Friday, January 27, 2012

Reading Journal: 27 January 2012

Well, after abandoning the last book I started, I've returned to one I began reading back around the first of January. The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt, has been on my TBR pile for a couple of years now (it came out in 2009). And as it's quite a chunkster (almost 700 pages in hard cover) I'm likely to be reading it most of the year! I do have a problem sticking with big books -- I tend to stop and start, so it usually takes me much longer than it should to get through them. And for some reason, I generally have trouble finishing anything by A.S. Byatt, short or long.


So far, though, I'm enjoying this one quite a lot. However, it's a very dense book -- the first section has an enormous amount of information that I'm sure will be important later in the story, and (as usual with Byatt) there's a cast of thousands to get to know. Very Dickensian -- and fun, but the list of personae can get a little confusing. I've even resorted to diagramming the family relationships, so I know who belongs where:


But that appeals to the genealogist in me -- and the list-maker, too.

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Oh, and here's a little bit of "On This Day in Literary History" sort of thing. Today, January 27th is Lewis Carroll's birthday (1832).


The Alice books are some of my all-time favorites, and probably the first "long" books (well, they seemed long at the time) that I read on my own. I still re-read them from time to time.

5 comments:

  1. Alice looks quite perturbed in this picture. I chuckled at "cast of thousands". Glad you are enjoying the book and making lists.

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  2. I sometimes hate reading a book with a cast of thousands, after a while it becomes more boring than entertaining, trying to keep everyone straight in my mind.

    Thanks for the visit today.

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  3. Oh my, sometimes it really bugs me when a book has that many characters.

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  4. I do not cope well with too many characters in a book, and that is the only reason I gave up on this one.
    I was loving the storyline but not the cast of thousands!

    carol

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  5. I've been dusting off books that have been on the shelf too and came across Sarum which is 1,000 pages and realized I've been reading it off and on for about five years!
    Ann

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