the time keeper by Mitch Albom

Since this will be my third complete blog within the last 24 hours I'll do my best to just stick to the book itself. That may be difficult to do, being me and all. :) 

Mitch Albom gets a good deal of praise. He is a very well received Christian author, and I can rightfully say he should be. I've read some of his other works and they were great. What I really don't like, though, is his writing style. Especially this book. It drove me insane. Ugh. Jumping back and forth, tiny tidbits here and there, having to piece things together. Very annoying. One thing the book did really well was invite the reader to think about time. And not just about time in the sense that it's passing, but time in the meaning of how we use it. Are you asking for more time than you deserve? Are you fighting to run out on your life earlier than the higher beings have planned? 

I won't really go into details about the book at all other than to say that the three main characters are interesting. Father time, an time hungry old man, and a broken teenage girl. All in all I think it probably took me about 2 hours of reading time with plenty of interruptions for play time and make-believe with my wonderful three year old boy. I get the feeling though that this is a book you should take the time to read. Maybe I missed something that would make it more special? It's an incredibly well received book. Then again, not everyone likes everything the same. And I didn't like this book. More than anything it's the writing style that killed it for me. Far too much jolting and jumping about. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I have great affection for books that tend to be a little more long winded. 

The characters really only inspired more dislike for me. An insipid girl who can't pull herself out of a funk created by a bully of a boy. Then again, what 17 year old girl really can? She's realistic-ish but annoying. Really don't get me started on the power hungry, money grubbing old man. Bleck. I understand the message, it's pretty obvious. Don't measure your life by the time that passes, measure it by the way you spend that time. I'm just very underwhelmed. I'll give it 2 out of 5 stars on my Goodreads. Here's to hoping my next random book choice is better! Happy Reading!