Wintry Slowness

Last February, I read 17 books in a month, which is a lot for me, if not for Doreen or Laura (or indeed Jo Walton). Now, I seem to be on the opposite side of that coin. Of the three books I finished in December, one I skimmed a great deal of, one was quite short, and one was finished on the last day of the year. So far in January, I have finished one.

Normally, I know why my reading slows: an international move, a job change, some other life event. None of that is happening now, I’m just making like the trees and not doing as much in this still season at 50°N. I have started quite a few books, and mostly big ones, too; maybe that is what is going on. Dhalgren, Gnomon by Nick Harkaway, the new Oxford history of Reconstruction titled The Republic for Which It Stands. I’m nearing the end of a book-length set of interviews with Seamus Heaney, so maybe that will get the momentum going again.