I'm still plugging away at the Time 100 (now with added librarian recommendations as reported on Chicagoist), though slowly. I figured out that I have 80 more books to go, which doesn't sound so bad, considering that means I've read 42. It's only when you look at some of the doozies left on the list that it seems bad. Really bad. I just can't wrap my head around reading Infinite Jest. I have to give my sister MAJOR credit for finishing it, because I can't even bring myself to read past page 20. And don't even get me started on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I couldn't even finish the freaking AUDIOBOOK version of the Fellowship, that's how bored I was. I stopped at disc 12. Out of 16. It's pathetically awful, because after that one, there are still two more. And that's not the only trilogy on the list. Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time is three volumes. That thing strikes fear into my heart.
Right now, I'm reading Invisible Man, which I can see is ever-so-important, in the scheme of books and so on; it's just that it's also fantastically boring. Is it so much to ask that an important book also be marginally entertaining? Apparently. I'm slogging my way through it as if it's an assignment for school, except that of course there is no grade (maybe we could institute a grading policy; I've always been sort of a grade junkie and always read assignments when I knew there was a grade.), which sucks big time, because I already feel as if there's too many books I want to read and not enough time to read them in. So reading things that feel like chores? Sucks.
In fact, it feels like being on a diet. A brain diet. And being on two diets at once? Awful. If I can't eat what I want, I should be able to read what I want. Oh well. Back to the grind.
It DOES feel like being in school when I'm plodding through something. I've got 82 to go, including Under The Net, which is 1/2 done.
Posted by: M | August 10, 2006 at 02:15 PM