Book 1 of 2010

While I have absolutely no intention of reading 2,010 books in the year 2010, I am hoping to hit at least 25. As I am a notoriously slow first-time reader, I will be impressed with myself if I can do so. I also like to practice what I teach (thanks, Jim Burke), so I'm going to hold myself accountable by reposting my GoodReads reviews of books I finish here. Here's my first book read of 2010, completed on Friday, January 8.

1) The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
Moore forces the reader to keep track of a ton of characters, but the overall story is engrossing and amusing.

For some reason, maybe because I've been watching old episodes of Parks & Recreation, I kept picturing Louis CK as Theo Crowe despite the physical description of the character not being remotely close to matching the comedian. I think it's just easy to picture CK as a cop after his run as Amy Poehler's boyfriend. Moore appears to have a set criteria for the character in his books that revolve around the California coast: dudes and/or ladies that need a change in life, a supernatural or out-of-this-world yet misunderstood creature, and some figure of authority that is corrupt beyond words in need of comeuppance. This is my third Moore book and each one has followed this formula. The formula is sound and each of the books has been incredibly entertaining and fun to read. In fact, this was my favorite Moore book yet. Now that I'm moving on to Lamb, it'll be nice to see him switch it up.

Also, his depiction of a dog's thought process through Skinner, especially the lab calling Gabe "Food Guy," was brilliant.