A new experience (or keeping 3M in business)

I’ve been reading Janny Wurts’ The Curse of the Mistrwraith with the Beyond Reality group on Goodreads. I’ve already mentioned my disquiet about the book, but reading with the group and the author is proving to be a fantastic experience as there is such a wealth of detail and beautiful writing in the book and this is bringing it all out. We’re doing three “chapter sets” a week, which has been a great pace so far, but I do seem to be speeding up this week.

(As an aside, I have now remembered why I stopped on my original read and I am nervous to see if I have the same reaction. Hopefully I’ve matured enough in the intervening years to go past that and have faith in the final conclusion.)

Anyway, I started out writing notes as I went on my iPhone, but as the CFS tiredness hit again, that got to be too difficult. So the first three chapter sets have notes on the iPhone, while the second three have none. Neither of these options really worked for me. I couldn’t keep up with the notes I wanted to make, especially as I had to tap out any quotes in full and that was tiring (it also felt too much like homework). But I didn’t want to have no notes at all, because there is so much going on that I want to savour and remember (and because I have such a sucky memory I can see myself in later books trying desperately to remember that thing I’m sure is so important but don’t recall at all).

So I resorted to a tried and true solution, but one I’ve never used before myself.

(Yellow is for notes, blue is for quotes.)

That’s not quite two chapters worth as I started today with the post-its at the beginning of the third group of three chapter sets. I think I’m going to go through a LOT of post-it notes. Still, I’m sure 3M will be perfectly happy for me to keep them in business.

Onwards I shall read. There are lots of “ah-ha” moments already in 250 pages of a fat book that is the first of eleven, so I’m sure I have much rewarding reading ahead of me (so long as I can get past that thing that bugged me last time and that I’m not going to mention for risk of spoiling anyone).

But see Janny, look what you’ve made me do! I never, ever, ever would have imagined I’d turn into a post-it note kind of reader.