Catch up time

Ugh, back to school. That first week is always such a mess. My first week of a new quarter was no exception. To make things more frustrating, Spring Break wasn't exactly as slow paced and low key as I had predicted, meaning that I got not nearly as much reading done, nor very much blogging at all done, as anticipated. So, catch up time.
Stats:
Title: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: Harper
Date: 2008
My start date: 3/25/10
My finish date: 3/27/10

So, many of us have read or seen the recent phenomenon, Marley and Me. To be honest, I have only seen the movie and have not read the book, but have been assured that the movie remains pretty faithful. If you liked that work, you will like this one. It is basically the same concept, taking the dog-family relationship from the introduction of the puppy to the inevitable end of the road. However, this story offers an interesting twist, which I feel makes it at least a little superior than all of the those trendy "here is how my pet affected our family" stories--this one is told from the dog's perspective. And Stein nails it. I mean, admittedly, I am decidedly a cat person, but I do in fact love dogs as well, and Stein writes and speaks as I can only imagine a dog would. He never falters in his voice. It is really quite inspired. Of course, it didn't hurt that I read this while staying at my sister's, where, poor thing, she had to work all day and I got to stay behind and read in the company of her delightful Sheltie dog. Young Toby and I bonded nicely as I read and was encouraged to think from his perspective. I highly recommend reading this in the company of a beloved canine friend of yours.

I had only one complaint about this book, and it is a personal taste issue rather than any sort of technical fault. The main human figure is a professional race car driver. Which might be fascinating to many, but not so much to me. There is a LOT of reference to racing, drivers, historical races, driving technique, etc. It all had a point in the long run, but at times it was a bit tedious to me. Now, if the human had been an equestrian...{Sigh}...Oh well.

Anyway, I also, once again, loved that this book was set in beautiful Seattle. It is so fun to read references that I can actually go visit. Seriously though, I am not seeking these Seattle based books out. It is purely coincidence! I guess Seattle is just that cool that everybody wants to write about it. ;-)

Ok, onward. This book was the last book to be completely finished in March, so a end of first quarter thought is due. I will admit that around this time and in the last week or so I have begun to experience a little bit of reading burn out. As promised, I do not churn through books just for the numbers, which is why you have seen a slight drop off of late. And, although my numbers are low for my goal (if you have lost count, this book was 16 for the year), I remind myself as well, that if I could count novels read for school, that number would jump to 31, a number which includes such daunting works as the infamous 1500 page long Clarissa. However, we aren't counting those, and if I intend to meet my goal, I best get reading! Fortunately, my reading load this quarter promises to be a bit more friendly and I think I feel my second wind coming on. So keep checking back for more good reads!
In the meantime...

Keep reading!
Sarah