Children of Men

I first saw the trailer for the movie Children of Men back in August. I was sucked in. Shortly thereafter, I learned that it was based on a book. An afternoon of Internet searches revealed that the book, published in 1993, was out of print. While in Seattle in September, I stumbled upon a used copy at the Elliott Bay Book Company, an awesome indie bookstore with a great inventory of used and new books. (Although, they’ve gotten nothing on Powell’s Books in Portland, one of my 25 Must See Sights in Life.)

Thus began a nearly 6-month adventure with a book I both loved and hated.

My modest goal was to read the book prior to seeing the movie, which opened on Christmas Day. What seemed like a simple task spiraled miserably out-of-control as I struggled with a total disinterest in the book. I slowly trudged through the first 80 pages – in 3 months. Within days, the movie was going to be released. “I must finish this book.”

The holidays kept me pre-occupied and I came nowhere near finishing the book, stalled around page 100. And then my plan fell out from underneath me: the movie is only loosely based on the book! And from what I’ve learned, as loosely based as possible. My motivation to get through this book was lost.

Occasionally I would pick up the book and swim through 3 or 4 pages before losing interest to a re-run of Family Guy or laughter coming from my roommates in the kitchen. I was officially stuck on Chapter 18 at around page 124. I had lugged the book from Seattle, on countless days in to the office, twice to Boston, along on numerous trips to coffee shops and libraries. I got nothing.

Guess what? I finished the book. It turned out quite good and I will have some thoughts on it in the coming days.

(Okay, so I finished it 2 weeks ago on my last flight back from Boston.)