Rehabilitation of a Reader

I used to read, not a lot, about five to six books a year, and then about 15 years ago I stopped, at least with fiction. Now I write, I write books that I would like to read. But one thing keeps coming up, you can't be a writer if you don't read. Is this true? I'm not convinced, but I do like to read. So, I have created a schedule to get back into activity. This blog is my honest account of that journey: the books I pick up, the challenges I face, and the joy I rediscover. I have created the boneyard review as some books I will not finish, and I'll explain why.

The Ground Rules

I will read books that grab me in the first few pages. If I take it home, I'll review it.

First Up: No Way Out, by Cara Hunter

I came across this book in the library. It's by an Internationally Bestselling Author. Okay, intriguing. In the first four pages it had an account of a fire, camera and audio, written out. It looked boring, so motor to the start of the story. It was an account of Christmas and how, and why, they hated. I was hooked, so home it went. 

The person doing the essay on Christmas isn’t identified, but I thought from the writing, it was a female. Turns out it was a male; some kind of boss in the fire department? Quickly, there were 3 characters introduced, none of them the main character. At one point, I thought the main character was named Quinn, nope, I was wrong. The dialogue all sounded like the same character, which was confusing. On page 13 an Online Report, Blog, or Chat? It had a body of information, and side information, with comments on page 14 like from Facebook or Twitter. Sorry, I’m out of here. Reading terminated on page 14.   

Okay, the first one for the boneyard. The quest carries on.

Round Two: Clean the Gold, by Karin Slaughter & Lee Child

I saw Lee Child doing an interview on YouTube. Very engaging. He’s the Jack Reacher author. I found this short story written by him and Karin Slaughter which had the idea: what if Reacher met Slaughter’s franchise character Will Trent? Each author alternates the chapters (5 in all). First thing that popped out for me, is that Will Trent isn’t that smart. Second, the setting is odd Fort Knox—cleaning gold? They wore white gloves, face masks for the sake of the gold like they were going to hurt it or dergrade it. It sounded wrong. So I did a search.

Here’s my seach results:

No, a face mask is not required for humans to be around gold bars for any health or safety reasons related to the metal itself.

Unlike some materials that might off-gas or decay, gold is one of the most stable and non-toxic elements on the periodic table. If you were standing in a vault filled with gold, the air would be perfectly safe to breathe.

Here is why masks aren't a standard part of the "gold vault uniform":

1. Zero Off-Gassing or Fumes

Gold is chemically inert. It does not react with oxygen, moisture, or most gases in the atmosphere. Because it doesn’t corrode or oxidize, it doesn't release any particles, vapors, or "metallic smells" into the air. In a sealed vault like Fort Knox, the air quality is typically identical to a standard office building (though perhaps a bit staler due to the lack of windows).

2. No Toxic Dust

Standard "Good Delivery" bars are solid blocks of metal. Unlike industrial processes (like gold mining or refining) that can create silica dust or involve toxic chemicals like cyanide and mercury, the finished bars sitting in a vault are completely passive. They aren't "shedding" gold dust that you could accidentally inhale.

3. Protection for the Gold (Not the Human)

In very rare cases, if someone were wearing a mask, it would actually be to protect the gold from the human.

• Moisture: Human breath contains moisture. In a strictly climate-controlled environment, a large group of people breathing in a small vault could theoretically raise the humidity.

• Contaminants: If workers are performing delicate assays (drilling tiny samples for purity testing), they might wear masks and gloves to ensure they don't contaminate the sample with skin oils or DNA, which could interfere with high-precision laboratory results.

4. COVID-19 and Military Protocol

If you see photos or news reports from a few years ago (specifically around 2021) showing personnel at Fort Knox wearing masks, it was due to standard military health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic, not because the gold itself became dangerous.

So what do you do when the setting for a story is incorrect? Remember two authors signed on to do this. I guess neither one of them has access to the internet. The story wasn’t great, but it was short. There was a sneak peek for Karin Slaughter’s new thriller The Last Widow. No reason to read that. 

Final account: It didn’t end up on the review boneyard because I finished it. But, I can’t recommend it. 

Next one up: 61 Hours by Lee Child

As I stated in the last review: I saw Lee Child doing an interview on YouTube. Very engaging. He’s the Jack Reacher author. Very excited to dig into the Jack Reacher character. I’ve never watched the movies (I'm Jason Bourne kind of a guy) or the TV shows, so I kind of went in blind. I have seen some YouTube clips of him (the Reacher character) kicking ass, so I know he’s an ass kicker. I looked in my library, and couldn't find the first book, The Killing Floor. The only one on the shelf, 61 Hours. 

61 Hours was a bit of a strange entry as it's the 14th in the seires. As I read, I fingered one may have needed to read the book before it to undertstand it fully. As I read, Lee dribbles on for 3 pages about how bad the road conditions are due to weather. Okay? Car collides with a bus that carries the hero Jack. This takes place in South Dakota and Jack doesn’t seem to be dressed for the region but that doesn’t stop him from dealing with the elements and trying to save the day. Page after page, Lee talks about how bad the weather is and how cold it is. This went on for about 15 pages. Okay got it, it sucks out there and it's very cold. And then the line that froze me, even though I'm warm and toasty inside reading: He was seriously cold. Huh, Jack Reacher was seriously cold. Up to this point I was feeling assaulted by words. Words that were so repetitive (not the actual words, but the meaning.) and dribbling on about the weather and the cold. And then he put a stamp on it: He was seriously cold. I'm seriously bored! Checkout time. Page 29.

Count: 2 for the boneyard.

So far, I have that Cara Hunter, Karin Slaughter and Lee Child are not my kind of authors.

On to the next one.

Billy Summers by Stephen King

I'm not much of a horror person; I’ve told my grandson I’ve seen the Exorist and everything after that is just silly. So, I don't read much Stephen King. But here's a story about a hitman, once a Marine Corps sniper, doing one final hit. Sounds interesting to me especially because I also was in the Marine Corps as a small arms tech, and went to sniper school. So let's give this one a whirl.

I love the start of this book, the premise, the characters, and the setting. As Billy waits for his last hit, he poses as a writer, which King uses to give us the back story on Billy (great technique). I was taken back when Billy refers to the Corps as the, suck. Only Marines call it this and I have never heard anyone outside of the Marines Corps use the term. Maybe you could call it a term of endearment, like Marines calling each other Devil Dog. Anyway, I was impressed. I figured Stehpen must have talked to a Marine to prepare for this book. (Only a Marine knows they we call it the suck.) He also truncated Jarhead, a very well known term for a Marine to Jar—what? King loses points on this one. Never heard anyone call, inside or out of the Marines, referred to a Jarhead as a Jar. 

He also has few places with profanity I've never heard, and it was hard to read due to its clunkyness. I grew up in a working class family and went through the Marines where they the use the word, fuck, as a noun, verb, adverb. It didn't take away from the book, but breaks the flow and pops you out of the story. Like use of the word, potato-buster, which Billy refers to as a silencer for a gun. Every time I read that, I cringed. He builds up this character Billy Summers, only to cheapen him with the term potato-buster. The Billy he built would never use that term; maybe can, but never potato-buster. At the end you find out he referenced all the Marine Corps parts from Bing West's book No True Glory. West never used the term potato-buster.

The book comes in at 514 pages, a little bloated; there's definitely things that could have been cut. The ending is good, but just before the ending it borders on ridiculous. I won't reveal that part as it would give too much away, but that part could have been cut. Every time the writing gets boring, King changes gears to keep you engaged. All in all, I love the first two-thirds of the book and the ending.

I recommend this work.

Boneyard 2, No Recommendation 1, Recommend 1

On to the next one.

Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard

Before I quit reading, I read more Elmore Leonard than any other author. Not because I like crime novels, but due to his heavy dialogue driven books. I think it helps to get a better feel for the characters, rather than droning on with descriptions. This starts out with a bang, a prison break. The first third of the novel is very engaging. And then it slows to a crawl. I got bored. Leonard is famous for saying: ‘I cut out the parts the reader skips over.” After reading to page 198 of a 341 page book, I skip to the back to see if things picked up. I’ve never done that with an Elmore Leonard book. My style of writing in my books, using heavy dialogue scenes, is inspired from Elmore Leonard. I got to the point where I didn’t care about anyone in the book. Because of my history with Leonard’s writing, this is such a disappointment. Have I become too picky? 

Another one for the boneyard.  

Boneyard 3, No Recommendation 1, Recommend 1

On to the next one.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

What a book. I loved this enchanting tale, well, the first hundred 181 pages or so. It seemed so fresh and fun up to the point where Ford and Arthur are rescued from space. Then there was a lot of explaining going on; action happened but it was sparse. The dialogue, and I love dialogue turned into banter and the banter got old and tired. I become bored. I know this is my issue as many love this book, but the more I read, the more it became work. The dialogue tags increased as the book went on; I concluded he was trying to mix things up, but, for me, it became annoying. What’s wrong with: he said she said? For me this is the ultimate yin and yang book; I so love the first half of the book and am so annoyed with the second half. What to do; give it a highly recommended for the first half and throw it to the boneyard for the second half?

What to do? I’ll stay neutral, no recommendation.   

Boneyard 3, No Recommendation 2, Recommend 1