Let me start off by saying I don't usually "do" books on tape (or, in this case, CD). "Do" being the audio book listener's lingo for "read." But I have a long commute these days and figure I might as well spend it catching up on reading I would be doing if I wasn't behind the wheel.

Let me next say that I am a huge fan of Ann Patchett. I have read all of her books and when I learned that Run was coming out I wanted to "run" right out and get it. With school and teaching I haven't had a lot of time for reading novels, so I waited and eventually picked it up on CD at the library. My wife was the first to listen to it. She didn't even get past the first disc. She promptly pronounced it "boring." Thinking she must not have given it a chance (after all, how could a book by Ann Patchett be boring?) I decided to listen to it anyway. I wanted so badly to like it. And yet, I did not.

Maybe it was the voice of the guy reading it. Maybe it was the cheesy smooth jazz music that opened and closed each disc. Maybe if I would have had the book in book form everything would have been different.

But I doubt it. The real problem was deeper than that. Not one of the characters in Run felt real to me. Unlike the characters in all of her other books, people I grew to love or at least care about, Run boasts a long list of essential characters, all of whom have interesting things happening to them, but none of whom I felt I really got to know. The book was like listening to overly precious narration of a stranger's family photo album.

If you have never read any of Patchett's work before, please don't start with Run. Her other books are really wonderful and you'd be cheating yourself if you let Run keep you away from them.