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Sports bag full of borrowed books
Mar. 9th, 2004 01:37 pmThings I should have learnt long ago: borrowing really thick books from the library is a serious error.
The book in question is The Dutch Republic, a serious, but immensely readable (once you get past the first hundred pages or so), tome on the history of the nation in question. It also happens to be 1263 pages long (not 263 as the link suggests). It's not the length per se that's the issue: in a normal week I read more than half that, and the library lending period is three. No, it's the sheer weight of the thing.
I do a lot of my reading on the move or in bed. Lugging around something that heavy in my bag would be bad enough in itself, but combined with a laptop it's a recipe for back grief. So, no reading on the tube/bus/train. Bed is similarly problematic in that I tend to curl up on my side holding the book in one hand. When it's this big my wrist starts aching after about ten minutes.
This loss of reading time is compounded by the fact that I have to have another book to read on the move/in bed, which acts as a frivolous distraction, drawing me away from the sober doings of the Dutch, even when I can read about them in comfort.
The net result is that I'm only a quarter of the way through the book and already halfway through the lending period. At this rate it'll be touch and go whether I finish it before the end of the now inevitable extra-time blessing of a renewal.
Bugger. I really hate returning involuntarily unfinished books.
The book in question is The Dutch Republic, a serious, but immensely readable (once you get past the first hundred pages or so), tome on the history of the nation in question. It also happens to be 1263 pages long (not 263 as the link suggests). It's not the length per se that's the issue: in a normal week I read more than half that, and the library lending period is three. No, it's the sheer weight of the thing.
I do a lot of my reading on the move or in bed. Lugging around something that heavy in my bag would be bad enough in itself, but combined with a laptop it's a recipe for back grief. So, no reading on the tube/bus/train. Bed is similarly problematic in that I tend to curl up on my side holding the book in one hand. When it's this big my wrist starts aching after about ten minutes.
This loss of reading time is compounded by the fact that I have to have another book to read on the move/in bed, which acts as a frivolous distraction, drawing me away from the sober doings of the Dutch, even when I can read about them in comfort.
The net result is that I'm only a quarter of the way through the book and already halfway through the lending period. At this rate it'll be touch and go whether I finish it before the end of the now inevitable extra-time blessing of a renewal.
Bugger. I really hate returning involuntarily unfinished books.