Fickle and Mathematically Challenged

Books I Wanted To Read Today:

Ghost Story, by Jim Butcher

Daniel O'Thunder, by Ian Weir

Round Heeled Woman, by Jane Juksa

First You Build A Cloud, by K.C. Cole

Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training, by Tom Jokinen

A Nomad of the Time Stream, by Michael Moorcock

Dead Iron, by Devon Monk

Johannes Cabal the Detective, by Jonathan L. Howard

Benighted, by Kit Whitfield

Hounded, by Kevin Hearne


Books I Read Today:

Troubles, by J.G. Farrell

I knew this would happen, but I'd hoped to make it more than ten days! This in no way means that I am not enjoying 'Troubles' - I am!! Loving it! Reminds me a bit of Monty Python, sometimes! - it just means that I am a fickle reader. Probably a fickle person in general. The important thing is I successfully resisted the temptation to read a non-Booker. Even though, technically, I started reading Ghost Story before I started my Booker challenge, so I should really finish it. But then, I'd be finished it, and I would be sad.

I was feeling very pleased with myself on Sunday, being ahead of schedule and all. The reality is, Elected Member may have been one of the easiest books I've ever read. And I like 'cozy' mysteries! Now, I have only four days left to finish 'Troubles' and I'm not yet a third of the way through it. Two of those are work days. I admit, I'm feeling a touch of nerves. Goodness help me when hockey, knitting club, and all the good tv series start up over the next month! What on earth possessed me? How will I manage to focus with so much delicious entertainment tempting me?

I've been thinking that audio books may hold the answer. I always feel like I'm "cheating" when I listen to an audio book, but it would allow me to use my knitting time to sneak in extra stories. I wouldn't lose any of my valuable reading time (I'm looking at you, T.V.! No, wait... that's the problem!) but I would still get to, well, Cheat. No decision yet, but I will keep you posted.

Before I forget, I wanted to apologize. It seems that I am terrible with numbers, and I've had to go back and correct a couple of my previous posts. Not sure if you noticed, but I counted the days wrong on one post and got the year of 'Troubles' wrong in my last post. Yeesh, you'd think I failed tenth grade math. Twice. Anyhow, I'll try to proofread more carefully in the future. Wish me luck on That!

'Troubles' is keeping me very entertained, at the moment. I never thought it would be so funny! I've laughed aloud more than a few times, and I've read bits out loud to share the funny bits too. The Major has a habit of commenting how "Irish" things are whenever it gets a bit mad or daft, and that makes me laugh every time. Of course, it's also dealing with rather serious matters and I find I spend a lot of time thinking about the politics of Mr Farrell (and the Major!). The Troubles (historically speaking) are very much Catholic Irish versus Protestant English, and Farrell makes that very clear. But the Major seems weary of strife, and even indifferent to the struggles going on around him, completely worn out from the "Great War". The only emotion he seems to have toward the whole affair is disgust. Despite that, my overall impression is of support for the Sinn Fein. Maybe that says more about my politics than the book, time will tell.

I am excited that this is the first in Farrell's Empire series - and the second of the series won the Booker prize as well, so I get to read that in a few weeks! I'll have to wait until next September to read the third, though. Or more likely April 2013, the way my reading list is growing!