I've decided to record how many pages I've read as an incentive to keep up with my backlog of books to read.
First: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Published 1981 by Watermill Press, ISBN 0-89375-611-3. 520 pages.
This book was required reading for a class, but still fairly interesting. The first hundred pages or so seemed somewhat dull, but I enjoyed it more as the book continued. I have been trying to decide how reliable the narrator is; in the last hundred pages the view we are presented of Darcy especially is very different from that we are given in the first. It is true that Elizabeth was unfair to Darcy in the beginning, and we are never meant to think him quite so horrible as she does, but I am not certain to what extent Darcy's improvement is real change, as opposed to a different viewpoint presented by a narrator who is very sympathetic to Elizabeth.
Second: Lucius the Club by Michael Allen. Published 2007 by Kingsfield Publications, ISBN 978-1-903988-15-2. 44 pages.
This book is available for free download as well; it is published under a creative commons license.
The author was kind enough to send me an autographed copy of this book at his own expense, a few months ago. I am quite embarrassed to say that I didn't quite manage to complete it until just a couple of days ago; each time I thought to myself that I would spend a few minutes and read it, something came up. However, I did complete it at last, and I am glad I did. Lucius the Club isn't quite a mystery, although it might seem so to the titular character, and we, too, may be surprised by what he learns. I shall simply quote the back of the book: "Lucius the Club committed a murder - and forty years later he found out why." It's short, but entertaining; very much worth reading.
This year, then, I have read only 564 pages. Fortunately (perhaps), I have several dozen books sitting in my closet waiting for me, so I shall not, I hope, be long in increasing that number.