Not enough time

I was reading a really good book called "The Memory of Running," but unfortunately I had to return it to the library today before I could finish it. And just whenI was getting to a good part too.

The book is a new release, which you only get for 14 days and can't renew. The woman at the library tonight said she would've renewed it for me anyway, but I had requested it from a different library. So she had to take it back. I'm now back on the reserve list and looks like I'll get my chance to finish it in about 10 weeks.

The book is about a man named Smithy Ide. He's a 47-year-old, 279-pound loser. He smokes too much, drinks too much and has no friends.

Growing up in Rhode Island he was very close to his older sister. However, she was mentally ill and one day the voice in her head took over and she wandered off, never to be heard from again.

As the book begins, Smithy's parents are killed in a car crash. While he's at his parents' house settling up their afffairs a letter comes addressed to his father. It turns out his sister has been found. She was homeless in Los Angeles and is now dead too. Her body is in the county morgue waiting for someone to claim it.

Smithy is devastated. He wanders into his parents' garage and spots his beloved boyhood bicycle. For watever reason, he decides to take it for a ride, maybe just to clear his head -- and he never stops. He winds up riding across the country to claim his sister in L.A.

Along the way he meets all sorts of different people -- good and bad -- and has various adventures. He also starts to learn how to live a better life and be a better person.

I was about two-thirds through the book. Smithy had gotten as far as St. Louis.

The book is the first novel from Ron McLarty. If the name isn't familiar, you would probably know his face if you saw him. He's a character actor probably best known for playing Sgt. Frank Belson on "Spenser: Fore Hire" and he pops up from time to time as a judge on "Law & Order."

I've now moved on to "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. He's one of my favorite authors. I only have two weeks for this one too, but I usually breeze through Crichton books. His last few have been real page turners.