A few months ago, I was in my friend Kathy’s house and my other friend Nicholas told me to read The Pillars of the Earth, giving me a copy of her book. It was huge and in tiny tiny text. I mean 979-pages long.
So I took the book but then put off reading it for weeks, actually possibly for months. On another book club meeting, they asked me if I’d read it already (they wanted to have all of us sit and watch the miniseries) I told them it was soooo long. And that I would likely only read it if it were chosen for book club.
And so it was.
And, of course, being a good student, I began to read it that night. And for the next week, I basically was out of commission. I read and read and read. I kept thinking, this book is so long, I might never finish.
But of course I did finish. And when I did, all I could think of was: I’m so sad it’s finished.
It was an awesome tale told beautifully. My only complaint was that at times the author kept summarizing what happened as if I hadn’t been reading all along. Which was odd. But other than those little passages, I loved this book. It was full of interesting characters. The story moved at an excellent pace and you were so caught up in it, it was impossible not to wonder what came next. Each character was interesting and worthy in his/her own right.
Well, well worth the read.
This is on my Christmas list, the mini series was brilliant and partly filmed in my home town – I can’t wait to read it – hope Father Christmas has got me a copy lined up!!
** Kate **
I had this book for months before I cracked it too; it just seemed to heavy to carry on the bus every day. Finally I started it and couldn’t put it down. My husband’s name is Tom & he is a mason; how could I not relate to this book! I don’t have cable so wasn’t able to catch the mini series, how was it?