pophyn’s next blog

I’m trying something new for me this month, a web community challenge: Gwen Bell’s The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. Find the best the year has offered me, and review, remember, contemplate, reflect, and celebrate it. There’s a question/topic each day.

Ever since I saw the list and started just thinking about trying this challenge. I’ve been wondering what to say for today’s question:December 4 – Book. Gwen fleshes this one out by asking: “What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

I read for pleasure, to relax, not specifically for inspiration or insight. Even the occasional non-fiction book I read is for fun (math can be fun, people). That doesn’t mean I don’t connect with my reading material, but it’s not my goal. So what this boils down to is that I’ve picked a book I think is great, but that’s not because it moved me on some deep level. It’s because it was a pleasure to read and I was sorry when I finished it.

I’m a big fan of the TV series Dexter, about a serial serial-killer killer. At some point, a year or two ago, I learned that the show is based on novels by Jeff Lindsay. This spring I read the first three books of the series: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, and Dexter in the Dark . The middle book is my best of 2009.

The first book is very good and was exciting to read. I like the book on its own and also enjoyed comparing it to the show. But the second book was a thrill to read. It’s very dark and very disturbing, which is not what I usually like, but it’s so well done, I didn’t care. I don’t think I was inspired or enlightened by this book (if I was, I need help :-), but It isn’t just mind candy, read and forgotten immediately. It stuck with me a while, as a good book should.

You know….just writing this post makes me think about reading it again.