Books, books and more books

I go through seasons of reading. Sometimes I hardly read anything, then I read a lot. I think I'm getting into a "reading a lot" mode right now, which is good because I'm looking forward to some books and I have some at home I want to read.

Last night I finished reading About a Boy, by Nick Hornby. I've been a fan of Hornby's nonfiction, and I love the movie of About a Boy, so I wanted to read the book. I enjoyed it, but it's different than the movie in some significant ways. The movie takes some of the edge off, which is understandable, I guess. Adapting a book for film is always a challenge, especially if you're hoping for mass appeal. Which is not to say I like the movie less after reading the book, or that I like the movie better (or the book better). In some ways, they're almost separate entities that just happen to have some of the same characters and incidents. Hornby is a very good writer -- sometimes even brilliant. The book has wonderfully drawn characters, snappy and witty dialogue, humor, and real insight into the human condition. A lot of people reading might even say it's uplifting in its outlook -- it does have a reasonably happy ending (though the movie did the ending much differently, but still happy). But to me, the book is also a perfect picture of what it means to live without Christ. I'm sure that was not Hornby's intent, but that's what struck me, and as such it's a bit depressing. Near the end, Will thinks he might have to try to talk Fiona out of committing suicide and realizes there's no point to life -- at least none that he can think of. He just goes along from day to day, waiting to see what happens next. For a lot of us, even Christians, I'm afraid that's how we live -- very passively. Anyway, I didn't mean to get all philosophical and deep here. I did enjoy About a Boy and I think I need my own copy (I had checked it out of the library) because Nick Hornby really is a very good writer and I want to reread the brilliant bits.

As implied by the title of this post, I have more books to talk about. Yesterday the mail carrier brought me a lovely book -- To Dance in the Desert, by Kathleen Popa. It really is a lovely book to look at and I'm looking forward to reading it. I read the first chapter quite a while ago and I've been anticipating the rest of it ever since. It's up for a blog tour soon, so I'll be telling more then.

Another book I'm looking forward to, and will be featuring in a blog tour this summer I think, is the new novel from T.L. Hines: The Dead Whisper On. I enjoyed immensely Tony's debut novel, Waking Lazarus, and I don't expect to be disappointed with this one. Here's a link to an excerpt. Tony has also been blogging about his present journey with lymphoma -- my prayers are with you, Tony.

There are a couple more books I'm looking forward to, but I think I'll save them for another day. That way I won't have trouble coming up with a blog topic. :)