Alzheimer's.