Last night I was up until approximately 11:17 PM, because I couldn't put this book down.

                                                       

11:17 PM is much later than (say) I stayed up on New Year's Eve.

Ethel woke up around 11:05 and gave me down the road for being awake, but I couldn't help it. This was a real page-turner; it's not just a whodunit. It's a "howdunit" AND a "who's doing it now" - i.e. there's a past possible crime that has to be figured out, and while our hero is trying to solve that puzzle, there's somebody now causing him trouble anonymously, which is seriously interfering with his solution of the first problem.

It's also a wonderful character study of the protagonist, and it contains characters from past Grisham novels (at least "A Time To Kill", as it is partially set in Clanton, MS).

Of course, our hero is a lawyer; of course, he's Southern, and (of course) there's an alcoholic in the environment (Grisham always has a drunk showing up somewhere - strangely enough, the character who filled that niche in "A Time To Kill" is now just a heavy social drinker who actually is trying to help solve the problem and help sober up the current alcoholic. Have you ever noticed how John Grisham's drunks never go to meetings and work the Twelve Steps? They are always drunk, detoxing, or rudely and boastfully sober for some short time before starting the cycle over again).,

It was a fun read, and an exciting read, and when I finally went to sleep the characters and situations fit themselves into my dreams.
I would recommend it without reserve - except that I noticed that there's a price sticker still on the front cover (I borrowed it from Floyd) and the price was $1 - he picked it up in the extreme discount rack :)

So maybe it really wasn't that good a novel. Maybe there's just something wrong with me that I found myself reading it obsessively.

I used to read until I couldn't keep my eyes open; I used to read to hide from the world. For a good many years, though, I've kept a book on my nightstand, and I would read a few pages every night before I would go to bed. I just finished Neal Stephenson's Anathem, and it took me almost two months. And that's an excellent book - but Stephenson is not the kind of writer that you speedread.

But in the last week or so, I've read two hardbacks - Ender in Exile and this Grisham novel. So maybe there's something wrong with me that needs to be addressed on a spiritual or emotional level - something that I'm hiding from.

I don't know what it might be. I have to admit that yesterday, when I was in line for our subsidized lunch catered by Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que, I found out when I ordered that I didn't have any money in my wallet (and they've moved the break area to the other building, away from the ATM) - so a colleague offered to loan me the two bucks, and I went to bed still owing him that money.

Or it might have something to do with me yelling at the dogs; Ethel finally got tired of having them all run in and out of the door together, bumping and barking, so we've started training them to go through the door in an orderly fashion, one-at-a-time - and sometimes this results in me yelling at one of them. In fact, two nights ago I took Maia down when she decided that she was tired of having to wait on the other dogs, and went through the door and down the hall, completely ignoring me telling her to come back (I don't think that she'll do that again).

Or maybe it's the economy keeping me awake, or my 200.5(f) (it used to be a 401(k), but it's only half the size now) or my impending mortality. It might be anything or everything that I've taken hold of, or made demands of, or gotten mad at.

But, until I have reason to think otherwise, I'll just believe that this is really, really a good book!