I did that  with Jeff Abbott's Panic.  I knew I liked his work and was afraid it might not live up to it's potential?  I've read the Jordan Poteet and Whit Mosley series and enjoyed them both.  I had this book Panic on my shelf.  Oh dear, not a part of either series.  Am I gonna like it?  

Well, I finally picked it up and started.  The darn thing had me hooked by page 9!  It reads like an action/adventure movie.  You know who the bad guys are almost immediately.  But, then who's the guy that saves Evan's life?  Good guy or another bad guy? 

We've got the local police, the FBI and the CIA plus some spies and other people running through the story.  Whose the good guy, whose the bad guy?  Are those two bad guys really the bad guys?  Did they do it?  Yeah, maybe not, no, oh yeah, no, oh, oh. 

I haven't finished it yet but, already hoping that there's a sequel yet the way it's developing I think it'll be a stand alone.  Sigh.

If you like action adventure movies - well this book is for you.  Complete with high speed chases, bullets flying, spies, thieves, and naturally a love interest.  What's an action/adventure movie without a girl? LOL

Yes I have totally done that!  It's always liberating to pick it up and dive into it though, you know if you like it or not and it releases you from the power of it's control over  you,  (you know, that torment of it calling you out from the shelf feeling.  (or maybe I'm just crazy lol )

Exactly! - I mean the calling out to you not that your crazy!

Hey - my surname is Redmond.  But, not related to the founders of Redmond, OR.

I've done it with last books of a series or even next books of a series ... I know that the experience will end and I don't want it too! Or if it's a book that I know will suck me in and I don't have time to read for hours, I'll try to hide the book from myself.

This is a funny topic because I can totally relate! I do it all the time. When I read Kite Runner, I talked about it for weeks afterward to anyone who would listen. I loved it so much and I had to immediately get a copy of this author's other book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Well that was a year ago and I have yet to crack open A Thousand. I don't know why..........I think maybe the fear of it not being as good as Kite Runner might have something to do with it. Or I just move on in my tastes or desires of other things I want to read.

But I cannot read a series of books straight through either and it seems everyone I know does do that. I am halfway through the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series. I LOVE them but can seem to only read 2 at a time back to back and then I want to move on to something else. The whole time I'm reading other books I keep eyeing up the Janet Evanovich ones with longing, wishing I could see what was happening to Ms. Plum. Then after a month or two, I finally give in and feel like I'm with old friends again as I whip through one or two more in the series, wondering why I put it off because I'm enjoying them so much. It is really bizarre behavior, isn't it??

Marilyn I do the same with a series.  I get "burned out" if I read them one after another.  I have to have at least one book between sometime more.  In the meantime I have the book calling to me.  I'm amazed to see that some folks can sit down and read a series.

I've done the same thing. I didn't really want to read The Hunger Games because everyone was raving about it and I was afraid it just wouldn't live up. Well, live up it did! I am SO glad I read it. I found my favorite book of the year!

I'm doing that right now!  I've been studying like a fiend for the GREs and reading lots of funny, fantasy-type books like Jasper Fforde's series to empty my head back out.  And The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera is staring at me from my nighstand, practically emanating importance and the promise of a great read, and I'm just staring back, and then picking up my copy of The Big Over Easy.

Another not reading:  I was on a huge, major trave-writing kick and reading everything I could, and then I  hit the wall.  So now I have books like It's Not About the Tapas, Without Reservations, and The Sheltering Sky just sitting on the shelf.  Sigh. 

I guess books are such subjective experiences: your mood, your response to it, your engagement with it.  Can't just flick them on like the tv.

Colleen:

Speaking of Hunger Games -- I read that one after haering about it on one of these forums and LOVED it. Then as soon as the sequel was released, Catching Fire, I got it at the library - I was literally the first person to get my hands on it when the library first ordered it. Then it sat on the table, moved to my night stand, back to the table -- staring at me wherever it was and I just stared back as I read several other books. I renewed it from the library once and still just stared at it. I was hearing that the sequel was as good, if not better, than the first. So I decided to order them both from Literary Guild book club to have as keepers on my shelf. I returned the library copy unread knowing that my book club ships out immediately and I would have my personal copies within a week. The day after I returned the library copy, I get an email from Literary Guild that they will be back-ordered, possibly up to 2-3 months. OH NO! I just can't wait that long! So, I call the library and try to get my hands back on that copy -- TOO LATE - now I'm on the hold list. Sigh..................... What a silly game I'm playing!! I laugh at myself - especially now that I'm sharing this story. :))

Marilyn

I read Catching Fire right after finishing The Hunger Games. I have to say, it does start out slow, but it definitely picks up! I liked The Hunger Games a bit more, but I still absolutely LOVED Catching Fire. If I kept books, these would definitely be keepers. I can't wait until the third one comes out.

I hope you get your copy soon. That would be pure torture!!!

We are all so funny!  I love it though, were else would someone really understand our obsession for books, but here!  My friends and huband always laugh at me because I have so many books going at a time, still find new ones, rub my hands around some of the older ones that have not properly recieved my attention, and still get more from the library.  I think that there is no sanity to this madness...but what a lovely addiction it is!

Oh Heather, don't you love to touch the older books?  I have a small bookcase with my absolute these aren't going anywhere keepers that have been read and reread.  Some I've read so oftern I can just touch them and the story will come flooding back.  I don't actually read them much now but I know the stories well.  In fact so well I actually wore out a couple of them and had to buy new.