Reader's Whiplash

I've written before about the lovely synchronicity that can happen when the themes of the multiple books you are reading or listening come together to amplify beautifully. It's a very cool thing. Not so cool is the opposite, reader's whiplash. This happens when two disparate books are experienced so close together your head is left spinning and making that cartoon noise. It's the literary equilvant of eating some citrus after you brush your teeth.

(insert shudder here)

I have no neckbrace but I'm dealing with that whiplash right now. I had finished the great Western I was reading, The Tenderness of Wolves, and I thought I might need a palate cleanser in between that and the crime novel that had come highly recommended, Hard Rain Falling. So I read this Jane Austen chicky thing in a couple of hours, the sorbet if you will, in my reading banquet.

Big Mistake.

Hard Rain Falling is so raw and so far on the other side of the reading sprectrum I'm left gobsmacked and reeling. This book is killing me and I don't mean softly. It's a tribute to the gripping story and skill of the writer, yes, but also, frankly, just damn poor reading planning on my part.