Finally, Time for a Hobby

I mentioned a while back that I didn’t really know what to do with myself now that I’m finished with grad school. I recently rediscovered one hobby I used to have: reading. Books. Not school-related and not work-related. For pleasure. And I’m not talking romance novels. Bryan and I are a Dan Brown junkies, so I snatched up “The Lost Symbol” and read it in a couple of days.

We have yet to find an author who writes such wonderful stories as he does—blurring the line between fact and fiction, and packed with so much action and twisting plots. I feel sorry for people who went and saw “The DaVinci Code” in theaters without reading the book. We read the book beforehand, and were bitterly disappointed in the movie. I really don’t think you could make movies from Dan Brown’s books because he does so much explaining and his characters do a lot of thinking that you just can’t get from watching a film. So for any of you out there who decided not to read those books due to the movies—you should reconsider. And read them with an open mind—they are fictional stories woven around a few real facts. I think he’s gotten a lot of unfair criticism because people forget about that.

I should say the new Dan Brown book isn’t what really got me back into reading—it just kept me going. I read about “The Shack” on someone’s blog—someone who shares the same views as we do about religion. (I have no intention of engaging any of you in a religious discussion here.) It was very difficult to read because I have a hard time hearing about bad things happening to babies & kids. I forced myself to read it anyway just because of the woman who recommended it. It wasn’t an earth-shattering book, but it was definitely a different way of looking at things.

What am I reading now? I picked up Patrick Swayze’s “Time of My Life” the other day just because nothing else caught my eye and I used to love him. I’m curious about his younger years and to see the man behind the somewhat pompous actor I saw in the Barbara Walters interview about his cancer. And now that Sara Palin has a book making headlines—I’ll have to see what the fuss is about. I still don’t know what to think about her, but I try to keep an open mind (knowing that everyone, including the media, has a political agenda.)