Reading is awesome.

I love reading. I love reading books, websites, newspaper articles, blogs and on occasion some of my own crap.

I love me some good writing.

What I don’t love is the feeling that I’m never going to reach the end of a book.

I have that feeling right now.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve had that feeling since August; early August to be more precise.

Why do I feel like I’m never going to reach the end of my book, you ask non-existent readers of Pushing the Quill (note: except for you TPN, you exist!), well it’s because I have been reading it for two full months and I’ve still got roughly a regular-sized book left to read.

I’m currently reading the uncut, unabridged, totally-long, super-awesome version of Stephen King’s The Stand.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the plot—stolen from a sketchy book report website—for those not in the know:

“The Stand is a thrilling, post-apocalyptic novel that portrays the forces of good against evil. In the year 1990, a plague strikes America, leaving only a few thousand people alive who are “immune” to the epidemic. Of the survivors, those who serve God instinctively join in Boulder, Colorado, while those who worship the “Dark Man” are drawn to Las Vegas. The two groups separately re-build society in their own unique visions for the future, until their inevitable confrontation.”

Okay, so that rather poorly-written synopsis isn’t great, but the book is pretty damned awesome.

The problem is that it’s also incredibly detailed. Stephen King isn’t known for his ability to wrap things up quickly which is why the originally released version of this bad-boy clocked in at roughly 800 pages. This version pushes the page count up to roughly 1,200 pages.

It’s a little intense.

The problem has been my non-stop schedule in recent months. I’m lucky if I can find time to read a couple nights a week, sometimes I go an entire week without reading and there are so many characters it takes a long time to reorient myself.

The good news is that the book has just reached is crescendo and we’re now running headlong for the denouement. The end is in sight.

I’ve been keeping tabs on all the books I’ve read this year, as part of my yearly reading goals and it’s been a sad gap in between books thanks to the extensive amount of time it’s taken to get through The Stand.

I figure if I make enough time to read in the next couple of days, I can finish that bugger off by the end of the weekend and spend Monday watching the mini-series version of the book that Grace checked out from the library for me.

The mini-series inexplicably stars Molly Ringwald which automatically makes me question what I’m getting myself into, but I figure if I’ve spent this much time with this book and these characters, it only makes sense to see it all the way through. Right?!

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to come on here and brag about how close I am to finishing that gigantic beast of a book. Well there’s that and the fact that I really couldn’t think of anything else to write about today.

Either way, I’m almost done.

w00t

PS: I totally recommend the book if you’ve got the time/patience/interest to give it a whirl.

PPS: I’m also accepting recommendations for what my next book should be, preferably something much smaller and easier to digest.