One of my passions is reading. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to read. When I was younger, my parents never had to worry about me as I would be more than content with curling up on the couch with a book and bag of sunflower seeds. I would read anything and everything but my favorite genre, even at a young age, has been crime/mystery/horror. I was obsessed with R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street books and as I got older, Stephen King and Dean Koontz. About ten years ago, I discovered a new author, Jeffery Deaver, and instantly I was in love.

His books are creepy and very disturbing—which I love. I have no idea what draws me to this genre of literature, it’s hardly intellectually stimulating (although I have learned some pretty interesting things from Deaver—I’ll explain later). The first book I read from him was The Bone Collector which introduced his now most famous character, Lincoln Rhyme. Rhyme is a quadriplegic but is a superman when it comes to forensics. The book is basically about a killer who has a very unusual/terrifying way of murdering his victims and leaves at each scene of the crime a clue–it’s like a game to him (or her). This book was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington as Rhyme and Angelina Jolie as Amelia Sachs, Rhymes’ sidekick. Very rarely do I like movie versions of books and very rarely do I like Angelina Jolie, but both worked incredibly this time around.

From there it was one book after another. I couldn’t and still can’t get enough of him. All of his books are very CSI so there is a lot of thinking involved when the reader is trying to solve the mystery. One of the main reasons I like Deaver is that in most of his books he also addresses something related to or happening in society. For example, one of his most recent books, The Kill Room, is about the U. S. government’s involvement in targeted assassinations which some say actually occurs. Another book, The Blue Nowhere, the killer is a computer hacker and the plot hones in on the lack of computer safety knowledge and the amount of access strangers have to personal information.

I like that about Deaver, I think it’s this aspect of his writing that makes his books that much more scary—what is happening in the plot could happen to us.

The book signing that I went to today was for his newest book, The October List–probably his most unique book in that it is written backward, starting from the end and ending at the beginning. Think the movie Memento. I’m very excited to start reading it.

How do I make time to read? As you know, my workouts start at 8 p.m. My gym is pretty fancy schmancy and they have a pretty comfortable lounge area. When I’m done with my workout and cool down, I grab a book from my gym bag and sit in one of the old leather chairs and read for 15 minutes. It’s the best way to end my gym session. Despite a busy day with my kids and my sometimes rigorous workouts, I love that I can still curl up with a book and relax. At least for a little while : )