why did i waste my time?

this afternoon (after a great trip to the farmer market at clark and division - great asparagus there) i finished "the lost painting," which i wrote about last time. the new york times honored this book as one of the top ten of 2005, it has an average of four stars on amazon, and everyone else seemed to love it.
"captivating," they say. "gripping."
"are you on crack?" i say. that book was crap. okay, not completely, but it was not in the slightest "gripping" or "captivating." when a book is captivating i cannot put it down. i have been known to read as i walk or stand outside of a building because there is just no way i can put down my book. this one was hardly gripping. i found it poorly written and quite honestly, boring. the characters had no personalities - even though the author tried to insert a love story that never went anywhere - and even the chase story to find the real painting was painfully slow. it was poorly written in general, and a bit davinci code-esque for my taste. i guess the author's picture, jonathan harr, should have tipped me off:i'm not sure what's on my plate next. i picked up a garrison keillor book and also "snow falling on cedars," which i read a long time ago but thought i would pick up again. i love re-reading books because i always notice something new, no matter how many times i have read it.
other good things: i've become addicted to youtube and all of the old music videos and other random things to watch, like this video of jack kerouac reading from "on the road."
now you will be addicted too.