Look at the mighty tomes which have recently entered my house.
A friend lent me the Amor Towles, and it weighs in at 576 pages.
The Books of Jacob weighs in at a jaw dropping 892 pages.
I must confess to feeling somewhat intimidated.
Because the Amor Towles is a loan, it behooves me to read it reasonably quickly. I’m counting on a six to eight week grace period. And because I own the mighty blue book, I can take as long as I like to read it. Clearly I will not be reading it at night before slipping into sleep, because if that book slips out of my sleepy hands and falls, it will crack my spectacle frames, and probably my nose.
I’ve read, and enjoyed Amor Towles novels before, notably A Gentleman in Moscow.
Olga Tokarczuk is new to me. I have read reviews of her novels and know that she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018, also the Booker International Prize in that same year so am curious to try one of her books, which are scarce in SA and wildly expensive to order from overseas. So my Good Fairy friend C, generously brought the book with her on a recent visit to Cape Town. Presenting it to me must have lightened her luggage somewhat!
Plenty of reading adventures waiting for me on my bookshelf. Watch this space for progress reports.
THE BOOKSMITH 