I finished reading Around the World in 80 Days last week. I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. It’s one of those books I’ve heard of all my life and sometimes when that’s the case one builds up expectations and when you finally get around to the real thing it doesn’t measure up. Well, I didn’t really have any expectations other than of just an old-fashioned, outdated story and I suppose it is that but it’s also a fun little adventure.

I had intentions of finally diving into War and Peace and actually downloaded it but last week I had occasion to use the expression, “tilting at windmills” and then thought, “You know… I have never read Don Quixote.” So I downloaded that from Project Gutenberg.

It begins with a lengthy preface by the translator, John Ormsby. He first gives a sort of review of several other translations and then a biography of Cervantes. It was interesting and informative but after several days (+/- 30 mins. a day) I was getting impatient to get to the actual book. Now, finally, I am up to the author’s preface. One of the disadvantages of the Kindle is that you can’t quickly flip though the pages to see how far you have to go to get to the next part. But I always read prefaces and I’m glad I didn’t skip this one.

I am also craving some science fiction so I might pick up something else, though I don’t usually read more than one book at a time. I still haven’t found my copy of Perdido Street Station, which I wanted to read again. I really would hate to have to buy it twice. If I do I might get the Kindle version. It would be nice to be able to use the built in dictionary. China Mieville often uses lovely, long, obscure words. I’m also looking forward to his new book Railsea but I’ll probably get that in paperback even though I hate those over-sized paperbacks (Mieville’s books almost never come out in standard paperback) because actual books are easier to share. Other than that, I don’t know. I need to just browse and see what’s out there now.