I finished Inversions earlier in the week. It's the fifth book that I've read of the Culture series. The reviews complain that this book wasn't really a part of that series as there are no massive star ships or sentient drones. Those things are part of the story, we just don't see them. We get to experience the Culture from the outside. It's a very clever way to add depth and significance to a sprawling space opera.
I was reading a library ebook while wrapping up Inversions, but my loan period ended before I could finish it.That doesn't mean that I wasn't able to finish the book, Outline by Rachel Cusk, though. I have an old Kindle Fire that has been sitting in a kitchen drawer for years. I've gone back to it after getting a crack in the screen of my phone. I was able to keep reading my expired book on this device right up until this morning when I finished the book. Assuming this wasn't a one time fluke event, this could be a very handy hack for taking some of the pressure off of my library reads. Getting these books from the 21st Century canon via the library has been a great way to expand my reading breadth without buying a bunch of books. I just skimmed the surface of Outline. That book was deep while being well written and a pleasure to read. It's the first of a trilogy. I will make an effort to go deeper on the next two volumes (I already have a hold on book 2).
That additional time could be handy as I start reading the next book in the Old Man's War series. My wait for book 3 wasn't as long as my wait for book 2, but that doesn't mean I want to let my loan period end without finishing the book. These are pretty quick reads so I don't feel like I will have too much pressure to get it done before my loan period ends, but knowing I can go a couple of days over will be helpful if my reading motivation wanes around running my second marathon ever, the Marine Corps Marathon in DC, this weekend.
While my next ebook selection is clear, I'm a bit up in the air about which print book to read next. My first thought was to pick up one of my long neglected Dickens books. Every year I say I'm going to read another of his major works, but they just never seem to rise to the top of my reading pile. Committing to a Dickens book is not a trivial matter. The books are thick and usually start slow. They get very rollicking by the end, but getting to that point can be a bit of a drag. Overcoming this kind of inertia is exactly the point of Book Shelf Zero so perhaps now is the perfect time to make a move on one of these monsters. Martin Chuzzlewit was a big part of The Eyre Affair so I was thinking of reading that one next. Dombey and Son is just so damn long (I made it about half way through that one before bailing on it several years ago) and my previous attempts at Oliver Twist have never gotten very far. Little Dorritt is also an option, but I really have nothing compelling me to read about people in a debtor's prison. Maybe I'll just go with the shorter of Martin Chuzzlewit and Little Dorritt.
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