We're a screwy species.

The biggest word in the human vocabulary has only four letters and no definition that's ever been adequate. We love our dogs. We love our children. We love God and chocolate cake. We fall in love and fall out of love. We die for love, and we kill for love. We can't spend it. We can't eat it when we're starving or drink it when we're dying of thirst. But ask most human beings what they value above all else in this life, and five'll get you ten, it's love.

We're a screwy species.

--William Kent Krueger (Thunder Bay)

Lately I've been reading quite a few of the Reader's Digest Select Editions books. My great uncle gets them as part of his subscription to the magazine, and he brings them over to us after he's read whatever interests him. Reader's Digest writes abridged versions of new novels, and publishes them with four novels in each volume.

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So, they're a "lame" thing to read, I know... but I kind of like them. I'm the sort of person who can't really put a good book down once I start it, so it's nice to have a story I can read in a couple of hours. I get into trouble if I start a huge fantasy novel while I'm in school - schoolwork just does NOT get done (weird: A Shania Twain song is playing, and she sang "not" just as I typed it).

I'm also not much of a mystery story fan. I generally avoid them because I find them frustrating, and the not-so-subtle foreshadowing just ticks me off (there are clearly exceptions to this, I'm just speaking in general here). I've been putting off reading these books because most of the abridged novels are mysteries. But when they're short and they get to the point quickly I actually quite enjoy them... I think it's because there isn't a whole lot of time for my frustration to fester, and you find out "whodunnit" pretty quickly!

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The quote at the beginning of this post is from the novel Thunder Bay, by William Kent Krueger. It's one of the short little mysteries... one of the few that has tempted me to actually read the full version of the story. I liked the characters, and it seemed like most of the subplots in the book were lost... with just enough left behind to make you curious.

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Well, I'm off to finish up I Heard That Song Before, by Mary Higgins Clark (see, well known authors!). Maybe then I can convince myself to do some studying...