You Go to the Driving Range Just to Watch?

My goal is to read 41 books in 2021. I have, as of typing, finished 13 books. I’ll get to 14 for sure, by the virtue of book club, and I think I’ll get up to 16 or so by reading books on my phone while I hold my newborn who won’t go the hell to sleep, but I’m not expected to even get half way to my goal.

That said, I have read some fine books the year. I have also ready some drek. Here, to meet the requirement of daily blogging and not having much else to say, is the drek, presented for the record.

Civil War II – Incredible subtitle on this one: “The day it finally happened!” This wasn’t really any more or less incendiary than your average dime-store 70s paperback, but it was surprisingly boring for a novel about a world in which black America rises up to take control of the nation from white America. Definitely a fun one to have on the bookshelf.

Utopia Avenue – I count myself among the David Mitchell apologists and I enjoyed every moment of reading this novel about a fake band from the late 60s that was better than all the other bands (and also about the usual David Mitchell “souls moving through time” shit), but now that I have some distance from it, I can acknowledge it was stinky. I will, however, be reading the hell out of his next novel.

That’s it for drek though, the rest were stone-cold classics.