It’s Day 5 and I’ve finished my first book of the year. I hope it doesn’t portend the rest of my reading for 2024.
Which is my way of saying that although I was excited to check out the book, it did not live up to my expectations. I readily admit that my reading experience was hampered by the excessive smoke smell in the checked-out-only-one-time book and that I had to air it out for several days before I could open it to read. But even after that, a residual odor marred my reading experience—but I can’t blame it for the repetitious dialogue and some of the unbelievable plot developments (this was the latest in a mystery series that I normally like and the characters are like old friends but I almost didn’t recognize some of them). Needless to say, I hope Book #2 is better.
But that’s part of the problem—what to read next? I have titles on my “to read” list but are they on the library’s shelves? Not at the moment. But in the coming weeks/months I hope to pick up Mike Gayle’s “Museum of Ordinary People,” “Berry Pickers,” by Amanda Peters, and “Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp,” by Leonie Swann.
Plus, I’m awaiting the next book by Lynda Rutledge, “Mockingbird Summer” due out later this month (I loved “West with Giraffes”!) Granted, “King of the Armadillos” by Wendy Chin-Tanner is currently just feet away from the Reference Desk but I’m not sure I’m in the right mindset for it right now.
I will instead try one of the two books I have checked out, one set in England, the other in Scotland. Surely one will come through for me.