Catching Up

It's been a very slow year for me, in terms of reading.  When I left Wellington, I packed up half of the books that I had in my "to read" pile.  So far I have only read three of them...

I blame this entirely on Wilbur Smith's "The Quest".  I started the Taita series approximately ten years ago, when a friend's father was clearing out some old books of his.  He had the first two in the series (River God, and The Seventh Scroll) and I loved them.  Several years later I found out that there had been a third book released (Warlock), and sought that out too.

At that point I thought I was done with Taita, but no.  A year or two later, I saw someone reading The Quest and enquired about it.  Yes, there was a fourth book in the series.

This fourth book has pushed me to the limits.  I am now on my fourth attempt at reading it - it was so difficult to get in to.  I am now about half way through it, and it's finally starting to get enjoyable.  Most people have suggested that if it's that hard, then it's not really worth it.  I personally think that's crap - why would I go through all of these books just to quit before I find out how they end?  It's not "too hard", it's "challenging", and my lazy brain very much needs that right now.

It doesn't help that I keep buying more books.  A couple of weeks ago an Anne Rice and two Neil Gaiman's (one co-written with Terry Pratchett) showed up.  Today I've ordered a trilogy box set of The Hunger Games...

It's not like me to be reading one book alone, so these new arrivals are a terrible distraction.  Usually I have several books on the go, and tend to leave them all over the house.  One by my bed for night reading.  One on the couch for sloth TV watching.  One in my bag for train/bus reading (though there is no public transport in the boondocks).  One in the sun room.  One by the back door for reading in the sun on the back steps...  They're all usually different genres - a bit of horror, a bit of drama, a comedy, some sort of legal thriller and so on.  I like variety.  I don't like to be bound to one thing, because my mood changes so frequently throughout the day.  So committing myself to Taita, and Taita alone, is not helping with the struggle at all.

As I said though, the story is finally becoming enjoyable and my reading pace is picking up.  Now that I'm "in", I imagine it wont be long before I'm finished, and can move on to something else in the "to read" pile that my eyes keep drifting to...