Books for 2008

Keeping up with my quest to read a book a week, here's an update on 2008. The first book for 2008 was The Overlook by Michael Connelly. As I've said before, I am a big fan of the Harry Bosch series, and this is the last in that line. Connelly originally wrote this one as a magazine serial, and it's a little more bare-bones than the typical Bosch novel. But it's a compressed story, too--taking place over just 12 hours. Mixes together the stuff of noir--murder, a femme fatale, etc.--with contemporary issues (terrorism). A good, if quick, read.

On the work trip, I read The Ruins by Scott Smith. Smith wrote the novel (and screenplay) for A Simple Plan, which I liked (the movie). This is his second book, a psychological horror/suspense novel about tourists in Mexico. If you like this sort of thing (horror novels), it's pretty good. Smith writes the novel in an interesting way, telling the story from the points of view of four different characters, delving into each character's fears, hopes, etc. And the "creeping terror" in the novel is more a force of nature than anything else--although there's an interesting element there, too, with Mayans. The novel doesn't explain too much--the characters never quite know what's going on, until it's much too late. To be honest, I found this one hard to put down. So I guess that's an endorsement.

I see that they're making a movie version. Reading the novel, I thought to myself--I wonder how long before they make the movie version. The answer was, they already had.

Two weeks in, two books down. This year I resolve to actually record what it is I'm reading.