Going in blind

I had a great reading experience over the past couple days. I've never read anything by Dennis Lehane before, nor seen Mystic River (though it's been on my list for ages).

I didn't even know he wrote the book Mystic River until I was partway through Shutter Island.

Late Tuesday night Kazu tweeted

Shutter Island (the novel) is a good read. Not everyone is going to like the ending, but most of the build up is brilliant. A page turner.

My initial thought was "by saying some people won't like the ending, I'd probably be one who does."

Like I said, I'd never heard of Shutter Island, the book or the movie, prior to Kazu's mention. His recommendation means a lot to me, though, so I looked for it on Amazon. Not only is it Kindle available, it's currently at the price of a discounted mass market paperback.

Without pausing to check the synopsis, genre, or reviews, I downloaded the books sample. Within minutes of finishing the sample, I bought the whole thing. All from the comfort of my own home! xD

I read until I fell asleep that night, and in the morning until I had to leave for the theater. Actually, at one point, fearing how nightmarish and dark the book was headed, I strategically put it down, so I wouldn't be going to sleep scared. But for the most part, I dove in and read without pause.

Which, I think, is how Shutter Island is best experienced. While reading, I didn't stop and have the chance to analyze the story. Not in the sense of picking apart the past, but predicting what was going to happen. I was too concentrated on squeezing everything out of the current moment and getting to the next page to worry about what happened farther along.

Also, due to reading on the kindle, I had a percentile bar telling me how far into the book I was, and a "page" count, but I never really stopped to look at how many pages I had left. I never pulled myself out of the narrative to feel the thickness of the book and ponder what needed to be wrapped up by the time I was done.

Starting a book (or movie) ignorant of the content (though not quality) is an experience I know I like, and Shutter Island is another example that it's a good policy to have.