Since my last post, I’ve managed to complete a few items from my 2017 reading challenge.  So far, I’ve crossed off:

• A book with a colour in the title – The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
• A book you picked based solely on the cover – Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
• A book by a female writer – The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• A play – Harry Potter & the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne & John Tiffany

Two of those items were checked off this past week.  I had the happy occasion to have not one, not two, but two and a half snow days.  While this was a wallop of snow, I didn’t mind it since I was able to stay home from work for a change.  This in itself was monumental.  I’ve been lucky to get 2 half days off in an entire winter in the past as our company rarely closes its doors (partly due to head office being here in town).  But this week… there was no way around us closing.  The storms were wild and furious. Ironically, my wife was working on two of those days.  Being a teacher, that never happens.  She usually has butt-loads of snow days in the winter (not that I’m jealous or anything).  The irony is that she was out of town for conferences on Monday and Tuesday.  The entire city shut down, along with the school districts, but since everyone was at the hotel and the conference was in the hotel itself, they went on.

So I hunkered down and read two entire books.  The first, Universal Harvester, I picked up on Sunday afternoon while perusing the aisles of my local book store.  I had decided that if I happened across a book whose cover drew me in, I would buy it without reading the jacket or anything else.  I literally saw this cover, walked past it, backed up, looked at it again and that was it.  I picked it up and walked to the cash.

The only thing I had to go by was the front cover.  I did not look at anything else, so I didn’t know what kind of book to expect, what the story was remotely about, nothing.  I will say that I am usually good to trust my instincts, and this was no exception to the rule.  The main protagonist of the book, which takes place in the late 1990s, was born in 1978 (like me) and worked at a video store (like me).  The story itself was interesting, if not slightly disjointed.  I still really enjoyed the book, but was not a favourite read.  I’d probably give it a solid 3.5/5.

I’ll likely continue to do occasional posts like this throughout the year.  Maybe one of the books I read will spark something in you and make you want to pick it up as well.  And if not, at least it keeps me writing.