Earlier this week I had the overwhelming desire to pick up Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and continue on. It's strange how these bookish desires will hit you, so it's best to just go with the flow. I'm about halfway through section four and finding myself wanting to pick up the book very often--not just on my daily bus ride, which is when I usually do my Anna K. reading. I'm determined to finish the book well before the end of the year and am at the halfway mark, so I think I'll be able to manage it. Kitty and Levin have finally gotten together, but Anna's husband is ready to divorce her and take away their little boy. I wonder if any of the film adaptations are worth watching? A sure sign I'm ready to read through to the end.
Aside from Anna I've mostly been concentrating on reading library books--specifically books I've requested through interlibrary loan (I always feel like I need to make more of an effort to read these since they have been borrowed from other libraries and involve more work in acquiring them). However did I end up with five books (was seven before, but I've finished a couple in the last few days)? So far I've not given into any new temptations to request more books, which is another good sign. I'm really enjoying the books I'm reading, but I'm also thinking ahead to vacation time and there are stack of my own books that are beckoning to me to read them. I'm nearly finished with Blood in the Water by Gillian Galbraith, which is the first Alice Rice mystery (I read the third book in the series not too long ago). I've just started Kate Pullinger's Mistress of Nothing, which I'd heard good things about. My copy is the UK edition, but I just discovered it is being published here in the US in January. Good news as I am finding it an absorbing read. I'm sure I'll write about the others as soon as I get to them.
I do want to mention another book I've just picked up and have just started reading. I want to read more nonfiction, and while I am thoroughly enjoying reading about Jane Austen, my copy is a hardcover and not fun to lug around with me on the bus (especially not when I am taking Anna K., too), so I took a look at my book pile and pulled out a few slender books that would be easy to slide into my purse or bookbag. In the end I opted for Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time to Keep Silence. His writing is absolutely gorgeous and I loved a Time for Gifts, so a book that once again combines travel with history and religion seems a natural choice. Specifically this is about monasteries--it is a "meditation on the meaning of silence and solitude in modern life." I'm all for silence and solitude personally, but I often feel very out of step with how most people seem to live their lives. Everyone is so totally connected to each other (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but...). There seems to be a constant flow of noise--cell phones, computers, incessant talking--even in the library where I work, that I just want to find a quiet corner and to try and hear myself think. Karen Armstrong wrote the introduction, and while the whole intro is worth reading, I will share just one small excerpt here as what she says seems so wise.
"I sympathize with Leigh Fermor, when he remarked one day to the Abbot what a blessed relief it was to refrain from talking all day long. 'Yes,' the Abbot replied; 'in the outside world, speech is gravely abused.' Our world is even more noisy than it was in the 1950s, when Leigh Fermor wrote this book: piped music and mobile phones jangle ceaselessly, and silence and solitude are shunned as alien and unnatural. We expect instant communication and seek knowledge at the click of a mouse. We are also living at a time of competing certainties and religious stridency. It is important to realize that there are more profound and authentic ways of being religious. Very few of us can be contemplative nuns or monks, but we can learn to appreciate their way of experiencing the sacred and integrate something of this gentle, silent discipline into our own lives. This gem of a book can help us do just that."
I'm reading Leigh Fermor's introduction now, and can't wait to get into the body of the book--it's quite slim--just over 100 pages, so I expect it won't take me long to get through it, though I am in no rush.
One other small note. I may be posting on a very abbreviated schedule the week of the 22nd. I've only got Thursday and Friday off but I am also taking the following Monday as an additional vacation day to prolong my weekend. I am feeling the need for a break and as I have so many books to finish (maybe I can finish Anna Karenina!) before the end of the year it would be the perfect time to get in some good uninterrupted reading. Besides, it's been very quiet around here lately and I expect it will be even more so that particular week. Five full days off sounds like bliss. I'm already looking forward to it!