Current Favorite Reads: a Michael Crichton Binge

I’m out of town (yay! Visiting friends in warm ol’ Texas and TOMORROW IS EDGEFEST!!!), so I thought I’d make today’s post simple. A month or so back, a reader asked,

What are some of your current favorite reads?

I love that there are two covers--one with the demon and one with the angel character. CLEVER!

Well, as of this week, I’ve been on an “old-books-I-read-but-don’t-remember” kick. I started on Sunday, with Good Omens (my World Book Night giveaway book).

I zoomed through THAT amazingly hilarious book in an evening.

And guys, it wasn’t my “normal” reading genre. Lately, all I read is adult fantasy, adult romance, and occasional YA. But Good Omens is straight humor.  It’s speculative fiction layered with more clever jokes than you can imagine…and just as I had when I’d read it at age 18, I adored it on Monday. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.

So after finishing Good Omens, I thought: why not read other old favorites I’ve forgotten? Why not read…(insert me rummaging through moving boxes of unpacked books)…Jurassic Park? I was a huge Michael Crichton fan in junior high, but I really didn’t remember most of his books. Plus, scientific thrillers and heist books really aren’t my usual diet.

PLUS, I just saw Jurassic Park 3D (which was amazing, of course) and was on a dinosaurs-are-terrifying-and-cool kick.

I wound up reading into the wee hours of the night, and the book was sooooo good. Better than I remembered it, and even with my overly-critical-author’s mind, the story gripped me from page one. I also hadn’t read the book since becoming a scientist, so I gained an extra oomph of pleasure from seeing all the accurate scientific stuff (or rather as accurate as it can be with fake, impossible science) crammed into the pages.

Then came Lost World, the excellent sequel to Jurassic Park that is absolutely NOTHING like the movie and features one badass leading lady.

This was the cover on the hardcover I bought on release day. Sigh. Memories.

Now I’m going to start Timeline, which I read when it came out in 1999 (yep, my mom took me to the book store to buy the hardcover on release day; I remember it vividly). I recall this book being my all-time favorite Crichton book, so I guess we’ll see if that’s still true.

Obviously, my tastes are PRETTY SPECIFIC right now…Basically anything by Michael Crichton. 😉

Also, can I just say I wish there were more Jurassic Park books? As horrific and moderately disturbing as the whole idea of dinosaurs running rampant and killing everyone is, I LOVE IT. I love the whole theme park idea and terrifying velociraptors…and I love that Crichton writes some tough, intelligent women of science.

Anyway, end Sooz’s love letter to Crichton books.

You tell me: what are YOU reading right now? Have you read any Michael Crichton?