What I’m Reading Now, and a Mini Cry (More Like a Call, Not a Cry) for Help

For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know I’m a voracious reader. If I’m not in the middle of a book, chances are I have a stack of magazines two feet high that I’m catching up on. I really REALLY like to read (And yes, I’m just a dork like that – I read. For fun).

Currently, I’m reading “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb – and I’ve been waiting for awhile to read this one. Waiting, because I put it on hold at the library and have had to wait my turn. Finally, it’s my turn. I’m about 250-pages in and for the most part, it’s an amazing story, but it’s kind of gut-wrenching too – so I keep pausing to take a break from the sadness of it all.

Though it’s a work of fiction, this novel is based on the Columbine shootings on April 20, 1999. So you’ll recognize some of the names – Wally Lamb even includes excerpts from the journals and writings of the killers. Though the main characters were created solely for this story, the school-shooting and the names of the victims remained intact, and that is what is hardest for me. Reading about horrible things anyway is difficult – reading it and knowing that yes, it really happened? It’s pretty tough.

I remember where I was when I first heard about the shootings in Columbine – I was in a car on the Pacific Coast Highway with a co-worker of mine. We had been visiting our dealers in Oregon, talking to them about automotive parts (I know, I know – I used to work in marketing for an aftermarket autoparts manufacturer – seems like an odd fit, right? It was). The guy was kind of a horse’s ass, and a bad driver to boot. I spent much of the time pretending to sleep rather than engage in any conversation with him. Coincidentally, he was from Littleton, Colorado.

On April 20, he got a call on his cell phone. It was his wife – all the schools in Littleton were in lockdown because of a shooting. He had no idea what school was being shot up – only that his daughter was in a high school in Littleton and he had no way to get ahold of her. The rest of that day, we stopped over an over again so he could try to call his family and get ahold of them. He eventually found out that the shooting was at Columbine and not his daughter’s school. It was a pretty emotionally ugly day, watching him wait for news.

Knowing that the events really took place make the book a bit heavier of a read than I normally choose, but it’s well-written, so I keep on.

And here is where you help me. I was lucky enough to win an Amazon.com gift card and I’m itching to use it. Recommend books and music to me!

About sarah

Sarah is a book nerd, a music lover, an endorphin junkie, a coffee addict. Oh, and a goof ball. She writes, she tweets, and she sings off key.

Comments

  1. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards.

    I too used to be a voracious reader. Then I had children, LOL! Now I read children’s books, Good Housekeeping and desperately miss time to myself reading real “grown up” books! I did make time to read this one, and could not put the darn book down!

  2. I will have to add this to my list of need to read books. I don’t get to read as often as I’d like these days but I just finished The Host by Stephanie Myer (of Twilight fame). It was pretty good. My favorites remain The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon though. As for music, I just got the Straight No Chaser holiday album and love it.

  3. Casey, that WAS a good book. I do have that one. For part of my 101 project though, I’m going to reread some classics so I just ordered “Catcher In The Rye” today and also “Revolutionary Road” (not a classic, but I want to read the book before i see the movie).

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