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June 24, 2004

Informatio:

I as a drop of mercury...

QuicksilverYesterday evening, I finally finished Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (You can visit Neal’s personal site here). Now, I admit that I am a tragically slow reader (and for a person who loves to read — and write, of course — this pains me to no end). But, I persist. I read when I can (which isn’t as often as I’d like) and I slowly, but surely, trudge through every book I pick up… In fact, the only book I can think of that I haven’t started and finished (at some point) is Heavy Water and Other Stories by Martin Amis — of which I will finish one day…I swear.

But, Quicksilver... Quicksilver is an epic. It’s the first volume of a trilogy and weighs in at 944 pages. And since it took me from October 2003 to June 2004 to complete, I can safely say that the entire trilogy will easily occupy the bulk of three years of my life.

Does this sound healthy to you?

But, I am being a bit extreme. I did read some other books, essays, and short stories during the past nine months — oh, yeah, and way too many Blogs. And, I calculated the average of my daily Quicksilver page-consumption at a meager three-and-a-half pages.

Three-and-a-half pages? Per day?!

As I said: I am a slow reader.

Thankfully, I have a very high opinion of Quicksilver and I can’t wait to read the next two volumes. (The only issue is the pile of books, that I already possess, that must come before volume two, The Confusion.)

Quicksilver I am not — I guess I’ll have to leave that up to the Greek god and the alchemists.

Posted at 07:24 am

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Comments (4):
I am not a slow reader, but a notoriously fickle one. That is, at any one time I am reading three or four books. Thus, it takes me a long time to finish even one. A person I used to know once criticized me for this and I apparently took it to heart as I now keep a list of books I’ve read — I’ve averaged two books a month each year since 2001. That’s going to change soon, though, as I got the reading list for one of the courses I will be taking in the fall and we are assigned 14 books. You read that correctly — 14! I’m starting now…

ashley () - June 24, 2004 at 09:48 am

If it makes you feel any better, Tim, I am an avid reader, and yet it took me 10 months to read the 1,050-page punishment that is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. (I did stop once in the middle to read another, shorter novel, but still…) I realize Rand has an ardent following, but if I were so inclined, I’m pretty sure I could edit Atlas down to 650 pages and they’d never even miss the other 400.

shepcat () (URL) - June 24, 2004 at 11:46 am

But, see… I liked “Quicksilver’! I mean, I know what it’s like to get through a book that is awful, or too long, or uninteresting, but that isn’t my problem. I’m just slow… :(

timsamoff () (URL) - June 24, 2004 at 12:55 pm

Hmm.. interesting book.. I’m an avid reader (far too less blogs atm though)... and have a very high stack of books still to read, but I’m pondering to add this one to my collection as well.. (and nr 2 and 3 too) :-)

MadJo () (URL) - June 24, 2004 at 3:59 pm

  
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