So a few months ago, a friend of mine lent me a copy of his favorite book. Although I love writing and I do take English, I'm not the greatest reader. It's slow and tedious and time-consuming. Don't get me wrong, books are awesome and I love a good story, I'm just an incredibly lazy person and the thought of dedicating hours of my life to something is just not appealing. So it went on the shelf next to all the other books I haven't read.

However, I recently had a bit of a part-way-through-life crisis where I stayed up until 7 am and slept all day for a week. On those late nights, I realised how much of an arse I had been to the people that cared about me. When my friend had given me the book, we had exchanged. I had given him my favourite, The Giver by Lois Lowry, in exchange for his favorite. The book I had thrown on the shelf with no intentions of reading it. After everything I've put him through, I could at least read the damn book. So I did.

My Swordhand is Swinging is very... different. The majority of books that I read are either really jam-packed full of action or full of romance etc. This one, not so much. The main character, Peter, just kind of goes about his business for half of the book, a little suspicious of what's going on around him, complaining about how much everyone in the village hates him in his father. By the time I got to around page 75, I was ready to put it back on the shelf it had come from. Then a new character is introduced and my interest was recaptured.

I don't want to divulge too much information about the plot and stuff but I just want to say that if you're going to read this book, perservere. The second half of the book is a whole lot better than the first half. The whole foreboding mood of the book draws to a beautiful close, tieing all the tiny, seemingly insignificant details together to create an ending you wouldn't expect. Don't get me wrong, it's no Harry Potter, but the story told is poignant and the message the book passes on is one you really wouldn't expect from one so short. It's perfect for a quiet, rainy afternoon and it only took me a couple of days to read, despite my incredibly slow pace. I can see why it's a favorite.