The Big Show Stopper

Anyone who may pay attention to my Goodreads bookshelves knows that I have anywhere between 1 and 8 books open for reading at any given time. Sometimes, I find a book that sucks me in immediately, and then there are those that I am happy to just plod along with.

Now, that isn't to say that the book itself plods along, but that I plod along in reading it, by choice. It isn't because the book is slow, or uninteresting.

The truth is very much to the contrary. I'm a fan of detective shows of all kinds: Hawaii Five-O, Bones, NCIS, CSI, Law & Order, Murder She Wrote, Simon and Simon, Jake and the Fat Man, Hardcastle and McCormick, Riptide, and the list goes on.

One thing I noticed after watching them, is that I'm always bummed when they end, or when characters leave. That's kind of what I'm doing here - stretching my reading of the book out like TV series does, and I'm reading it in short bursts. This way, I'm adding suspense to the story, will be able to enjoy the humorous character banter and wonderful sarcasm much longer than if I'd read it right away.

See, while reading this book, I'm getting to remember some of the best moments from some of my favorite shows, so I'm really enjoying this book - so much so that I don't want it to end, which is why I read it only a bit at a time.

Sure, I could hurry up and read the story, but with only 2 books out there, I'm delaying that inevitable feeling I'll get when a book is over for as long as possible.

Now, not all books do this for me. Sure, the story's great while I'm reading it, but afterwords, it's like, "Okay, what book's next in TBR list?" That won't be happening with this book. I know that when I've read both, if there aren't more, I'm going to be seriously bummed because I, as odd and goofy as he may be, like Bear's character. So, rather than spend time being bummed, I'm going to continue to enjoy this book as slow as I can! :)

When I inevitably finish this book, I'll post my review. But until then, I hope you'll consider picking up The Bloody Birthright and The Big Show Stopper by Ken Dalton!

Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes

One of the things I seem to notice with pdfs, or other electronic versions of print media, is that it makes it hard to actually mix words and pictures. As a result, the "picture" books don't often resemble the picture books I'm used to seeing for this age group as the images come before or after the text, and not on the same page with it. Whether it's that way by design, or because of the nature of the media, it loses some of it's effectiveness, I think, in it's storytelling nature.

However, this is merely cosmetic. The story itself has a good message - worry too much, and you can make yourself have a nightmare! It also comes complete with a guide of talking points.

The true test will be what my niece thinks of this story!

I'll add her reactions when I've had the chance to have her read the story, so keep checking back!