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Book 5: Tale of the Mask, by Sterling Rowe

Date finished: February 2

I have no book cover for this one because I read the unpublished manuscript, given to me by a student of mine, a 10th grader in my British Literature class. The author told me he had written it "a year ago," which would have made him 15 at the time he penned it. He does not intend to publish it, because it features characters from a popular trademarked video game, and he believes the story would fall apart if he changed it substantially from the game. But he also told me he wrote it for himself, and doesn't intend to seek publishing anyway.

The manuscript came in four parts and I read it in about 2 hours. On balance, it was what I would expect from an adventure tale based on a video game. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at the brisk pacing, balance between action sequences and character-building, use of back-story, and twists within a story arc.

You really learn about someone when you read something he or she has written. I very much enjoyed this story. It was rollicking good fun with fast-paced action and likable characters. I'm glad the author shared it with me.

Is it a cheat to include this manuscript in my "Finish a Book a Week" challenge? I struggled with that for awhile, and came down to two criteria for the "books" I include. 1) It must be a book, not an article, single essay, or other short work whose title would be punctuated with quotations rather than italics. I will be including longer books, shorter books, audiobooks, fiction, nonfiction, and plays from William Shakespeare, among others. They won't all be quick reads, but some -- like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -- can be read in 1-2 hours. 

This was a science-fiction fantasy book. I enjoyed it. I was down for a week with a cold or COVID or something, and I didn't read much during that time. So it's been more than a week since I finished a book. But I read 4 books in January, so I'm not going to fall on my sword about it. I think perfectionism will kill the joy in this challenge. Even if I go a month without finishing a book, I will continue because it's a good thing to do. 

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