The Reader's Climb Up The Mountain Of A Big Novel

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Firstly let's a quick bit of housekeeping...literally. Barring any unforeseen disasters we'll be leaving Bridgend on Friday. Spending a couple of weeks with a friend who has kindly offered to put us up in a town called Barry until we've found a place to rent in Penarth/surrounding areas before going onward to buy.

Things are a bit tense for wife/daughter at the moment. For one of the few conditions I set out (which let me stress that wife did not object to) regarding the move was that in the extremely unlikely event of this falling through then we would have to stay in Bridgend for at least two years because the next school year would be the beginning of daughter's exam period. We are expecting this to be completed by Monday though (as I'm writing this on Saturday) and that scenario is very much worse case.

The second bit of housekeeping is, shall we well say literaturelly, as it's regarding books. The correspondence between Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson was finished very quickly. It's alright, but it's one of those books where you've got to be in the right mindset before reading. The fact that it was relatively short though helped.

Unlike the next book I'm reading.

For in another show that my Kindle has a sense of humour in my random way of picking the next ebook to read it's thrown up Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Yes,zut alors! another work by a French writer. How unpatriotic, treasonable am I? (That's for those Hard Brexiteers reading. Saves you the bother of responding).

Now this a big read. Apparently (already started reading it) I've over twenty one hours left to go before completion and it's going to be quite a while given the probable lack of spare time I'm going to have next week before I finish it. So I've picked the wrong novel really in the wrong moment and yet stubborn that I occasionally am just moving on with it.

Not all big novels are a reader's mountain. If a book is clearly written and to be read as a bestseller then though it might seem daunting the terrain is actually quite simple. Your brain can read it in first gear. There are no hidden crevices or sudden avalanches. Nothing will make you want to turn back, even slightly. But for Les Miserables (I refuse to call it Les Mis) that's not possible.

Perhaps alternate with slimmer books as I've done with normal sized books in the past (and will do so again in the future)? For me no. A book like this demands that for what it can give you must devote your whole reading time to it.

Even giving it more time to read would be a mistake. Because unless you're completely gripped ploughing into a book would eventually make it seem as if you're wading into treacle.

No the best way to read a big important book is not to change your reading habits at all. Just be patient and accept that climbing the mountain will take a bit longer. The feeling you get when you've finished though will be far more exhilarating.

So I'd better continue reading then.....

Until the next time.