Losing a Favourite

I don't know about you guys, but I have quite a few sentimental favourites from my younger days. Be it music, movies, books that I loved with a passion when I found it the first time, and some of it I still love today. But every once in a while you re-read a book, or re-watch a movie and thing "What was I thinking"

I guess this has to do with growing up, gaining experience in the world and maturing tastes.

I used to really love Dean Koontz as a fluffy fun read. I'd read some heavy exhausting books in between, but always returned to Mr Koontz. It felt comfortable, reassuring, and fun in his world.  His bad guys were really bad and the good guys were good. But the good always triumphed, in some way, and that was enough for me.

When I met my husband he had such a huge Dean Koontz and Stephen King collection, that I sometimes tease and say I married him for his books.

So what happened?

For the first time in about 7 years I picked up a Dean Koontz book. 77 Shadow street. I'm about 2/3rd s through and am still waiting for an original sentence. 

The characters are one dimensional.  The same crop of characters he always writes. He has every bad guy and every good guy he's ever come up with in one book, but it's still the same ones that he wrote about in other books.

Nothing new happens, but now it is thrown in with a healthy dose of sappiness  and pseudo spiritualism and refutable creationist philosophy . I'm struggling through this book, and wondering what did I ever see in his books? Why did I always look forward to reading a new Dean Koontz. I'm too scared to re-read an old favourite and find out it was always like this, and I just never saw it. Now it's corny and depressingly monotonous. 

I guess we sometimes grow out of our favourites when we grow. I'm gonna miss this one, but this is the last Dean Koontz book I will ever read. I'm a bit sad, but looking forward to new favourites.

It seems that unlike King, he has been stuck in the same formula for so long he just can't grow and come up with new ideas. The only change is the pseudo spiritualism is becoming more and more blatant and in your face. 

No Mr Koontz I am not a bad person just because I choose to put my faith in science instead of myth. There is more to people and life than your one dimensional portrayal of them. There is more to Good and Evil than that. 

In the black and white of the unforgiving Dean R Koontz universe, there is no space for the many facets of grey in this world. It saddens me to know that I'll never be able to curl up and enjoy one of his books again.

Books: A Song of Ice and Fire

Also Known as A Game of Thrones, the series A Song of Ice and Fire, has grabbed my attention, and got me hanging onto Mr George R.R. Martin's every word.

If you missed the TV series which started in 2011, go check it out.
The series, A Song of Ice and Fire currently consists of 5 books, and are awaiting 2 to be finished. The first book was released in 1996, and book 5, A Dance with Dragons was released in 2011, but you can find all the details on wikipedia

I had the first 3 eBooks in my extensive eBook library, and picked up book 1 a couple of times, and just couldn't get past page 3 or 4.

I had been struggling since stopping smoking with concentration issues, so it didn't surprise me much. It also just couldn't hook me, even though it starts off in a very gripping way.

Then I saw the series, not knowing it was the same story, but realising half way through that this looks like it is based on a book. Ta Daaa. So after watching both seasons of Game of Thrones this year I decided to challenge myself and pick up A Game of Thrones to see if I could get through it.

It was a difficult choice for the first book to read since my concentration issues reared their ugly heads, but it has been quite a worthwhile journey. Book one and two followed the series, which made it a lot easier to keep track of the multitude of characters and intrigues, and divergent story lines. These are not simple books. They are rich in texture, and filled with a lot of information, but worth the immersion.

By Book 3 I could not put it down, even though I still struggle with attention issues from time to time, I was completely hooked and started dreading reaching the end of book 5 and having to wait for Mr Martin to catch up with writing.

Well I'm busy with Book 5 now, and I am trying to savour every moment. It is tough when one grows so accustomed to a set of characters, to then face losing them as part of your life. I always get a little sad when I finish a series in this way. Harry Potter was the same

One feels a bit like you are drifting and unable to go straight to another book, as you'd be cheating.
So I will sadly finish the series so far, in a couple of days, and I hope Mr Martin will be inspired to finish the next 2 books in super fast time, even though I appreciate that a tour de force of this nature will take a lot of time and effort,

What books do you not want to finish and live without?