Reading Addictions

My sister, the classical musician, once asked me why I don’t write more frequently. She observed that she plays music all the time—not just for practice, but because she loves it. If I think I’m a writer, shouldn’t I be writing with the same frequency and passion? Well, yes. However, the comparison doesn’t quite hold up. She plays, but she doesn’t compose. Writing is composing. Reading, however, is more like practicing.

Stephen King says that if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write. I think he advocates reading for three or four hours a day, on top of writing 500 to 1,000 words every day. Then again, he’s filthy rich and has a mental twitch that compels him to write in the same way alcoholics are compelled to drink. I’m not the former, and lack the latter.

But I do read. Blissfully free of internet access in my apartment, with a broken DVD player and lots of time on my hands, oh how I read. And while I don’t have a writing addiction, I do tend to get hooked on certain authors or series. Here’s a snapshot of what I’m presently hooked on, after the jump. 

Book 12, because it has the most awesome cover art

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

If you know me, you know how I came to this series late, and proceeded to burn through all 12 published books in less than a year. I came for the sex, violence and witty remarks (and don’t get me wrong, the early books have all three in spades). I stayed for the brilliant characters, moral quandaries, researched folklore and overall great stories.

Harry Dresden in the only wizard in the Chicago Yellow Pages. He works as a private investigator and sometime consultant for the local police. A bachelor, he lives with a cat named Mister, a giant dog named Mouse, and a talking skull named Bob. When Harry’s not busy starting a global wizard/vampire war, he hangs out with the local werewolf gang, matches wits the faerie courts and mentors his apprentice Molly.

Next book in a series with which I barely keep up.

The Isaac Bell Adventures by Clive Cussler

Cussler is best known for his Dirk Pitt adventure stories. I can’t really get into those. Apparently he’s also got about a dozen other series out there, all co-authored with a different up and comer. New books come out at an alarming rate this way, and it seems like every time I go to the library (which is about four times a day) Cussler’s released something else.

So while the writing isn’t great, I can’t help but enjoy his Isaac Bell novels. Bell is a Van Dorn (read: Pinkerton) detective working in the early 20^th century. In every book Bell is faced with a cunning, brutal and impossibly strong adversary. Naturally, the dashing Isaac Bell is more than up to the challenge. With the help of a network of detectives, a stern boss and a lovely girlfriend, Bell always manages to save the day—with a few car/boat/airplane chases and wild explosions along the way, of course.

Now available in the bargain bin at your local Christian book monger, because  it's not Karen Kingsbury.

The Russian Trilogy by Noel Hynd

This, I did not expect. I’m reading “Inspirational Fiction” from Zondervan. However, this is not your average agenda fiction. No one gets walked down the Roman’s Road, there’s no room for the supernatural in espionage and not a single trite moral in sight. Hynd, an experienced novelist and screenwriter, seems more interested in telling a complex story and leaving it up to his readers to make their own judgments than writing elaborate sermon illustrations.

Alex LaDuca is a woman, a federal agent, sometime spy, and a Christian. After an assignment in Ukraine goes sideways, she finds herself traveling the world with a network of unexpected and unsavory allies at her back. I’ve read a handful mainstream thriller and/or spy novels and it seems like the protagonist is always a cynic (ala James Bond) or a humanist to the extreme (“The Da Vinci Code”). Alex just happens to be a Christian instead, and her beliefs shape her character and her decisions, just as James Bond’s cynicism directs his character.

So that’s what I’m reading these days. Am I missing anything essential? Let me know in the comments.