On Second Thought...

Any trip that my travel-happy family takes includes a bag packed with far more books than I can possibly read in that amount of time. This time we had 8 days, and I limited myself to 5 books. Have I mentioned that I am a painfully slow reader, particularly if the reading is a chore? Brian's aunt can pound out 2 or 3 novels in 24 hours.

Since I was in the last stages of preparing copy for the summer reading issue of The Banner, I decided to take along a copy of a Christian novel that had been sent to me for review. I try to make a point of including some inspirational fiction. This particular novel, Hunter's Moon, seemed like it might be promising--sort of a thriller, with a powerful family epic feel. Well. It wasn't so great--the attempt was admirable, but the plot was just too contrived to make the themes hit home, and I never quite liked the main character. Since I'd only brought one such book on the trip, I kept reading, hoping it would somehow turn and be a fantastic review possibility. I really wanted to like it. The result is that I spent a good portion of my reading time on a book I really didn't like. Hazard of the job, I guess.

The vacation reading took a drastic turn for the better on the last day, when I started a book by Michael Perry called Population: 485. Perry is a writer, an EMT and a volunteer firefighter in his small Wisconsin hometown. He writes beautifully, weaving different themes together as he recounts his experiences as an emergency worker in a town where most of the victims are known to him in some way. I'm about a third of the way through and probably won't finish it by the start of the Festival of Faith and Writing (STARTS TOMORROW!!!), but I am excited to hear him speak and try out a couple of his other books. I highly recommend him.

May your travel bag always be filled with books worth reading.