So I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell. It ended rather well, I must admit, though getting to the end was a rather difficult task to accomplish. The writing was dry and the characters were dull. The ideas proposed were spectacular, I must admit. But the only problem was that you never really appreciate the book until you finish it, and that is, of course, IF you finish it. I was fairly close to giving up but managed to pull through. (Though I will admit that I did cheat a bit. A few very boring pages were skimmed through.) Now that I actually know that the story was actually going somewhere, I'm considering re-reading it. Not immediately, of course, but sometime in the future. Perhaps I will be able to see it in a new light the second time around. It was a decent book. Was it a drop everything you're doing now and read at once book? Absolutely not. But worth working through those occasionally long, dreary passages? Most definately.

I actually started another book today titled The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. The original version is actually a french novel but as my french skills are virtually nonexistent, I had to settle for the translated copies. Yes, I know, many things are lost in translation. But one must understand that translating a novel is art in itself. So I guess I could say the novel I picked up today is not the original Elegance of the Hedgehog. Rather, it is an entirely different book, a book consistenting of the joint efforts of Muriel Barbery and Alison Anderson. I'm not, in anyway, claiming that translated versions are far better then originals. I am merely saying that since I cannot fully comprehend the original French version, I would rather spend my time soaking in as much of the message I could get from the translated version then simply pass up the book entirely. I am only four chapters in, at the moment, but I'm hooked. This book is simply amazing. The language, the witty comments. Translated version or not, this book is definately worth the read. I haven't gotten this excited since the Name of the Wind.

I love reading. It's true. But at the same time I can't help but feel as if it is rather...lonely. Summer time has dawned upon us and now I find myself sitting at my desk, yearning for something to do. Technically I only have one more week to go, before my summer classes start. I'm torn as to whether I want the week to pass by slow or fast. Either way, I can't help but feel a void in my life right now. Odd, my life isn't too bad right now, guess I'm never really satisfied.