The Passage by Justin Cronin - aka the book that I forgot

Well this is a bit interesting. A book related post. I'm not sure I even remember how to do this, but I am thinking that maybe I will give this blogging thing a go but on the basis that it won't be a full on reviews. Maybe just pared back thoughts about the books I am reading. It still isn't many, but it does feel a little bit more likely that I will be reading or listening to more books this year. Not to the obsessive level of years past, but I am actually okay with that. If I can find a happy medium between the 200 plus books a year that I was reading a few years ago and the less than 10 of the last couple of years then I will be a happy camper.

I am also, once again, trying to focus on healthy eating as I have undone a fair amount of the good work I did in losing lots of weight a couple of years ago, so I will most likely be posting some updates related to that.

Really, what I am looking for this year is to have more balance in my life. So, less late nights at work making myself super tired all the time, more home cooked meals. More and less of lots of things really. Lets call that my new years resolution shall we.

So let's talk books. Or maybe book. Singular.

A few years go now (well, more than 6 but who's counting!) I read The Passage by Justin Cronin. Whilst I didn't review it, I graded it 4.5 out of 5 and so clearly finished it, and loved it. I went to a session at Melbourne Writer's Festival where the author spoke because the third book in the trilogy is now out and I realised that at some point I did want to read the second and third books but it had been a while since I read this one so it was time for a reread. Yes, I don't usually reread but things are definitely not usual in my world at the moment so why not.

One of the things that I pride myself on is that I have a pretty good memory. Normally I think that whilst details may be a bit blurry I can generally remember the major story arcs. Or so I thought. It turns out that maybe that is not the case.

When I first started listening, it was great. It was like revisiting an old friend. I remembered the story about a young girl being infected with a virus that in effect allows her to live ageing very, very slowly. I remembered how the FBI found her and took her to the army to become part of a top secret trial that goes awry in a big way and pretty much destroys the world as we know it.

Really, it was after the first third of the book and as the story moved 100 years into the future where I realised that my memory is nowhere near as good as I thought it was because I couldn't remember it. Not just that it was blurry or a bit fuzzy, but I literally had no memory of any of the characters, any of the storyline. So it was kind of like visiting a friend's house and then finding yourself at a party with complete strangers.

I decided to listen to the audiobook because I had so many credits on Audible, but it is a decision that paid off. The narrator for the majority of the book is Scott Brick and I look forward to listening to the next books in the series where he is the sole narrator. And who knows, maybe even looking for some other books that he has narrated at some point. Nothing wrong with following a narrator is there!!

Overall, it was an enjoyable listening experience. I think I will listen to something a little lighter before going back to listen to the second book in the trilogy. And catch up on The Walking Dead episodes that I didn't feel I could watch while I was listening to this! It would have been way too much to be listening to this post apocolyptic vampire novel whilst watching a post apocolyptic zombie TV series.

Well gee, it appears that I had plenty to say after all.