Monday, May 21, 2007

Winterdance

Yesterday I finished Winterdance by Gary Paulsen, my first book for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge. The book was about the author's experience training for and running the Iditarod.

I didn't like it as much as I expected I would. The book never really captured my attention. I never felt like I was inside the author's head. I didn't get a real sense of his relationship with his dogs. I don't have a really good mental picture of what the actual race is like. I don't know how to explain it, the book just didn't interest me all that much. The first half of the book was all about the events leading up to the race - how he got involved with dogs and preparations made for the race. The second half talked about his running the race. I may have liked the book better if more of it was devoted to the race itself.

I did enjoy some parts of the book. But I think I really just wanted to finish it and get back to Winter Wheat! I stopped halfway through that book so I could read Winterdance and write about it before I leave on Thursday. I am really enjoying Winter Wheat! I haven't seen it mentioned on any blogs. I got the recommendation from this site. It's a list of books recommended by author Roxanne Henke (she wrote the Brewster series including the first book, After Anne). I've gotten several great book ideas from her list including The Kindness of Strangers and The Amateur Marriage.

I rate Winterdance 3/5.

3 comments:

Joy said...

Oh...sorry you didn't like WINTERDANCE more than you did. I'm really looking forward to it.

Literary Feline said...

That's too bad you didn't like this one more as it certainly sounds interesting. Maybe if I read it, I'll read it about the time I read the other Iditorad book I'm considering getting. The two might balance each other out.

Booklogged said...

It's hard to enjoy a book that isn't grabbing your when you have one that is sitting on the shelf. Hope the next non-fiction is better.