A trip to the Library

Ok I admit I do judge a book by its cover. For example whether I pick up a book by an unfamiliar author is determined by two things (this does not include being recommended or mentioned by an author I already like) #1 a great title that automatically makes me want to at least read the back and #2 a great cover that catches my eye. I read a lot, like at least a book a week and that's when I am really busy. So I make a lot of trips to the library to replenish the stockpile. I was picking up some holds at the Sun Ray library in Saint Paul a couple months ago and noticed the new fiction shelf nearby. I was getting ready for a trip to San Diego and needed a few more books for the plane and for down time at the pool and Daryl Gregory's debut novel "Pandemonium" caught my eye. I am definitely a sucker for science fiction already and I loved both the interesting cover art and title automatically so I read the back and when I saw that it had Philip K. Dick as a character (possessed by VALIS no less) I had to read it. It turns out my instincts were right! It was a great book that like many that I love I was sad to see end. I will let you read reviews and summaries elsewhere since I don't really want to regurgitate stuff that is written for you already on Amazon. Another book I recently came upon in a similar way was "Alive in Necropolis" by Doug Dorst, another brilliant debut novel. I was drawn to the cover in the same way and although the book was not as sci-fi as I expected, it was a really wonderful character study about a small town cop who isn't really sure what he wants out of life and his relationships with his friends, alive and dead. Check that out at Amazon as well!