It has been a long time since I posted what I have been reading. Rest assured I have been reading. I am almost up to date on the Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth series. I am just starting Book ten. The last one Chain Fire postulates a single individual being removed from history. All references to her are removed; only her husband remembers her. Slowly, but progressively, his world and their world diverge. I guess the message is that every individual makes a difference; everybody counts.
Alex Cross is played by Morgan Freeman in the movies, but he was created by James Patterson. I have read the first three Alex Cross thrillers since Christmas - there are sven more; have I been hooked into another reading marathon? They are cleverly plotted, but very violent. I wouldn't like to have to think of murders like that for a living. On the thriller front I have also read the latest Rebus, the latest Harry Bosch, and the latest Reacher, since Christmas.
Alexander McCall Smith is famous for his gentle Ladies Detective Agency books, set in Botswana. These seem to have dried up for the moment so I have read his Professor Dr Von Igelfeld series. These are short farces about three, rather pompous, German professors of philology. The situations that they get into are almost believable and spring from the characteristics of the three professors. If you are wondering where you have heard about philology before, the hero of CS Lewis's science fiction trilogy was a philologist. It is the study of the origin of words and language.
I have related the plots of these books to my friends and we can't stop giggling. However, when I read them they only cause mild amusement. They are the sort of stories that improve in the telling but lose something on the printed page.
My Christian reading has been concerned with a large tome of intense theology, 'The King of God's Kingdom' by David Secombe, Principal of George Whitfield College in Cape Town. It is a sort of harmonization of the synoptic gospels centering around teh phrase 'the Kingdom of God'. I am close to the end now and about to start on 'John's Wisdom' by Ben Witherington III, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky. As a taster, he believes that the fourth gospel was written by Lazarus.
I think I have read every James Patterson book he has ever written. Actually the first one I read was "Along Came a Spider" I was hooked. Then I had to go back and read all the prior ones....
ReplyDeleteOne thing about them I have found out...You do not want to go into the hospital to have major surgery and try reading one of his books while you are on a morphine pump. I can't remember the name of the book now, but it began with a surgeon operating on a woman and then once she was asleep he "Chucked" her! OMG, imagine that on day one of recovery and being all messed up...I didn't sleep the entire 5 days I was in that hosp.
The ones with Alex Cross are the best by far, in my opinion.
Lazarus?! Got to get my hands on that morsel....
ReplyDeleteFor wild, improbable plots, how about a female astronaut who plots to kill her female rival in affections for a shuttle pilot?
ReplyDeleteA week ago, no one would have thought that at all plausible, would they?