Just having gotten back from swim class, I’m a little tired. I swam 2400 meters, which is something like a mile and a third, in about an hour. That’s not fast at all as far as competitive swimming goes, but I’m improving. I do love starting out new in a sport because it’s so easy to improve in the beginning. You have to work much harder to improve once you’ve been at it for a while.
Riding is going fine, but the weather has been such that I’ve had to drag out all my winter gear and remember what it’s like to pile on layer after layer in order to stay warm. Today it was cold and windy, so the ride was extra exciting — in addition to all the usual fun a ride can be, I got knocked around by the wind and was in danger of getting hit by falling branches. In spite of the cold and danger, I had a great time up until the last 20 minutes or so, at which point I just wanted to be home.
As for reading, I realized today that I’m a bit of an idiot. I was in the mood for 19C fiction and picked up a Trollope novel (The Eustace Diamonds), a novel that’s nice and fat, which is part of the appeal. I checked the page numbers and saw that the book ends at around 380 pages. That was a surprisingly low number for such a fat book, but I didn’t think much of it and thought I could read the thing pretty fast. So I’m reading along today and I noticed I was up to 180 pages, which is pretty close to the 380 page total, but I wasn’t anywhere near the halfway point of the book. I spent a little more time flipping through the pages and realized that there are two volumes, each with their own pagination, each one at about 380 pages. Oops! The book is twice as long as I thought it was. Although I should have been able to figure that out just by looking at the thing …
But that’s fine — I’m happy to be reading something long and so far the story is quite good. Why, though, would a publisher restart the pagination halfway through the book? I can see restarting the chapter numbers at the start of the second volume, especially as many books were originally published that way. But to start the page numbers over again? I don’t like that.
Of Books and Bicycles 
You’re an animal–that’s some real swimming. Sounds like it’s going great. Some one said to me once, and I believe it, that after you get in the pool and do a swimming workout (unlike running and maybe biking), you feel good for the whole day (or sleep very peacefully at night). That’s the hydrotherapy factor–water time is a wonderful thing.
And The Eustace Diamonds is a wonderful book. I don’t remember any specifics off the top of my head, and I haven’t encountered any Trollope yet in my rookie blogging year, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts. It’s interesting to plug “the postman” (Trollope) into the Dickens-GEliot-Thackeray world of the VicNovel. What other Trollope have you read/liked? It occurs to me that he’s the Brit WDHowells, perhaps. Enjoy.
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I’m so in awe of you – I don’t know how you manage to fit in all that training, all your teaching and still read chunkster novels. Amazing!
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You make me want to take up swimming, more so than biking, as I’m so accident-prone. That wind and those falling branches would just give me an excuse not to go out. And good question: why WOULD a publisher start the pagination all over again? It doesn’t make sense.
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Your post made me giggle. I would probably make the same mistake as you did with the Trollope book. Your swimming sounds as though you are doing great. I probably couldn’t go half a mile. We might have snow here Monday. If we do, it will be the first time I have ridden my bike in it. I am both looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time.
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I don’t think I have ever seen a book that has restarted the numbering halfway through the book–at least not on purpose. Strange! That would bother me, too. I would love to read a Trollope book now, but I think I have plenty of long books already in the works, so I better wait until next year! But I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say, as I’m still not entirely sure where to start (too many good recommendations people have given me). And I admire your riding in cold, dreary weather. It has been rainy here all week and walking in it has not been fun. I don’t think I would enjoy riding a bike in it (am only walking as it is how I get home from work–lol). The swimming inside would be okay though! It sounds like you’re making good progress!
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Zhiv — you know, I haven’t quite experienced the hydrotherapy thing you describe — maybe it’s still too new to me? I tend to get all worked up because the workout gets my heart rate high, and then I have trouble sleeping. It’s great at making me forget what’s gone on during the day though. As for Trollope, this is my second novel of his — I read The Way We Live Now a while back. I’m enjoying it, although I just hit a patch about 350 pages in where he introduces a new batch of characters, and I’m a little impatient with them; I’d prefer to stay with the old ones. Trollope is enjoyable, I think, but not as moving or deep as Eliot. She remains my favorite.
Litlove — thank you! The reading is going slowly these days, though; I read steadily but get through fewer pages. Oh, well, things still feel pretty balanced.
Emily — I’m glad you agree with me about the pagination — there’s no reason for it! And yeah, swimming is pretty great, and it’s indoors so the weather isn’t really a factor (except that they close the pool during thunderstorms).
Stefanie — I hope the biking went okay, if you did get snow. Will you be bike commuting all year? And I bet you could swim that far too, with some practice. I’m no expert swimmer, certainly!
Danielle — I don’t enjoy riding in the rain either and don’t do it, generally, unless it starts raining while I’m in the middle of a ride and I can’t do anything about it. Walking in the rain isn’t so bad as long as I’m in hiking clothes and in the woods! But walking in the rain on the way too and from work is another matter 🙂 I never know where to start with Trollope either, so I just pick a book randomly. Or in this case, I chose the book Jane Smiley wrote about in her book on the novel.
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