Is anyone else thinking that we could profitably up the pace on these novels. I am finding one a month a little slow - and I keep forgetting who people are. As we have done a full season, surely now is the time to start knocking them off quicker.
I would have thought two a month would be fine. That would leave us in good shape in finish in April as we did with Proust (well, not all of us, but close). Always best to clear the summer for other stuff.
Alternatively, we could do a season in two months, which would mean June.
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So M Garrood is in favour of ditching our gentle waltz in favour of a foxtrot... I have my concerns, not least that this may backfire into Sargeantesque humiliation.
The momentum is building, definitely, and I can't wait to get stuck into the next one, but I'm not sure this is a bad thing - anticipation is half the fun. I also quite like the fact we are doing it over a year and the incongruousness of reading spring in autumn etc etc. I'm also wary of rushing through a good thing for the sake of just getting through it rather than savouring it slowly.
True, it's tricky keeping track of characters, but how did the original readers feel, with a gap of >1 year between episodes? Powell, to his credit, does his best to refresh us on the important ones (and not in an irritating JK Rowling way either). We've always got Hilary Spurling to fall back on too.
So it comes down to a case of whether we give ourselves a bigger block of time in the summer, or more time each month before we finish. If we up it to 2 volumes per month, then I probably won't have time to read very much else during term. This would be a shame - I'm enjoying reading some shorter books between Powell volumes. At the moment I'm hugely enjoying Jan Morris' Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere. My fandom of Morris is no secret, but this, her last book, while sealing her reputation as one of the greats of travel literature is so much more than a travelogue.
Anyway, I digress - may arguments in favour of a slower pace are here. Let's discuss (in a civilised manner) face to face on the weekend. Lunch to the music of time anyone?
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