The Prologue

There are two kinds of us.

Some of are all business. When you are telling us a story we are listening, but we are still screaming "What is the point! Get to the point!" When we are here to work, we work. When we sit down to a meal we eat with the speed and efficiency of marines in boot camp so that we can move on to what is next. You know us. It is not enough to get to our destination, we need to "make good time."

Some of us savor. And the Lord spoke saying, "You will know them by their lateness." The world moves a little slower. They stop working to talk to whomever for whatever reason. They are the last ones finished with their meals because they are talking and dessert is a requirement more than an option. And it is not enough to get to our destination, we need to take the most beautiful route.

It used to take me 3 to 4 months to read a book. I would construct detailed images of each character no matter how small their role in the plot is. I would often reread chapters to have a better understanding of the minor sub-plots while looking for holes in the logic of science fiction books. I would take the words on the page, roll them around on my tongue, and I wouldn't dare swallow until I had sucked all the flavour out of each syllable.

Now it takes me 3 to 4 days to demolish a book. The characters have no faces and the language has no taste. My driving force is to find out what happens as fast as I can, because whether or not I can see these fictitious faces, I know that every time I put the book down their conflict hasn't been resolved. I'm more concerned with what happens rather than who it happens to. Unfortunately, these days books don't end. There is no "and they lived happily ever after..." Every author wants to write the sequel so we have to leave the characters unresolved. They want to be the next Bourne Identity or the next Harry Potter. So readers like me just gorge themselves digesting page after page until we finish the book. Then the prologue is just the empty feeling of coming down off a high and wondering where are we going to get our next fix.

So... read any good books lately?