My Favorite part of the Sunday paper

I have a reading the paper routine which varies slightly on Sunday. The variation is due to the Sunday addition of the ARTS & BOOKS section.

Reading the newspaper always starts with Doonesbury and ends with the sports section except that the ARTS & BOOKS section always extends into Monday or Tuesday or perhaps even Wednesday because that's how long it takes me to read the BOOK reviews.

I HATE READING MOVIE REVIEWS

I LOVE READING BOOK REVIEWS

The obvious reason being is that I'm most likely not going to read the majority of books reviewed but I'm probably going to see the movie. Movie reviews have no bearing on whether or not I see a movie but they absolutely spoil the plot line and basically ruin the surprise that one experiences when going to the big screen venue.

Please note that I am always reading a book and sometimes two at the same time but there are literally millions of books to read and since I don't participate in the speed reading exercise...it takes a certain amount of time to digest a 400 page novel.

A well written book review is a very short story. As an example I just finished reading Michael Gross review of Timothy Egan's book called THE BIG BURN: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America

I will make a note of this book and sometime in the relatively near future will go to the local library and check it out.

The book focuses on the LARGEST forest fire in the history of the United States in 1910 and the beginning of the Forest Service.

Another very interesting time period in America

There was also a nice review of John Irving's new novel LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER.

I look forward to reading it at some time because I still keep a small piece of GARP in my memory.

Michael Timothy McAlevey