Slooooooooooow reading week last week – my goodness. I spent the entire week over Invisible Man, only finishing it up on Sunday evening (late, nearly 9:00 p.m.!) and turning with great relief to the mystery novel that had been calling to me for days. I think there were three contributing factors that slowed down the reading speed:
- I really struggled to get through Invisible Man, largely – I think – because of the magical realism elements, which I can never quite get my arms around. I’m most comfortable reading in the realm of realism, but I can get on board with a completely fantastic realm (like Hogwarts, Narnia, Middle-earth, Fillory, etc.). Magical realism, though, always seems to flop for me – unless it’s really short, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. At 577 pages, Invisible Man was a doorstopper and the magical realism elements were just rough. I did love the writing style, but I plodded through the book.
- Work has been especially hectic lately. I took on some new responsibilities recently and last week was the first week of that transition. It’s exciting stuff but definitely left me a bit spent by the end of the workday.
- I hosted my parents and their friends for dinner on Saturday and a fun day out on Sunday, and that ate into reading time a bit – between preparing for guests and then all the fun we had hiking at Great Falls Park and walking Embassy Row. No regrets!
I am hoping for a more productive reading week this week. To start, I’m really excited about Death in Captivity – a murder mystery set in an Italian POW camp during World War II, interwoven with a story of an escape plot. I’m only about fifty pages in (see above, just started it late yesterday evening) but it’s already so exciting and I’m enjoying it tremendously. I think I’ll still be in a mystery mood for a little bit longer, too – fall is always a good season for mystery reading, although really, every season is mystery season in my library – and I have my eye on a couple of Josephine Tey novels next. And then who knows – the bookshelves are my oyster.
This view never gets old!
What are you reading this week?
covered in flour 
I’m struggling with print reading again. In the car I’m finishing The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie–not sure what I’ll listen to next.
I hear that – I definitely go through phases where it’s harder to sit down to a book than at other times… audiobooks are great for those stretches. I love listening to Agatha Christie on audio! Hope you’re enjoying The Seven Dials Mystery – I don’t think I’ve read that one, although I read a bunch of Christie in high school and often can’t remember which ones I’ve read and which ones I haven’t.
Oh Seven Dials was well worth it. My review will be up soon but I don’t reveal any spoilers.
Nothing better than a read that’s turning out well!
So true!!