I am truly the slowest reader on the planet, I sometimes think. I am down to 100 pages left to read of Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone. As I am enjoying it, you would think I would be flying through it, but I am only puttering along slowly. In my grand scheme of the long weekend I had also thought I would get Aphra Behn also read, but time is running out. This is always the case with me though--my eyes have always been bigger than my stomach. And I find that I can't read late into the night anymore like I used to. I have to read and reread the same passages over and over again. Then I know it is time to put down the book and go to sleep. I think I tend to be more efficient when I have more things going on (during the work week) than on long weekends. I either get very lazy on long weekends, or I feel too guilty laying around reading when there is laundry to do and things to dust. Sick, I know.
I was very interested in Stefanie's post yesterday at So Many Books -- "Halfway Day". Yesterday was the halfway mark for the year. Scary to think about really. I was also interested in all the comments. Readers absolutely amaze me. This year I have felt pretty good about my reading. Most months I have been able to read on average 5-6 books (whereas before 4 was the norm for me). Other readers manage twice that amount. And here I am not even sure I will get through the last 100 pages today of Wilkie (depends on whether I drag out the vacuum, I guess....not on a holiday though certainly!). Envious I will always be of fast readers, but I will have to content myself with having read 37 books so far this year. Last year I only read 50 for the whole year. Of course we won't estimate how quickly I need to read to get all the books read that I bought this year (we won't count library check-outs), and add those with the unread books on my bookshelves, and then add in how long I will need to live...and maybe I better stop buying books. All this is too dizzying. I will just enjoy the rest of The Moonstone (am very curious how Franklin Blake is going to get himself out of the mess he seems to have gotten himself into!)--however long it takes me. And I think I am going to cheat and start reading Precious Bane--so many of you have read it! Why didn't you tell me before it was so good!
The body has disappeared! Sorry, one more thing. Yesterday when I was doing errands, I walked through the mall in my downtown where there used to be a body floating in the pond. Okay, not really a real body. I took this photo last year about this time, and I felt like visiting and seeing how it was doing, but it was gone! When I first saw this with friends last spring (well a year ago last spring), I thought it was rather freaky, but then I decided I rather liked it. And now it is no longer floating in the pond. A mystery indeed...