Abandoned Books: Jetpack Dreams by Mac Montandon

I've just made a new rule for myself, though I'll have to see how long it lasts: if I think about dropping a book in the middle more than twice, I'll just do it, and move on to something else. (If I find myself reading two chapters and then dropping everything, I'll have to reconsider the rule -- or my criteria for picking a book up in the first place.)

I obviously can't review Mac Montandon's Jetpack Dreams; I've only read about half of it. And I was mostly enjoying it as I was reading it, too.

But I came to think that Montandon was far, far more interested in jetpacks than I ever would be, and that I was becoming less interested as the book went on. (Obviously Montandon liked jetpacks -- he wrote a whole book about them! -- but I thought I did, too. It's weird to discover that some geeky thing that you assumed you liked is actually not all that compelling, once you get down to it.)

Jetpack Dreams was an interesting read as far as I went; Montandon has done both his historical research and his contemporary legwork. And I doubt there will be a better book about jetpacks in my lifetime -- there may never be another book about jetpacks in my lifetime.

If you like jetpacks as much as I thought I did -- or if you are just somewhat interested and less ambivalent than I seem to be this week -- you might well find a lot to like in Jetpack Dreams. But I'm going to pick something else up, and see if I can finish that.