One of the good things about being broke for the past year is that with no money to spend on the things that could be fun to do I was able to catch up on my reading list. I have a fairly lengthy waiting list that sits next to the bed, mixed with magazines that must be flipped through in between novels. I just checked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell off of the list. It’s not just a book, it’s a Book with a capital B to the O-O-K. It took me about 400 pages to really get interested in it and the only reason that I stuck with it that long was because, well, I wasn’t reading anything else and the stomach flu knocked me so hard on my ass that, it seemed too much effort to walk all the way down the hallway to choose something else of interest.
It’s 700-something pages and on the back cover, reviews from legitimate sources claim it’s in the genre of the Hobbit and the next great work of fantasy literature. I’m not sure if they were reading the same book that I was reading. I mean, it was good, but far from brilliant and comparing it to Tolkien. Well, that’s just plain silly. One of the things that I did really love and also hate about the book were the massive amount of foot notes, some spanning 3 pages.1
I loved the Fairy lore too, although to me the book was more about the struggle of ego than magicians and fairies. If you read it, drop me a line, I’d love to know what you thought. 2
1. I both love and hate foot notes in general. Love - because I constantly an punctuating my thinking patterns with other side thoughts before coming back full circle again, so it sort of reflects the way that I think, but hate, because I feel obligated to read a footnote immediately, which disrupts the rhythm of my reading and pisses me off.
2. Jorma’s read it too and thought it was just too damned, “English”
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