søndag den 10. januar 2016

Reading Big Books | A Daily Update



Today, I'm going to embark on a new and long journey. I'm going to start reading one of the bigger books on my shelves: "11.22.63" by Stephen King. I haven't looked at the actual page count yet because I'm afraid that will refrain me from actually picking up the book, but during the past week, I've been drawn to this novel that has been standing on my shelves for over 3 years, and I have felt like now was the perfect time to actually pick it up. 

On my YouTube channel, I have stated several times that I love big books. They inspire me to read, and they allow for me to dive into a story and stay there for several weeks, getting really connected with all of the characters. However, I'm like everyone else. Big books do intimidate me, and oftentimes I need to cheer on myself for a couple of weeks beforehand before I actually pick one up. 

This blog post is going to be a daily update on my reading progress of "11.22.63". I'm going to take you along on the journey and allow for you to follow my reading experience as well as my reading speed. How long is this going to take me to get through? Will I be enjoying the book throughout, or will I be bored towards the heavy middle? Those are some of the questions I hope to get answered during my journey. 

I expect for my reading of this novel to take about 2 weeks. In 2 weeks, I'll be receiving some review books that I need to read and review before a certain date, so hopefully 2 weeks will be enough to finish this heavy Stephen King novel. But let's see what'll happen. Let's start this journey now...


Saturday 9th: Today is the day that I'm going to start reading. The book is lying beside me on my bedside table, I have a cup of tiramisu coffee steaming beside me and my cat, Zeus, lying next to me. I'm eager to get started, but I don't have tons of time to read today, so I expect to get through a few chapters and get familiarized with this new world and these new characters. First page...

Sunday 10th: It is now 11 am and I'm now on page 107. Even though the font is very tiny and the pages take a while to get through, I pretty much flew through those first 100 pages even though I haven't had much time to read. The characters are interesting, the world is fascinating, and I'm finding myself eager to get back to reading. Today is Sunday, and I'm thrilled that I have all day to dive even more into this story.

Monday 11th: I'm on page 217 and still enjoying the book very much. During the weekend, I've been able to read an average of 100 pages a day, which goes to show that I'm flying through this story. However, today is Monday and I'm back to work, so it's going to be interesting to see how much I'll be able to read in the upcoming days.

Tuesday 12th: Page 279 and I must admit I've hit a part that's not as interesting as the rest of the novel has been, but that doesn't refrain me from picking up a book and continue reading. After all, it does help to know that I'm approaching the halfway point of the book (after only 3 days of reading!).

Wednesday 13th: I'm on page 358 and at the halfway point. Last night, I read some chapters that melted my heart and put a smile on my face, and I did not expect that from Stephen King. In other words, those chapters surprised me in a pleasant way and have now made me eager to get back home to continue reading.

Thursday 14th: Page 420 out of 740. I've hit a rather slow part of the book, and I'm finding it harder to pick it up. But once I do, I quickly become intrigued with the story. Also, today I craved and ordered six new books online which wasn't supposed to happen :D

Friday 15th: Last night I had a great reading night and read up to page 555. This story is pretty slow-going in general, but then suddenly Stephen King increased the tension and I was hooked! I'm approaching the end after only 6 days of reading, and I'm pretty confident I can finish this big novel this weekend.

Sunday 17th: It is now Sunday and I finished the book yesterday morning, minutes before I had to leave the apartment to go visit my niece. That means it took me exactly one week to read this 700-bage-book - an average of 100 pages a day. As I stated in the beginning, I was prepared to spend about two weeks on this gigantic novel, but the pages flew by and I simply couldn't stop myself from reading, so I didn't.

That means that this reading journey together with you has come to an end. All in all, I guess you can say that if you grab a big book that's actually to your liking, it doesn't have to take too long to read it. Obviously, it depends on how many hours you spend reading per day, but even with work and Netflix during the week I was able to finish this one pretty quickly.

I hope you enjoyed this daily update, and if you did I may do it again some other time with another big novel. A review of "11.22.63" will be up here on my blog very soon, and until then thank you so much for reading along with me and following me on this fictional journey!



2 kommentarer:

  1. I've had this book on my shelf for a long time too. I haven't read any Stephen King yet, and I can't remember why I even bought in the first place. But your post gives me courage. I've read that there is a movie coming soon based on the book, which gives me another motive.
    Keep it up! Such a great idea to feature it like this! :)

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Yay, I got a comment :P It sometimes feels weird to write on this blog without knowing if anyone is reading :)
      Yes, I've heard about the up-coming movie/tv-show which I didn't know of beforehand. But now that I'm reading the book I'm actually quite excited about it - I think the story is very suitable for that format :)
      Happy reading!

      Slet