31: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu (2010 hardcover)

From the Amazon.com recommendations list, this book screamed "winner" at me for many reasons: a witty title, the SciFi genre, a young author (winner of the National Book Foundations 5 Under 35 Award), and--the clincher--cool ray guns on the cover.  I was destined to love this book, I decided.  And, I worked hard to do so.  I even read the entire book--forgoing my usual 57-page rule based on Nancy Pearl's formula (see blog entry 16 for formula details)--because I felt that, at any moment, I was going to suddenly come around to loving it.

It never happened.  

Despite the great premise of a young man traveling through time, in a universe that is itself science fictional, repairing the time-travel machines of others, while seeking his father who invented one of the first time machines and thereafter disappeared (basically, all components right up my reading alley), the book never clicked for me.  I didn't like the whiny main character, his extremely long, rambling private monologues, and even the science and fiction explanations were interminable. I must admit that I did a lot of skimming in the last half of the book.

Of course, there was enough interest to keep me skimming (and the books was a short 239 pages, which helped) so it wasn't all bad.  I'd simply suggest waiting until Yu's second novel, or checking out his award-winning short story collection, rather than adding this one to your reading list.