Given the fact that Hollywood makes one of his books into a movie at least once every two years, I thought that there must be something special about Nicholas Sparks books. Plus, "The Notebook" is a perpetual recipient of epic chick flick swoonery and adoration. So I read "The Lucky One" because the movie just came out and I thought that it would be fun to read the book, see the movie. Sorry, waste of time. This thing just went nowhere. The characters were paper thin, even though the author seemed to try to be infusing everything with depth and semi-tragic overtones. War, parental abuse, tragic accidents, strokes. But none of it made me care about the characters. (Well, I did like the German shepherd, Zeus). The romance seemed kind of blah, inevitable, predictable. I think I've fulfilled my Nicholas Spark curiosity and I don't need to revisit this particular author anymore.

On a side note, though, I have read up on Nicholas Sparks a bit. He sounds like a genuinely nice man who has used his sizable movie and book income for good and worthy causes. So that's worth something and I admire him for that.

Don't plan to see the movie, either. 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeeouch.

AND--just to ramp up the controversy--I never did like "The Notebook" movie. It just seemed fakey and silly. Oh no, she din't!