First post. Let's jump right in.

Hello, all! In this blog I'm mostly just going to chronicle my daily reading. It'll contain the my thoughts on however much I managed to digest.

I like to start things off with a bang, so for my first book I'm reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Don't ask me what possessed me to pick this one up because I'm not really sure. I bought it at a used bookstore and I think someone had mentioned previously that Michael Crichton was brilliant, so I don't think I had any choice. In an attempt to make up for lost time on my bookshelf, I've been reading everything I have that I haven't opened yet.

Which brings me to my next point. I've read just over 100 pages of this book today and I just finished up Contact by Carl Sagan last week and I can't help but compare the two. Mr. Sagan is probably trying to claw his way out of his grave to kill me for that, but-- honestly!-- they're so similar. Maybe I'm comparing the two because both novels are inspired by science and both authors know their way around the fields about which they're writing, but it's pretty weird to think about. Are they both equally as plausible? Maybe. I'm leaning toward Sagan's being more realistic, but what do I know about space travel or genetics? Absolutely nothing. Who knows.

So anyway, about the book. I'm loving it. It didn't take five years to get into the plot and we had some action starting at something like page three. SPOILER WARNING. Not to mention how when the baby was eaten by the three small dinosaurs I hadn't seen it coming. That was within the first few pages! I'm impressed. END SPOILER WARNING.

Luckily I haven't seen the film in years so I don't remember how much it was butchered from the novel. Also luckily, the images of the characters in the film were so emblazoned in my head from the traumatizing experience of watching it at as a six-year-old that I can still see Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill [among the rest of the cast] in my head acting out Crichton's words.

The dialogue, while much too smart for me (but tastefully dumbed down for the inevitable slower dinosaur enthusiasts), is effective in progressing the story and explaining the situation.
Nothing bad to say so far. Let's hope it stays that way. Usually I've decided by about 30 or 40 pages whether I'm going to like a book. This one may just turn me into a Crichton fan after all.