SAN DIEGO, CA - Area resident, Alan Peterson was faced with a dilemma Wednesday when he couldn’t choose which book he wanted to “read” in January. Standing in front of his bookshelf, adorned with hundreds of unread novels, Peterson struggled to narrow down his beginning of the year book choice past his three finalists.
"Well, I want to pick a real solid book, you know one that can really captivate me," said Peterson, who hadn't finished a book in over half a decade, "It's real important to find right title, but it is hard, since I have so many good ones I want to get to."
Among his titles were several self-help books, novels, biographies, anthologies and even a collection of poems. Among the three books he had chosen as his finalist was a short collection of essays on the topic of climate change.
"I don't know if I want to start the year off too hardcore with so many facts and figures," remarked Peterson who's December choice was thumbed through twice before being left to collect a fine layer of dust during the final month of the year.
Down to only two choices, a dogeared edition of The Martian, lent from a friend, and a hardcover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Peterson reportedly stared blankly at the two books for several seconds before walking away with The Martian, his final choice leaving the penultimate Tattoo, back on the shelf.
"Mark said this one was pretty good, so I'm looking forward to getting into it," said Peterson of the bestselling novel as he climbed into bed with the book.
Alan Peterson got six pages into the book before he decided to check his phone and see if The Martian was available on Netflix yet. Discovering it wasn't, he downloaded the film for $2.99 and planned to watch it Thursday night. At the time of press, nine days into January, the paperback has made an effective barrier between Peterson's charging phone and his nightstand.
Minutes before falling asleep, Peterson was mulling over several different ways he could word the Facebook post he was planning, detailing how the book was most certainly better than the film.
