The Wheel Turns

I recently re-read Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan. I first read it (as well as four other books in the series) over the summer after 7th grade. I remembered liking it a decade ago, so I decided to give it a try again.

Wow. I still love it. The beginning is a little cliché - farm boy leads a sheltered life, something big happens, and he goes to explore the world - but in a way that makes it feel like it started the cliché. The world is so well-detailed, rich and full of history. And the best part is that after finishing the 800 page book, my first thought was "I want to read the next one."

Most of my paperback purchases are made at thrift stores, where I can find books for 50 cents. This works great for building my collection, but not so well when I want to find a particular book. So I decided to give PaperBackSwap.com a try, listed 9 books, and now I have The Great Hunt on its way.

That's one thing I will miss when I become a grad student - copious time for reading. Now, since I sometimes commute from Dedham to Cambridge and vice versa, I get about 4 quality hours a week of reading time. Once I put in the time to actually get into a book, I usually start making some time other than commute time to read it, but it sometimes just takes me a while to get over that initial hurdle.