Finishing books

As most people close to me know, I am a prolific reader. Mainly of sci-fi and fantasy books, and I am not the most discerning of readers, usually devouring whatever I pick up (probably the only really notable exception being Ian M Banks - I just can't get through the first few chapters of his books.)

I'm not a very discriminating reader - obviously, there are stand-out books that just take your breath away, but I get equal levels of enjoyment from a 'trashy' fantasy book (full of cliches, plot point a-z storyline, cardboard characters) as I do from something that is well written and well grounded.

Every time I finish a book for the first time, I have to take a few minutes to regather myself. It's not something I have to do on re-reading a story, but the first time one ends, I feel a deep sense of loss. I have been transported into another world, with characters that are as real to me as those that I meet. When something good happens to those characters, I am overjoyed. When something bad happens, I feel the emotion (to the point that I had to stop reading on the train this week as I was about to cry in public). And when the book finishes, all of that is over. I will never again get the exploration into the unknown - I may re-read the story, but it will now be familiar - I know what will happen before the characters do. The enjoyment will still be there, as will the escape into another world, but it will not be the same.

So, if you see me sitting still with a closed book in my hand, let me rest quietly for a few minutes. I will tell you all about the book shortly, but for now, I need to mourn.

Ooops

Woke up this morning and realised the problem with mid-week TV programmes - I forget about them. So I've now got to hope that Heroes turns up on Replay... {sigh}

But I have been doing a lot of reading this week. As well as Harry Potter, I've also read this week; "First Among Sequels" - Jasper Fforde (not as laugh a minute as some of his earlier books, but still absolutely brilliant!), "Desolation Jones" - Warren Ellis (a graphic novel - darkly funny, and sick in places...), "Small Gods" - Terry Pratchett (evening read - something I don't have to think about) and finished "The Dilbert Principle" - Scott Adams (another non-thinking evening read). And I've started "Day Watch" - Sergei Lukyanenko, which is brilliant already - following on from "Night Watch". I'm reading this one on the train, which means that I get approximately 20 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening - it makes the books last a bit longer!

And I'm very {headdesk} at work at the moment - I have loads to do, but it all entails being able to access the shared drives. Which are locked at the moment for moving them to a new server (we filled up the old one...). It's been going all day and part of last night (it stalled last night over an encrypted file that no-one can now find!). BLEAGH!