I'm finally on the homestretch of what has been my hardest read so far, The Recognitions. As I have stated before, it hasn't been a bad book, but it hasn't really grabbed me either. But its thousand pages, or almost thousand pages, have made it a nearly seven week journey. That is assuming I finish it this week, which is the plan. Of course I had also stated that I could finish it by May 7th, which I've obviously missed. My new target day is May 17th...Thursday.
And it's a shame The Recognitions has come down to this. I don't think it's a bad book, but under the current circumstances, it has only become an exercise in completion, not an enjoyable or even entertaining read. Sometimes I think that maybe if I had been reading it at a different time, under different circumstances, I might not have drifted so far from it, and perhaps it wouldn't have dragged on so long. I don't really feel it is as slow or uninteresting as my seven weeks reading would suggest. Perhaps I'll have to revisit it at some point.
I think the only thing I have taken from The Recognitions so far, is a word used on page 414, 'yew.' I know the definition now, but there was a time, when I had never heard the word yew, used before. It wasn't until a game of Scrabble a few years ago, left with only two letters ('Y' and 'W') and a 20 point deficit, did I take a leap of faith and learn a new word. I placed the Y and W vertically on either side of an E, and on a Triple Word Score square. Truth be told, I had no idea if it was a real word, but I knew the 27 points would secure a victory. My opponent seemed to have her share of doubts as well and quickly called a challenge. Only after thumbing through the dictionary did we learn that it was indeed a real word, and I was able to snatch victory from the claws of defeat.
And it's a shame The Recognitions has come down to this. I don't think it's a bad book, but under the current circumstances, it has only become an exercise in completion, not an enjoyable or even entertaining read. Sometimes I think that maybe if I had been reading it at a different time, under different circumstances, I might not have drifted so far from it, and perhaps it wouldn't have dragged on so long. I don't really feel it is as slow or uninteresting as my seven weeks reading would suggest. Perhaps I'll have to revisit it at some point.
I think the only thing I have taken from The Recognitions so far, is a word used on page 414, 'yew.' I know the definition now, but there was a time, when I had never heard the word yew, used before. It wasn't until a game of Scrabble a few years ago, left with only two letters ('Y' and 'W') and a 20 point deficit, did I take a leap of faith and learn a new word. I placed the Y and W vertically on either side of an E, and on a Triple Word Score square. Truth be told, I had no idea if it was a real word, but I knew the 27 points would secure a victory. My opponent seemed to have her share of doubts as well and quickly called a challenge. Only after thumbing through the dictionary did we learn that it was indeed a real word, and I was able to snatch victory from the claws of defeat.
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