27. Sphere

27. Sphere by Michael Crichton (8/1/2011 - 8/2/2011; has yet to be finished -- see entry) (restarted 9/26/2011 - 9/29/2011)

This is really embarrassing but I physically lost this book the day after I started reading it. AND I have a) yet to recover my copy, and b) yet to find a copy available at a library near me (all the copies are checked out! argh!).

Here's what happened: I put this book in my car along with my planner and  a new pair of shoes in their box.  After I left home, I realized that my driver's side door was open and the car sensor was not registering it as open, so I sorta panicked.  At a light, I opened both my side and the passenger side doors to see if the sensor was broken for both or just for my side (it turned out to be just my side). When I did, I'm about 90% certain that Sphere fell out of the car onto the road.  I didn't notice this at the time as I was waiting to get on the freeway but by the time I got home and realized what had happened, someone had taken it or something because it was no longer on the road.  I still haven't been able to figure out why someone would take it, but as my fiancee suggested, "Hey, free book!"

So as of right now, I have not yet finished this book.

Update: I started Sphere again on 9/26/2011 after obtaining a copy from yet another book fair and finished it 9/29/2011.

I really like this book.  I hear a lot that Michael Crichton isn't actually great literature, that he's more akin to intellectual drivel, but I happen to enjoy his writing.

This book is ultimately about what happens when you place about 6 people at the bottom of the ocean in a life-threatening situation and then watching what happens to all of them psychologically.  All of these people bring strengths to the investigation of what appears to be a spaceship from the future that crashed onto the bottom of the ocean.  The problem is that something inside the spaceship brings the unconscious thoughts of any given individual to life, so that the underwater environment in which they are all living is threatened by poisonous snakes, jellyfish, and a gigantic squid.  Once they figure out that these manifestations are being created through someone's thoughts, they quickly turn on each other -- hence the psychological thriller tag that this book carries.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for something easy to read that will inspire some thinking.  I was certainly left thinking about my own deepest fears after finishing it -- and I was really glad that the chances of me encountering something this scary in real life are pretty much nil.