Such has been the comparative silence on my blog that I can only imagine you all have been wondering what I’ve been reading (and/or doing, if not reading). This post aims to satisfy your no-doubt morbid curiosity.

I’ve been soldiering through Middlemarch. I’ve read 20 percent of the book, according to my Kindle, which feels like an incredible feat. I think I’m going to make it. But most likely not until Christmas, my new deadline.

I find you have to stagger Middlemarch with other things, however, and to that end I’ve started re-reading one of my favorite novels, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. Also, after discovering that there is a new movie version of the book Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy coming out in December, I decided I need to read the book before that happens.

My parents have an old miniseries/movie version of the story, but it’s one of those movies like The Day of the Jackal that puts me to sleep within fifteen minutes. I don’t know what it is — is it the lack of music? Long, silent, speechless stretches? The book, on the other hand, drew me in from the first line:

“The truth is, if old Major Dover hadn’t dropped dead at Taunton races Jim would never have come to Thursgood’s at all.”

I suppose it’s something about the voice that just grabbed me at the first. This month at book group they are discussing voice as a “doorway” to a novel. My book group has moved all the monthly meetings to Sundays, which don’t work for me at all (highly disappointing), so instead I hope to talk a bit about voice on the blog this month.

In other news, I’ve been traveling, and school (my final fall quarter!) started a week or two ago, and so life has felt a bit as though it was stuck in fast-forward, not entirely unlike this little photo.