book: jonathan strange and mr norrell

It took me a long time until I had the energy needed to read this book. In fact, it took a temporary job sitting in the sun to finish the book. Anywhere up to a year ago, Sarah lent me this book to read. I read maybe the first chapter, but nothing more. The book is huge! I believe it's at least 700 pages, and there are included footnotes, and the typeface is not large.

But, I was not allowed to listen to books as I worked security, so I decided to take the huge tome with me as I worked security at the gates during Stadium of Fire.

The first day I worked at 6am (in theory, at least) until, well, I don't remember when. I was stationed at gate one with a grandma who wanted to talk about her grandkids, and how she doesn't read anything unless it comes from Deseret Book.

I didn't go there.

Oh, and she didn't like fantasy. So, the common ground was quite small. It consisted of my reading of Work and the Glory, which I had read in the sixth grade. Still, she wanted to chat. This meant my reading time was limited, but it was enough to get me hooked in the story.

The second day I worked 10-3pm, alone, at a gate with very little thoroughfare, so I read a LOT. I believe by the end of the shift I had gone through at least 500 pages. Stadium workers who would go in and out of the same gate would occasionally check my progress and were impressed. And they were worried that I was bored.

Any other self-respecting book would have been finished by now, but not this one. It took an all almost all nighter that same night to finish, but finish I did.

One of my major complaints about books, well, more especially about movie adaptations about books is that the powers that be feel the need to spice things up (translation: dumb things down by blowing things up)

This book did not have that. It was refreshingly unexciting. It was real life. They just happened to be magicians. Other than the magic part, there was nothing in the book that we ourselves could not have experienced!


Bottom line: If you have the willpower, read it. Faerie now makes sense, well, at least more sense.