I Can Read At A High School Level!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to read a book. I went on a search, and in Number Two Daughter's room, I found the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

I always love the Lord of the Rings books although in general, I'm not a big fantasy fan.

But beggars can't be choosers, and it looked fairly interesting, so I decided to give Eragon a shot.

I usually give a book 50 to 100 pages to hook me, or I just put it down. Like with music, I'm pretty fickle in what I like, and I know it when I see (or hear) it.

Over the years I've tried to read classics and also popular stuff, if for no other reason than to see what all the hubub was about with the various authors.

For example, I've read one or two James Patterson books that I liked well enough to read all the way through, but I've also picked up several others by him that I put down withing 40-50 pages because they were totally lame. I'm not a James Patterson fan, he's too hit and miss with me.

I've also tried Tolstoy and Hemmingway, and was almost put into a coma. Just couldn't finish them, save only for The Old Man and the Sea.

Anyway, so I start on Eragon, a fantasy about a boy who finds a dragon egg, it hatches, and they become bonded. Problems ensue and Eragon has to grow up fast.

The book turned out to be very, very good.

So after Atlantis went up successfully Friday night, Lovely Wife and I headed out to Barnes and Noble.

I went over to the Science Fiction / Fantasy section and looked and looked. No luck. Well, it was a popular book, maybe they have it on a special display. Nope.

Finally, against man's natural inclination to not ask for directions, I went to the service desk and told the lady there of my plight.

"Could you tell me where I could find the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini? I looked all over the SciFi/Fantasy area and couldn't find it anywhere."

"Oh, that's because it's not in the Science Fiction / Fantasy area. It's in the teen book section. Come on, I'll show ya!"

So she leads me, head hung low (my head not her's), to the teen section and behold, there they were.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome! Just let me know if you need any more help, OK?"

"I sure will."

I grabbed a paperback copy of The Eldest, the follow up to Eragon, and headed to find a couple of Larry Niven books.

But I noticed the few 14 or 15 year old girls glancing at the moose that had invaded "their" section of the store.

But I wasn't too worried, I'm bigger than all three of them put together, so I was pretty sure I could get out safely.

I guess I need to call Sainted Mother and tell her I'm now up to teen fiction in my reading.

I'm sure she would be proud of me.

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Here's another couple of pics of that cool sky that was outside of Barnes And Noble this past Friday.