How Did the Story Hook Me?

On Monday, I was interviewed for a project at work -- I'd been asked to read Tony Dungy's Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance and then be interviewed for one of the print publications published by the company for employees. The interview went fine -- took all of about 15 minutes and we were done. Tuesday morning, I received the draft for comment -- the turnaround was quick. It was a different way to do a book review -- have someone read a book and then talk to them about what they read.

Last night, I started reading Travis Thrasher's Admission. It jumped around a bit at first, or it was actually more a case of me being easily distracted. And then, by about page 20, I was hooked. I had a hard time putting it down but I had to get to sleep. I went back this morning and tried to find the spot where Thrasher hurled me into the story, but I don't see the precise point. All I know is that it happened, somewhere around page 20, when the lead character, Jake Rivers, is offered $50,000 to find a college friend he hasn't seen in 11 years. It's odd how those hooks work. You're reading along, trying to figure out if you're going to be interested or not, and the next thing you know, it's 60 pages later. Gotcha.

I have to fly to New York this afternoon for a talk I'm giving tomorrow at a Conference Board meeting (my assigned topic is "Creating and Managing Online Content"). I can't wait for the plane ride and a good two hours of uninterrupted reading.