I'm sure there are some among you who read more than one book at a time. I do. I've started 3 in the past 6 weeks or so, and I'm usually not one to abandon a book, especially one I like.
I started with The Red Tent - about the only daughter of Jacob, in Old Testament times. I own the Kindle version. Then I started The Nix by Nathan Hill, which I borrowed from the library. So far, so good. The Nix is absolutely nothing like The Red Tent, and I have no problem switching between the two. But then things get complicated.
I succumbed to the offer for one free month of Audible and got 2 really good audio books. So I started listening to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. The narration is amazing and the book, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is very good.
Having put The Red Tent aside to focus on the 2 time-sensitive books, the quandary I face is the similarity between the 2 remaining books. Both are told from the perspective of an adult male who lost his mother in his early teens (one died, one abandoned the family) and alternate between the present and past. Both fall "in love" with an unattainable girl in their early teens. The books are, of course, dissimilar in more ways than they are alike, but they are similar enough that I often find myself thinking, "Did that happen to Theo or Samuel?" Does this plot confusion ever happen to any of you?
My free month of Audible has ended, so I'm paying $14.95 in a race against time to finish The Goldfinch (32 hours and 29 minutes of narration!) plus the other audio book I ordered (Homegoing) before I have to pay for another month! So I've put aside The Red Tent and will put aside The Nix (another whopper, at 737 pages!) to finish The Goldfinch.
See you next Monday!
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