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Confession is good for the soul...

I have mentioned before that I love to read.

I am not particularly choosy about books - if it can keep my interest, I will read it. And I am not really into taking books apart for how noir the detective story is, how accurate the history is, or how the various fantasy creatures control elements in their world. I am willing to suspend my perceptions of reality, time, space, natural physical needs like food or bathroom trips, etc. When I read a book, I become so into the book that I am unable often to think of anything else, hear things asked of me, or other usual things like hygiene or food.

Dick Francis does this for me.

He's total book candy. He writes about horses and horse racing, things I know nothing about except what I've read in his books - so I actually know a surprising amount. Like the fact that you can't detect unusual amounts of adrenaline in horses - at least not in normal drug testing they don't check for that.

I've said that I don't dissect these kinds of books. That's no fun. Pedantry is something that intellectuals engage in to satisfy their own need to be superior. I have no such need. I don't even know if Mr. Francis is a good author to the world - he must be fairly decent - he keeps getting published. He's written a million books and I hope he writes a million more.

James Michener, on the other hand, is not book candy.

He writes books that are like Ben Hur - hours (or weeks of reading) long and very thorough and satisfying. You don't pick up a Michener novel casually - you become a part of it. It's almost a textbook - encyclopedic and instructional - yet entertaining and engaging. Much of what he writes is from his thorough research into the subject areas/people he writes about. I find his stuff very satisfying also, and when I put down one of his books I feel as if I had been somewhere...

I used to read others quite a bit - Stephen King freaks me out; Tom Clancy appeals to my manly side... Others are like old friends - Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance series, etc.

Just a random thought for the day...

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