Last week, I finished the very first of the "Left Behind" books and, as completely suspected, it's just awful. I mean, just horribly, horribly written. All you need to know about the quality of the writing is the names: the two main characters are Rayford Steele and Cameron "Buck" Williams, and Hattie Williams. "Buck," by the way is called "Buck" because he's a famous journalist who "bucks" the system and when was the last time you heard that word actually used? But besides just the usual signs of bad writing, it's also horribly paced and without one whit of suspense. Like millions of people have just vanished out of thin air and "Buck" and his editors are consumed about some sort of international financial goings ons. You'd figure something like that would be a big deal.

But you know what? It actually was a bit of a page turner and I finished it in about a day. Even crazier, I wanted to finish it and I couldn't put it down. Say what you want about the complete ridiculousness of the rapture (apparently, when somebody gets raptured, their clothes are left behind in a neat, pile, as if God is OCD) and the dicey relationship about the Jews (we help the Rapture get started than are mainly left behind to either be slaughtered as non-believers or have to convert, kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't proposition), it's a fun story, full of mysteries, death, destruction, wars. Just as long as you don't really pay attention to all the Jesus stuff, it's kind of fun.

So I actually ordered the next two. I know, kinda crazy but you can get it off Amazon, used, for a penny. Throw in shipping, and the whole cost is about four bucks. Plus, how can you not get into a plot that is described as "In this best seller, Apollyon the Destroyer, leads the plague of demon locusts as they torture the unsaved."

Awesome.