Sigh

I find it so terribly frustrating when reading gets hard and instead of being able to fall into a book and devour it, I struggle along with a book I really want to read that should be easy but isn't.

That's what's happening at the moment. And as someone who usually tries to read a book at a time, I find myself with six books on the go, all laungishing on the shelf.

I realised today that each time I kind of staggered to a halt, saw how far the end was and started something else I imagined I'd finish quicker, while still wanting and planning to finish the one I'd put aside. All sub-consciously. Add tthe fo that the fact that I put a couple of them aside to read book group books (one of which I gave up on and one of which I decided to put aside today) didn't help.

So here I am, with a list of books where I want to read them all, but I look at them and can't face them right now.

• The Spring of the Ram - Dorothy Dunnett
  
• Prophecy - Elizabeth Haydon
  
• The Vor Game - Lois McMaster Bujold
  
• Majipoor Chronicles - Robert Silverberg
  
• The Naming - Alison Croggon
  
• Spirit Gate - Kate Elliott

Not to abandon a new habit, today I realised what the problem was and decided to start another book, but at least this time I picked one that hopefully I really will get finished. If I'm really lucky, I'll even finish it by the end of the month, bringing my reading total for May up to the grand total of four. Condsidering I was averaging around 10 or 11 a month last year, this is a good indication of how things have slipped.

I discovered Julia Quinn last year and she writes lovely, bright and often witty Regency-set romances that are a delight to read. This is her latest, The Lost Duke of Wyndham, and I decided to be a bad girl and buy it, download it and start reading it today. So far I'm enjoying myself and I'm hoping the change in diet will prove to be just what I need.

The cover for the sequel went up on Julia Quinn's website today and I must say that I like them both. It is nice to see actual faces on a romance cover for a change. Headless bodies have been the dominant style for quite a while now and I rather like to see complete people. Since I'm not a particularly visual person, I don't get a set idea in my head of what the characters look like, so I quite like it when the cover shows me. This one is out at the end of September.