Homicide, The Book I Wish I Could Kill

John & I have never seen The Wire, which is ridiculous since John is from right outside of Baltimore. We were talking about watching it when John's friend Jon insisted that we read Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets first. So John read it, loved it & passed it to me. I sat on it for months, but finally picked it up. I've been reading it for about a month & a half & am only on page 216, which is incredibly slow for me.

I just can't get into it. For one thing, it's the mass market paperback version. I hate books this size. Hate! Every time I complain about it (which is often), John mocks me by shouting, "It's just too small!" But seriously, it is too small. Against John's better judgment, he concurred that it's probably not a "girl's book," which of course pissed me off & fueled me to keep reading it, which in hindsight, may have been his plan all along. Touche.

But I can't keep reading it. It's so slow! And there are too many characters. And cases. It's impossible to keep up. John insists that I'm not supposed to try & keep the characters or the cases straight, that it's about the camaraderie between the detectives, but my brain doesn't work this way. My brain wants to retain all of the details. In an effort to drive my point home, I went to Amazon to see if anyone else had trouble reading this book.

Here are snippets of my favorite reviews:

• Oh, I'll finish it on some night when I've read & reread all the other books in the house.
• Incredibly boring, I only read 2/3 of it.
• The book was something of a chore to read.
• Book is verbose & meandering at times.

It's rare that I give up on a book, but I think I'm going to set this one down & just start watching the series. I can't keep reading it, especially when I have so many other books at home that I'd rather be reading. Sorry Homicide, better luck next time.