I can almost precisely recall the moment I started the change. I had closed the Kindle on one of Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles murder mysteries. I was exactly 33% through this book and had learned that the mad murderer in her first book had escaped prison and would soon be joining the mad murderer that had become the focus of Jane Rizzoli's pursuit in this, Gerritsen's second book. It made me retch. I vowed to work my way down a list of "8 books that will make you laugh out loud" before I look at another murder mystery. Why eight? Which eight? I don't know, it was just a heading I'd seen to the top of a newspaper article I had not stopped to actually read. It's not so much that I am unable to handle gruesome details in some of the murder books--I'd read stories about some pretty disgusting characters, and there was precious little comfort to be found in knowing these were fictional. I finally found it just wasn't much fun to read about them anymore.
The next day, after spending a discouraging half hour in Barnes and Noble, ignoring all impediments to the stubborn pursuit of my prey--those "... books that will make you laugh out loud," I settled for two of the 45 different books I had found listed when I asked google for such a list. There were actually a total of 47 entries, one was a duplicate and one did not understand my question and provided the name of a record that was not a book at all. I actually had to refine my list by skipping the "guaranteed to make you laugh out loud," and "Hilarious books that will make you laugh out loud" and 'YA books that will make you laugh out loud." Then I looked at the first four lists, which, after dropping duplicates on those lists, added up to the 45 titles I pursued. There were no instances of an author's name repeated in the list (excepting, of course the duplicate books I mentioned). That evening I read the first story from one of the two books I had found and found I was not sick to my stomach (as I had been when I closed the murder mystery the night before). I decided to revisit the feeling that had prompted this business.
Giving the matter a bit of factual examination, I set about making a list of the past fifty or so books I read recently. The first thing i noticed was that I had no way to establish a start or an end date--I mean, who makes a note of when they start and/or finish a book? Oops, I should have said "what normal person." etc... Anyway, I decided to compromise and look at "recently" as the truly vague period it is intended to describe.
Several things I found took me by surprise. First, I could not tell what I had read when. The best way I had to approximate it turned out to be by looking at the Kindle. I am not sure when I got my first Kindle, but this is my third. Looking at my bookshelves wasn't much help--I usually give away most actual physical books, be they paperback or hardcover,
Three or four times a year, I fill a couple of boxes or grocery bags with books and give them to the local Friends of the Library organization. Just focusing my attention on the Kindle, I can make a few observations. I'd estimate that I have read nearly three hundred murder mysteries _recently." The investigators range from a dog (partnered with a human, of course) who narrates eight of these books to women who are lawyers, private investigators, sheriffs, homicide detectives, medical examiners and forensic anthropologists (Yes, Virginia, "Bones" is not technically a medical examiner), and then there were the men who occupied many of the same roles as private and municipal and even state police officers, lawyers for the prosecution and for the defense and investigators attached to the district attorney's office.
Counting them up is an art and not a science, since many of the e-books were available to count on the device, and actual books I had to estimate by looking at the series in order and adding in the earlier books on those lists that I knew I had read prior to the ones that appeared on the Kindle. A few years ago, I started filling in any gaps in old series by ordering them as e-books, and became very disciplined about reading new series that I had found in strict order so I would not have to reach back and check plot lines to determine whether or not I had read them. This last method has proven difficult. I have found myself reading two books for a second time (of course, that means I bought them twice (I think)
Using this method I realized that virtually all of the books I have read in, let's say the past ten to fifteen years, were murder mysteries and far outweighed any other genre. Books like that have started to wear me down. How long will this persist? Of that I cannot be sure. For a change, I look now for books that will make me laugh, not make my heart pound, etc. I am being somewhat strict with myself about this. If I don't laugh out loud in the first third of the book, I set it aside. So far, I am one for two. Maybe I will try balancing them--one serious and one humorous. Maybe I'll cheer up. A certain person I know has taken to describing me as "terminally crabby," so I probably have a ways to go.
How did I get to my estimate? Let's see--reading John Sanford's Prey series amounted to 28 books, Adding in a few of the Virgil Flowers' books and an individual book or two took me up to 33 by Mr. Sandford, Then twenty-four Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone's Alphabet Series. Michael Connelly--19 Harry Bosch, five Lincoln Lawyer, Robert Crais--five Elvis Cole books, and four Joe Pikes, Seven by Harlan Coben, Nine by J. A. Jance, Eight by Laurie King, From John Lescroart, there were Fifteen Dismas Hardy, tnree Hunt Club, and three Abe Glitsky stories. Seven of Richard Castle's Nikki Heat series (yes there is a "real" Richard Castle, or so we think), two by Elmore Leonard (the Raylan books), Eleven of Kathy Reichs' "Bones" series. A dozen or more Spenser for Hire, six Jesse Stone and Gresham Oh, and don't let me forget Tess Gerritson, I'm working on my second of hers. Thirteen Women's Murder Club mysteries by James Patterson, Fifteen V.I. Warshawski books by Sara Paretsky, and a dozen or more single books by authors that left me wanting less and not more. That's more than 200 murder mysteries,Time to come up for air?
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