As for me, I love going to a movie that I only half-way want to see or that I’m only seeing for a friend’s sake, and then LOVING the movie. Isn’t that just the best? Lord of the Rings was one of those for me. Fantasy isn’t really my thing, but it was such a big movie that I thought I should just go ahead and see it. Now even though it is not a short movie by any means, I still found myself at the end of it saying, “That can’t be the end! They HAVE to tell us what happens next!” I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into the movie and then couldn’t wait for the next one to come out.
Books can be the same. Sometimes we pick up a book just because we have nothing else to read or because it is a book we think we “should” read. And every once in a while that book ends up being one of our favorites. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. I read them because a friend said I should. And I could not put them down until the last word was read.
So tell us – what book has pleasantly surprised you? We’d love to hear from you.
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April 25th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I was recently pleasantly surprised by the book “Inkheart.” I’m not a huge fantasy fiction type person, but I actually really enjoyed the book and even the fantastical stuff.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I’m going to mention two books, the first of which was “Ester’s Child” by Jean Sasson. It follows two families across Europe, one Jewish and one Palestinian, from World War II Poland to modern-day Israel. I can’t say I was “pleasantly” surprised, because it wasn’t a pleasant read. But it was hard to put down, and I learned so much about Jewish and Palestinian history that I didn’t already know.
The other book was definitely a pleasant surprise – “Crime & Clutter” by Cyndy Salzmann. I don’t always like chick lit, but Cyndy’s book was excellent. It went from current time back to the war protest days of the 60s and the hippie culture, during the time I was in college. Cyndy did a great job tying everything together. A great read!
April 27th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed A Clearing in the Wild. I thought I’d been Oregon Trail’d to death but this book presents such a unique look on what we might consider a cult nowadays that it was a page turner and very interesting.