The Ultimate Cliffhanger

As most of you know, I love to read!  Reading relaxes me...it stretches my imagination...and it makes me think.  But nothing has ever stretched me as far as The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett.

Linked to Amazon

This book has been on my "To Read" list for quite some time.  Imagine my surprise when I found a hardback copy of it languishing on a shelf at Half Price Books back in April.  And it was marked for $1.99!  What luck!  What providence!  I knew that I would soon be making a trip to Arkansas for my mother's surgery and this book would be a perfect companion for my stay.  Short.  Interesting.  Easy to read.

So, I packed it for BOTH trips.  It accompanied me to Little Rock when the surgery was suddenly rescheduled for the following week.  It then traveled with me to Branson, MO on vacation with my mother-in-law, back to her home in Pocahontus, AR and then across the northern top of the state to Fayetteville for my niece's graduation from the University of Arkansas.  All of that travel and I still hadn't cracked it's cover.  This was being saved for the day of the five hour surgery.  It was to be my distraction.

The following week, I decided to fly back to Little Rock instead of making the eight hour drive for the second time in just a few days.  I opened the book and began reading on the flight over.  It was to be less than an hour in the air and I knew I would still have plenty of goodness left over to entertain me during surgery the next day.

Well, thankfully surgery took only 30 minutes.  The surgeon found the infection to be MUCH, MUCH less invasive than they had feared.  Mom's five day hospital stay turned into two days...and she was up and moving around almost immediately.  Due to all of those factors, I had very little time to read before my flight back home on Thursday.  So, I devoured as much of it as I could during my trip back to Houston and looked forward to finishing it over the weekend.

I mean, with reviews like this on Amazon...who wouldn't look forward to finishing it?

• "A deliciously funny novella that celebrates the pleasure of reading." 
• "And just at the point at which the reader might wonder how Bennett will ever end this wonderful romp, he surprises us with an absolutely perfect ending, which takes place on the Queen's eightieth birthday. Like the dramatist that he is, Bennett knows exactly when to stop. And does". Mary Whipple
• "There's a little treasure around every corner in this wry book. The final scene is pure theater of the absurd, and the final paragraph will probably make you laugh out loud. Highly recommended." Linda Bulger, 2008

So, imagine my surprise, shock and aggravation when I turned that next to last page only to find the FINAL PAGE MISSING!!!  Ripped from the binding with just a few jagged edges lying against the back cover.  That "absolutely perfect ending" that I still don't know.  That "final paragraph" that "will probably make you laugh out loud" and I never got to laugh...out loud or otherwise!  And lest you think I haven't been trying to finish one of the most interesting reads of the year -- I look in every bookstore I walk into for a copy.  After all, I don't want to buy another book just to read the very last paragraph!  

So, if any of you out there happen to have a copy, would you mind emailing me the last page?  LOL!