For the first time in the last 6 years, I read a novel. It's the first novel I've read in probably 10 years or more that I read on my own. (The last novel I read was The Killer Angels by Shaara for a history class my freshman year in college.)
I finished Boomsday by Christopher Buckley several days ago. The main plot surrounds a blogger who advocates that baby boomers kill themselves at age 70 (know as voluntary transitioning in the book) to cure the solvency problems facing Social Security. This proposal is picked up by an opportunistic U.S. Senator who's running for president and all sorts of fun happens around this.
Overall I don't regret reading the novel. Chris Buckley is a good writer of political fiction (his Thank You for Smoking was made into a movie a year or so ago) and Boomsday was clever in spots and kept my attention. However, after finishing it I didn't feel nearly as satisfied as I am after reading some empirical study of Social Security solvency. I somewhat enjoyed the novel, I just didn't feel intellectually enriched for having read it.
I think I'll stick to non fiction. However, I will one day read some of Ayn Rand's fiction.
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