Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Jack Bauer Lives

Dan Brown's newest book, "Inferno" came out today.   The only reason I know that (other than the interview on The Today Show this morning) was that when it was announced back in February, I pre-ordered it on Amazon and my first e-mail this morning was to tell me that Amazon had charged my credit card and delivered the book to my Kindle.

The timing was right.  I had just finished reading "A Little Princess," "Cannery Row" and "Along the Way," the book by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez about the making of the film, The Way.  I was ready for a nice meaty blood and gore book.  I had read a short mystery at Logos last week, but it was light weight, not on a par with the likes of Michael Connely, David Baldacci or Dan Brown.  I packed up the book to take with me to Supercuts.

I was months overdue for a haircut and I usually have to wait some time for an available cutter, so I figured I would jump into "Inferno" while I wait, but there were no customers before me, so I didn't have the opportunity. But I finally got all of my hair chopped off.

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It was fun driving the new car around.  I even managed to (a) make a phone call using the voice activation feature, (b) store phone numbers in the speed dial, and even (c) get a photo uploaded to the screen of the dashboard.

In the afternoon, I worked at Logos and decided that though I feel it's cheating to read a Kindle in a book store, I really wanted to get into the new Dan Brown.  It's been slow at the store the last few weeks, possibly due to the changing seasons, students preparing for finals, or negative vibes in the air.  Whatever the reason, it was a good day to plunge back into the world of iconologist Robert Langdon.   I had only 6 customers who bought books the whole afternoon, and nobody noticed (or commented) on my reading a Kindle.

I'm not quite half through the book at this writing and I'm having a hard time knowing what to say about it.  Brown is one of those authors who hits you with the first sentence and draws you in instantly, and this book is no exception. No real spoilers here, but the book starts with Langdon in the hospital, barely comatose, with a bullet wound across his head, a splitting headache, attached to IVs, and with partial amnesia. He thinks he's at home, but doesn't know how he got to Florence, Italy. 

Within a couple of pages, killers are running through the hospital, hellbent on killing him, his doctor has gotten him out of bed, ripped the IV from his arm and dragged him down the hospital stairs and through the streets of Florence.  It was like watching an episode of 24, where hero Jack Bauer was not stopped by anything, not even cardiac arrest, after which in a matter of seconds following resuscitation by defibrillator, he is beating up all the bad guys to save the country.

The the Brown book, Langdon is running through streets, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, ills forgotten.  The first 30% of the book is about 95% chases, as both the good guys and the bad guys are out to get Langdon for reasons he doesn't understand because he still has partial amnesia.

I'm not sure how I'm feeing about this book, but seem to recall that once you get into the meat of a Dan Brown story you are hooked.  I'm a little tired of chases, but I am into the story and I hope that I can give it a better review when I finish it, which I should do soon (though I'll be taking the car on its shakedown cruise today, as I drive to Santa Barbara, so I don't know when that is going to be).

The afternoon at Logos was quiet, but during part of it, I was chatting with a nice girl who works one day a week, straightening up the books, dusting, and acting as greeter.  She's very sweet, but perhaps mild mental impairment and the last time I worked with her she smiled a lot but we never talked.  Today I asked her how long she'd been working at the store and she came to sit with me and we began chatting.  It turns out she is about to go to Spain with her mother and they are going to walk part of the Camino de Santiago.  Now, if I had not seen the recent Martin Sheen movie and read "Along the Way," I wouldn't know anything about it, but having both seen the movie and read the book I knew quite a bit about it and we had a very nice chat.

In the evening, I dove back into the Dan Brown book while watching the Dancing with the Stars results show.  I had great plans for the evening, including getting all packed for the drive to Santa Barbara today, but I'm discovering that at 70, my ability to stay awake and do all those things I planned to do late at night is grealy diminished.  I ended up unable to keep my eyes open and my body screaming for me to lie down and get some sleep (to say nothing of the dogs who insisted on it).   Instead, I went to sleep until 3:30 and then got up to write this and pack.

I'm feeling guilty that Walt is staying home to dog sit and that I get the fun of taking the new car for its shake down cruise, but I'm looking forward to Bri's dance show tomorrow night and will take lots of pictures for Grandpa to see.

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