I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

I've past the halfway mark of The Adventures of Augie March, which really isn't anything too special; I should have finished it long ago. It's a tricky book to figure out. I enjoy reading it, but when I put it down, I don't think I would be bothered if I never picked it up again. It's hard to explain, but it's like I'm interested in the argument, but not interested in the conclusion.

I can't think of any other books like this on the list so far. There are ones I have no desire to pick up again, but I also didn't enjoy reading them in the first place. Again, I enjoy reading this book, but it doesn't have a hold on me. It's like watching Jeopardy; you're interested in the current question/answer, but probably wouldn't lose sleep if you never saw who won that day.

I also realize this is a theme that has been going on for almost a year now, where my progress has slowed to a book every couple of months. It occurred to me today, that I may be tired of reading the list. I'm still enjoying the books for the most part, my previous read American Pastoral was one of favorites so far, but I don't seem to have the same enthusiasm for reading these books as I did a couple of years ago. More often than not, I've been cheating with non-list books, and in a way avoiding any progress with these final 30 books.

To be honest, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to regain that enthusiasm. I want to keep reading, and haven't ever entertained ideas of stopping, I just can seem to find a rhythm where I read more than one book in a month or two. I look back at the summer of 2011, and wonder how the hell I finished ten books in four months. At that stage of the list, I was able to power through books I didn't enjoy at all, more slowly perhaps, but I still finished them in a reasonable time frame. Infinite Jest and The Recognitions, two gigantic books I didn't enjoy at all, were both finished in less time than I've already spent to get halfway through The Adventures of Augie March.

Maybe reading this list is a bit like finishing a big meal, and I'm at that stage where I'd like dessert, but I'm too full from dinner and need to wait a few minutes. Let's go with that.

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