Ken Bruen And My Reading Obsession

My writing hasn't been as consistent as I would like it to be as far as production goes and I think two reasons are clear. Ever since I came back from my Peruvian vacation last year I've been reading a great deal and watching movies. Now you could make the case that I've always read a lot and that would be true but lately I've been reading the books from three specific writers and one in particular, that being Irish author Ken Bruen. While in Peru my brother-in-law Gary got my wife and I hooked on Game Of Thrones and after I returned I found that one of the actors in that series (Iain Glen) was in five television movies based on the Jack Taylor series of books by Bruen.

After watching the movies I started reading the books and then an almost obsession was born for his crime noir style. To date there have been ten Jack Taylor books published and I have read them in order rather quickly. Afterwards I started on the Tom Brant series and finished all seven of them as well. Interestingly I found the that fourth book (Blitz) had been made into a movie starring Jason Statham that I had already seen. After that I started on the Max Fisher and Angela Petrakos series and have finished two of the three books. Why not the third you may ask? My library doesn't have it, that's why.

Now I am devouring his other one off books as well as some of his novellas and short stories. His writing style features a lot of short chapters which draws me in and makes me want to read more, I have a hard time putting the books down. His style just meshes with me, I like the stories he tells of extremely flawed human beings who don't quit no matter what they come up against. Clearly they are not good people but most of them end up doing good things in a bad way if that makes any kind of sense. Probably not, I tend to have a hard time putting into words why I like things.

Keep in mind Bruen's books are not the only ones I've been reading in all this time. I also am reading the Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson, almost everything written by Jonathan Maberry as well as other individual writers as they pop up. Bruen gives me the crime noir I like so much, with Johnson I get the western police chief and with Maberry I get all kinds of zombie stories and more bizarre things, all told in a manner that makes me think "Yeah, that could happen in real life." Plus Scott Sigler just had his new book Pandemic come out that I've got to get. He's another favorite of mine.

One thing all of these authors have in common is that I have a hard time putting down their books. They are written in a style that makes me want to read just a few pages more. I know I need to get control of my reading habit and get busy writing my own stories and ideas but they make it so easy for the procrastinator in me to put it off. All I can say is if they keep writing them I'll keep reading them and that's the highest praise I can offer. Later I'll write more about how my movie watching habits have changed so that I can bore you with that stunning information.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.