Some Thoughts on Reading, and one Great (Chicago-related) Book in Particular

I'm ashamed to admit that I just finished my second book of the summer. I'll chalk it up to my general distraction with other things, the upsurge in my online reading, and the recent failure of my usually strong ability to judge a book by its cover.

My literary habits this summer prove, without a doubt, that I'm all or nothing when it comes to books. If I'm not into it--recent examples include, Tipperary, Running in the Family, The Lady Elizabeth, My Life in France--reading is the painful process of forcing myself to get through two pages a night before nodding off, book in hand. I rarely make it to Chapter Two. 

On the other hand, I just finished a 500+ page novel in 3 days, engulfing the last third in a mere afternoon. I'm not bragging--the extremism of my reading style is less than ideal. My literary pursuits often leave me in disheartened reading lows, or else all-consuming highs, and I end up, addict that I am, trying to prolong the feeling, refusing to close the book until I've read through the Acknowledgements, About the Author, and sometimes even the painful Reading Group Guide. 

But I digress. This blog is about Chicago, and I am writing this post because my latest fix was Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. Truth be told, it came to my attention the same way it probably did for many of the other readers who helped put it back on the bestseller list--the recent movie adaptation. However, I can safely say that the author's Chicago roots and the setting of the book in my current hometown were what pushed me to buy it. 

With one of the most creative plots of any book I have read, Time Traveler's Wife hooks you with its unpredictability and wand-less, spell-less magic. Its beauty as a love story will appeal to the most hopeless of romantics, while the tough questions it raises about time, knowledge and free will, would keep your college philosophy professor satisfied. 

Word to the wise: With the first few chapters, stop scratching your head and over-thinking it. Resist the temptation to give up as the chronology gets shifty and the events more unbelievable. Submit to the element of fantasy, and, like Henry, the time traveling protagonist, just hang on for the ride.