I was in a very bad mood when I woke up this morning and my mood got even darker when I glanced I at my books-waiting-to-be-read pile.

I like to read something while I sit down with my cup of tea in the morning and since I let my Newsweek and Economist subscriptions lapse I have had to revert to old-fashioned books. Apart from the delightful Francis Crick biography, I have bounced from book to mind-numbing book – UML Distilled and The Innovator’s Dilemma and several other books that I should be reading. My arm went numb just reaching for the pile.

I had started reading the first three chapters of The Innovator’s Dilemma about 5 times before and, after I convinced myself that reading the whole book would be a lot like reading the first three chapters another 5 times, aborted the effort. I decided that life was too short to be reading books that did not enjoy and in the mood I was under, I really couldn’t face another chapter of Working with Legacy Code.

The quirky cover of that tractor book that Richard had lent me a couple of weeks ago caught my eye. I read the first paragraph…

Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.

Just what I was looking for! I got about half way through the first chapter before I had to leave for work. When I arrived here I glanced at the reviews on Amazon. All the reviews gave it either 5 stars or 1 star. Perfect! As Kathy Sierra says, if everyone has a strong opinion about your work – they either love it or hate it – you are probably onto something. Even better – the lovers found the book hilarious and the haters found it depressing (Angela’s Ashes, anyone?).

I can’t wait to get home now! It had better live up to my towering expectations!