2 down, Book Shelf Zero is 178 books away

One book closer to Bookshelf Zero. My long slog with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been completed. I complained about the pace of this book when I was mired in its early sections. The pace of the book picked up tremendously as the story progressed. It was a very good book, but there is something about it that just doesn't sit right with me. I appreciate its originality and well crafted narrative, but it lacks some vital spark that I just can't quite express. It left me wanting, but what I'm left wanting isn't clear. Regardless of my reservations about where this book fits in my personal liking scale, it's been read. Two books down, 178 remain. 

I'm tearing through The Handmaid's Tale. Whatever Jonathan Strange lacked, this book overflows with it. Atwood's novel is emotionally intense, but I feel compelled to just keep reading. I think about how I would feel to be forcefully separated from my wife and kids. That's emotional devastation on an epic scale. But amid all this horror and tragedy, Atwood weaves in these poetic and beautiful images. The irony that a woman is writing this book about a culture in which women are not allowed to read or write has its own poetic irony. I'm curious if I would have responded so strongly to this novel if I had read it a few years ago. I've read a few books over the last few years that have catalyzed some changes I was struggling to make in my personal life. This book marks another step in that process. I read to experience books like this.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell took me a month (to the day). The Handmaid's Tale will take me less than a week. I haven't touched Boy's Life since I was in Disney World. I've promised my son that I will read a book from a series that he enjoys next. The first one was not the most exciting read but it wasn't terrible either. It will not demand my attention like The Handmaid's Tale so I will likely slip back over to Boy's Life now and then just to mix things up a bit to keep chipping away at a book that I never should have bought in the first place. Sure, Boy's Life was on a dollar, but it's taking a long time to read. It's not so bad that I want to abandon it. I just want to read something else.