Wow, what a week this has been. We had a visitor that.. hm, let’s just say it’s not the normal way our weekends go (thank goodness!). Thankfully it was relatively uneventful and I got to spend a lot of time out and about.
Unfortunately I did not get a lot of reading done. Why? … Let’s take a minute to talk about George Eliot shall we? First of all, I’ve heard her books praised as being “Austenesque” and wondered what exactly I was missing out by not reading them. Coming off a fairly recent read of Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady I felt equipped to tackle Middlemarch. I was woefully unprepared.
I’m barely touching 300 pages into this novel, folks. I pick up my Kindle and it puts me to sleep within the first few pages. I can follow the story just fine, it’s just.. there are pages upon pages upon pages of descriptions, politics, ways of thinking and very subtle dialogue that have me going crazy! And I’m an Austen lover! And I loved Portrait of a Lady (a book which took me five days to read, and I’m approaching seven so far with Middlemarch!).
So what do you suggest? I want to read this book, I’m desperate to know the story. Flailing last night I loaded up the BBC Mini-Series by the same name and I fell asleep within the first 15 minutes! Help me here – tell me what I’m missing. Please don’t tell me to quit, I don’t want to! What do you do to motivate yourself to push through the mire and find the story you just know is hiding there?
That being said, here are my regularly scheduled highlights of the week. ( haha! )
- I’m doing a Giveaway of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver! This is a hot ARC folks, as Allison from Allison’s Book Marks pointed out in the comments. You can find the discussion on it here.
- Only one day left to enter my giveaway for The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo!
- I feel horrible, but I’ve yet to get my last Giveaway out to Sheila from One Person’s Journey through a World of Books. I can claim a good reason though, Sheila! I’ve had quite the nasty kidney attack this week but am on the road to recovery and hope to make it to the post office in the morning. It’s coming, I promise!
- I picked up Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough on a recommendation from my friendly B&N employees. Looking forward to getting an opportunity to read it!
- I have a blissfully uneventful weekend happening. Sunday on my afternoon out I plan to check out a Cuban-American restaurant I’ve been told about and relax in a coffee shop and HOPEFULLY finish Middlemarch.
So, to reiterate my question above: What do you do to motivate yourself to push through the mire and find the story you just know is hiding there?
