Whoa - Finished a Book!

If you knew how many books I start, but never finish, this may come as a surprise to you. And if you knew how I never read fiction, this would be an even bigger surprise.

I finished an entire book the other day!

And by "book" I mean "grown-up" book. I finish a half dozen or more kid books each week. Actually, this accomplishment is amazing for two reasons (well three):

1. It was a grown-up book, read cover-to-cover.
2. It was fiction - swore off fiction a few years ago.
3. It was actually science-fiction (in as much as it involved aliens)- and I "hate" science fiction.

The book, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney. OK, OK, it wasn't deep or difficult, but it was entertaining, diverting, and fun.

I had purchased the book for the Hobbled Wife some time ago, but she ever read it. She is a Jack Finney fan, so I was surprised to find this at a book store, since I didn't know Finney wrote the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In fact, I was surprised that anyone wrote it as a book - - I just figured it was a screenplay. Found it laying around, I was between books, so I gave it a spin.

Don't have the strength or interest to review it properly, but it was entertaining, not too scary (in fact pretty tame by today's standards), but an interesting "period piece". Finney was writing in 1954 or 55, but he set the book twenty years ahead to 1976. What was the reason for this? I couldn't figure it out. He didn't do any cool future-prediction stuff. Everyone still drove cars, lived in homes with regular appliances, etc. In fact, the main character was a doctor, who still made house calls and used an answering service. I thought most MDs gave up house calls by 76. Did they still use answering services?? Maybe pagers were a few years out. Anyway, couldn't see the point of the future setting.

On to another book, non-fiction again (whew!).

One of these days I will have to post about the great series that the Dude and I are working our way through: The A to Z mystery series by Ron Ray. We've kind of skipped around the alphabet, most recently finishing The Falcon's Feathers, and now working on The Bald Bandit.

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