Moving on

I finally managed to finish my book! Hurrah!! For a whole it seemed that it was going to take forever and ever but at last I got some time and persuaded my brain that reading was essential to it relaxing. It worked.
It has been good to get reading again. I have missed it. This not reading much phase happened to coincide with me getting stressed at work as well and it made me realise how important reading really is to me and how it relaxes my brain. Reading helps to keep my mind focused as I cannot read without paying attention to what I am reading. If I let my mind wander off I have to go and re-read bits as I do not remember what I read. Paying attention to the story makes my mind focus and blocks out all the day to day stuff like what to have for dinner, when to do the laundry and in the case of getting stressed about work, how many installs were going to go ahead and was it all going to be okay and did I tell the right person about what needed to happen on what day and so on and so forth. It was driving me mad! Add to that that I was feeling really run down and I seem to have caught this weird slightly sore throat thing that makes me sounds a bit hoarse, cough a bit but does not really develop into anything serious (... yet.. feels like it still might sometimes). I had to take some time off and ended up staying home for Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday I called in sick and then went back to bed to sleep until about 1.00pm. Felt tired and took it easy and tried to relax my mind. Read a bit but not too much and watched more telly than was good for me. On Wednesday I was a bit better but had to take myself out for a walk to sort my head out and realise that sunshine, a bubbling stream and flowers are to be enjoyed and it is not all about work. That worked and I felt loads better after that. Went back home and read some more and my brain let me focus and get on with reading. Hence, the finishing of one book and the start of another.


#### SPOILER ALERT ####


Hideaway - Dean Koontz
It had been while since I read one of mr Koontz' books. This one was a good one.
It starts off with a story that focuses on Lindsey who keenly feels the loss of her son and feels it has changed her relationship with her husband but is powerless to do anything about it. she and her husband then get into an accident where she almost dies and he does. Only... he is selected to be treated by a very experienced resuscitation team who bring him back to life. Then emphasis then shifts to the husband Hatch and becomes more about how he deals with the new lease on life. Naturally it has changed their relationship as well and they are actually able to deal with the grief for the loss of their son. They even start planning a new future with an adoptive child. Regina is an orphan with some minor disabilities but mainly very afraid of getting hurt and rejected. She tries her best not to be liked but Hatch and Lindsey cannot really help but like her. Hatch, Lindsey, Regina and the doctor that saves Hatch (Jonas Nyebern) represent all that is good in the world. The innocence of the child, the love that Hatch and Lindsey have and the selfless way that Nyebern dedicates himself to saving lives.
Mixed in with this is the story of Vassago. A deeply trouble soul who prefers to live his life in darkness. He has some very weird ideas on the best use of iron bars and timber that I do not think he picked up in a wood work for beginners course. He needs to kill. He wants to earn his way back into Hell. Where he has been before and he feels that taking other peoples live and "displaying" them in a way that shows their "sins" will earn him a place back with his master. Throughout the book you learn more about Vassago and how he became what he did. It is a combination of inheriting his granddad genetic disposition to psychotic behaviour and a possible negligent dad who as busy making hos own career rather than facing up to what was happening right under his nose.
Where the two stories is when Hatch gets visions of people dying horrible deaths and Vassago sees this beautiful woman in his dreams that he knows he must add to his collection. In some strange way these two have become linked. It takes a while for them both to figure out how this bond works and how to use it to their advantage. It is worse for Hatch who is a peaceful, kind man. He has to endure Vassago murdering, relishing in violence and anger and living in the darkness. Vassago in turn becomes obsessed with finding this woman, Lindsey so he can add her to his collection.
The twist comes when we find out a bit more about Vassago. He turns out to be the good doctor Nyeberns' son. A boy called Jeremy who killed his own mother and sister, pretended to be all retarded after that and then escaped only to kill and kill. You kind of feel that the doctor is the link between Hatch and Vassago but I was not really prepared for him to be the good doctor's son.
The book is well paced in the action bits and at the same time deals with some sensitive issues - the loss of a child and how it affects relationships between the survivors, bringing people back from the dead at what cost, is there such a thing as people who are truly good and truly evil. There is a good balance between what happens to Hatch and Vassago and you get to see the story develop from both sides, one side adding to the other and slowly realising what is going on.
The only down side for me is the slightly moralising lessons at the end of the book. Especially from page 497 onwards. The bit about perceiving experiences in different ways and taking different things from them followed by the doctor becoming a vet and turning away from resuscitation medicine (page 498), then followed by Regina's finding a friend in God, Lindsey realising she has live for the now and not be afraid of life coming at you and, finally, Hatch realising he had done his bit to stop evil (even though he never really understands why he was chosen). I know Koontz is rounding up his story and show us there is a way through the ugliness of evil but he seems to be pushing the point a bit. And yet... for all the weird things that happen to the main characters Koontz seems to also want to remind us that even if all this evil happens to you it does not change you drastically if you have the good in you to balance it out (Lindsey, hatch, Regina, the doctor all survive - Jeremy does not... this time). It may make you value life more but make you no less scared of what is to come. It may make you realise that you do not need to pay constant attention to God, as long as you are aware he is around and that if you had a laid back attitude to life something like this will not fundamentally change you. It may just make you more at ease with your life and who you are meant to be.
So.. apart from the moral lesson at the end.. a good read. But be prepared to be grossed out slightly about what Vassago does to his victims and where he keeps them and what an evil little s#&t he really is.


Title: Hideaway
Author: Dean Koontz
Headline
501 pages
ISBN nr: 978-0-7553-5953-0

Books to be read: 75

Leaving on a jet plane

I finally figured out who I can blame for me not making a dent in this book I am attempting to finish at the moment. The guilty parties are: Easyjet and the manufacturer of my laptop bag. I feel that both have seriously contributed to me not being able to fill the time spent waiting for flights and sitting on trains with reading. My case is this: My boss sent me to Holland for a meeting. Naturally any type of travel involves waiting for things to arrive, waiting for things to leave and sitting on the aforementioned thing needing to spend the time in a useful, or semi-useful manner. People watching is one of my favourite pastimes so I tend to indulge in a bit of that whenever I can. Let's be honest airports and train stations are just about the most perfect places to do some people watching! The next favourite thing to do whilst waiting for time to pass is read. However, after packing all the essentials in my laptop bag I was not able to fit in a book any more. Why do these bags not come with a expandable section for people like me who want to pack just that one little extra thing that would make the trip soooooo much more complete? But... there was no room for even a small pocket book, let alone a 501 paged Dean Koontz one. If only then, the good people of Easyjet would allow me to take a small handbag on board as well as my laptop bag. This little addition to my luggage allowance would have enabled me to get through a good few hundred pages. But no... they had to go and spoil the fun as well. So there I was with nothing to do but people watch and although it was good fun I would have liked my book there as well.

Slaying dragons

Another weekend gone, another two books to add to the total.
I went to do my food shopping and spotted a couple of nice books at Sainburys. Not even supermarkets are safe from my book buying frenzy. I got two for the price of one so I did save myself some money... a whole books worth of money actually. Which technically means that I can buy another book to fill the hole left by saving the money of buying these as a two for one... mmmm, book logic... I like this kind of reasoning!
The books I treated myself to are The Lord of the Flies and the latest Patricia Cornwell one, Port Mortuary.

In between doing the food shop and slaying dragons and other weird looking horned creatures in my DSi game I did manage to get some reading done as well. Saturday was the day for it. Read loads sitting on the sofa with a coffee, sun at the back of my neck and my Caro Emerald CD playing over and over again. Some days are just so close to perfection that it seems almost unreal!

Books bought: 2
Books to be read: 76

The Spell is broken

At last.... the spell is broken and I have managed to crash through the mental barrier placed in front of my non-book buying behaviour. Did I skip over it with one book.. no way. I hurtled over it with 4 new books to add to the total. I have to say - it feels good!
I acquired my lovely new books on Sunday when I was meeting a friend for some coffee over in Stony Stratford. I nipped into the Willen Hospice book shop for just a few minutes and that was all it took. I bought Never Let Me Go (remembered it from my recent British Library science fiction adventure), Thin Air - a ghost story anthology and two more Graham Greene books (Monsieur Quixote and The Honorary Consul).

I am actually reading a new one as well. It is the turn of mr Koontz again. About 60 pages in and I have one corps but maybe not for much longer. It is a miracle really, that in between watching the Hollyoaks omnibus, doing a food shop, making a nice salad and tidying away the laundry I found time to read this weekend but I do like to attempt the improbable.

With the spell broken the new tally now reads:
Books bought: 4
Books to be read: 74