When I wrote my first novel, I copied the style directly from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. As most writers (I’m guessing) do, I didn’t realize that you couldn’t do that. That the style of the novel was Kerouac’s and that I couldn’t just pilfer it for my own novel.

So, what’s the fastest way to not waste your time when it comes to reading books? Don’t read the ones that don’t pull you in after a page or two. Or twenty. Your time is valuable, and there’s no sense in completing a novel if you aren’t enjoying it. Yeah, I know, I get it. Lolita is great! Never finished it, though I’ve started it probably thirty times. You haven’t read Vanity Fair by Thackeray? Nope. Doctor Zhivago? Sorry. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy? Well, I did read that one . .

Today, “in honor” of “the President’s” joining into the Israel/Iran conflict by ordering air strikes/bombing attacks on Iran with Benjamin Netanyahu (who I’m no fan of and who’s served more time than he should be allowed to as Israel’s Prime Minister [my take is you can serve 2 terms, not 3 or more like all authoritarians like Trump would like to serve]) I’ll be providing a list of war novels and fiction I believe are worth reading.