16/100: Crocodile on The Sandbank + Kindle Thoughts

The more books I read through my Kindle, the more I find myself actually... liking it (gasp). Never would I ever have thought I, Rachel, would be enjoying reading books on an e-reader. I have been staunch in by support of "real books" and high in my judgment of those who read e-books. I'll eat my words and enjoy them, because miracle of miracles, I've been converted.

I will still continue to call paper and ink books "real books," but I no longer feel as though that is my only option now. One of the reasons I love Kindle books is because it makes long books easier to tackle. I get to hold something in my hands that is less than an inch thick, versus holding a 3-inch tome. Instead of feeling overwhelmed as to how many pages I have left, I find it easier to simply focus on the page I'm at. I plan to read books like Gone With The Wind and Middlemarch in this way.

Another advantage of e-readers, as is the case with my latest read, you can often grab a copy of a book faster than waiting for your hold to come in at the library. Crocodile on The Sandbank is my most recent Kindle read. I had been into the library a couple times seeking it out, and upon reviewing the website, found that I would have to place it on hold if I wanted to read it anytime (relatively) soon. So I turned to my Kindle. Thankfully my library has a database of e-books (not large, but sufficient) and I can download them directly to my Kindle. Of course, when I went on to the database, the one copy they had was checked out, so it turned out that I had to place on hold on it anyways. Oh well... however the hold came in way faster than I had anticipated, so I ended up receiving it within less than a week, faster than if I had to wait for the physical copy to come in.

I really liked this mystery. It sort of reminded me of a tamer, and real-life, version of The Mummy (the movie). I kind of figured that the mummy in the story would be revealed to be a human, a-la Scooby-Doo, because of the time period this book was written in. But there were a few chapters where I wondered where the story was going; is this actually a long-dead mummy that has been awoken to seek revenge?

I found the characters to be likable and easy to empathize with, although in hindsight, they did feel a bit one-dimensional to me. I am also glad that Amelia's feminism was not more pronounced, otherwise I feel I would have thrown it aside halfway through in frustration and moved on to something else. On the contrary, I found it hilarious, especially when reading her interactions with Emerson. The sass, the sarcasm... it was splendid. The mystery did keep me guessing and I frequently wondered if I had it all wrong. It's a pretty simplistic storyline, there's no real twist at the end, but it also wasn't obvious either.

Ultimately I gave this book 5 stars and I imagine I will continue with the series. I wasn't grabbed, so I'm not in a rush to go out and get the next book, but I will keep this series in mind for when I need an easy and cozy read. In the meantime, I'm on the hunt for a book that completely sucks me in, because I haven't felt that in a long time.

Stats:
Completed: Mar 6
Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 262