Apparently I Have a Knack!

Currently, I am in the middle of reading Laura Hillenbrand's book Unbroken. I happened to pick up this book because the pastor at my church included it in a sermon about six weeks ago. The book is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who ended up as an airman during World War II. Not only does he survive a plane crash into the Pacific, he survives weeks of drifting in a life raft and then ends up in a Japanese POW camp.

As I got deeper into the book (very good, btw), I thought, "This would make a great movie." So I searched on IMDB to see if maybe someone had the same thought I did.

Ta-da! Unbroken is coming to a theater near you in December 2014!

This seems to be my fate as of late. Out of the last 4 books I've read, 3 of them are being turned into movies. And, no, I didn't realize any of them were headed for the big screen when I chose them. I am not sure what that says about my ability to pick books. Maybe it says nothing. However, I suppose it gives me a bit of insight into how difficult the life of an agent must be.

An agent ends up with hundreds, if not thousands, of books to read. Out of the pile, the agent must find the gem. How do you describe to people out there what a 'gem' is exactly?

I have quite a few book samples on my Kindle. Whenever I hear about a good book, I typically head to Amazon to see if I can download a sample. If the sample is good enough, I will buy the rest of the book. Generally, I will know if I like a book within a few pages. Sometimes it takes a whole chapter to get the feel for where the story is headed and if I like the writing style.

Now that I think about it, though, maybe my taste is very middle-of-the-road. If the books I'm choosing are books worthy of movie-dom, maybe it is because I am a reader who is your average person. Who knows?

Perhaps Hollywood studios should have some 'average Americans' give input about what books they have enjoyed and get a consensus about what would make a good film. Just like product developers get input from consumers about new products! Now that would be a fun group to be a part of. Rather than let a small handful of powerful people in the movie industry tell us what we want to watch, ask the viewers!

Hey, Hollywood, I'm available if you're looking for an opinion!