(no subject)

I thought Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt would take me a week to read; it took me two. The subject matter (watching your lover sicken and die and then living with the consequences) turned out to be heavier than I expected and closer to home. Also, there's a major shift of setting halfway through and it took me a while to get into the new milieu and characters. There isn't much slang and most of the neologisms are borrowings from the American, but even so I stumbled a bit more on the language than I'd expected to. I need to read more from this century.

Next I plan to tackle Dialann deoraí. The chapters are mercifully short and I've actually been reading them sporadically for a while, but I want to make this the book I take with me to and from work so I won't be so tempted to keep stopping to look words up. That probably means rereading a lot of paragraphs, but so be it. I also saw that a more recent Irish novel on my wishlist was only $2 and change (plus the $4 shipping), so I went ahead and ordered it. Maybe by the time it arrives next month I'll be ready to start reading it.