Book #2 -- 3 Days In August

Next up is 3 Days in August by Buzz Bissinger. It's generally a book about Tony LaRussa (who also collaborated on the book) and the St. Louis Cardinals. Specifically it is about a 3 day Cards/Cubs series that took place in August 2003. This is one of my first real challenges. I find that I have a lot of books in which I'm very interested in the subject matter, but not so much interested in the actual reading of the words. I'm afraid that this is how I have come to have more than 50 books in my possession that I haven't read. My only hope is to take these books to work. I've found that the best way to force myself to read books such as these is to do so when the book actually the more interesting choice :) I mean, really...Cardinals or work...Cardinals or work...hmm...

As for Chocolat (for those interested), I have indeed finished. It was a pretty easy read. It was a little bit less dark and "magical" as it's sequel, The Girl With No Shadow, but still had the same general feel. The writing was actually good enough (and maybe it's been long enough since I've seen it last) that I didn't really get too hung up on the differences between the book and the movie. One thing that I did want to point out...her writing style is such that she likes use different character's POV to the the story. In both books I found that I preferred one character's narrative over the other and ended up just skimming the less likeable character's story. I would recommend it...but if you haven't seen the movie, definitely read the book first! I know I'm looking forward to seeing the movie again...

Book #1: Chocolat by Joanne Harris

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it." ~William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

I thought a lot about which book I would read first. I wanted it to be something really profound, a strong start. But then what if the book I chose was kind of a bore? Then I would struggle to finish the very first book of my project, which would probably be quite disheartening. Definitely not a strong start. So I've decided to start with Chocolat by Joanne Harris. I've already seen the movie and I've read the sequel (The Girl With No Shadow), and now it's time to read the original book that the movie is based on. The sequel was a lot darker than I had expected it to be, so I'm looking forward to finding out how similar the original is to the movie.

On a similar note...today, the first day of my challenge, I had my first test. Borders sent me an email coupon for 50% off of one item. Normally this would see me in the car heading to the bookstore. Well. That is what happened, but it was not my main goal. I had something I needed to return to Old Navy, so I thought, hey, why not stop in at Borders? I am proud to say that I resisted temptation and walked out the door bookless. This gives me hope!