Reading Journal

The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time by Simon Winchester


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In the beginning, he says that he intends to go back into the history of China as he travels up the Yangtze. He didn't, which was a disappointment as I was rather looking forward to learning some Chinese history in such a unique way. Instead, I was flooded with information from whatever period of history was most eventful for the locale. Which probably wouldn't have been so bad if that's what I had been expecting.

Overall, the book and the stories were interesting, but I could see the editors and proofreaders started getting tired around page 300. I certainly can't blame them. The middle was rather dry.

If you're into travel writing, you might like it; if you're into Chinese history, you probably will; if you're not into either of those things, you'll get bored just after the page of no return.




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Reading Journal

I need to hurry up!  I want to have Mirror, Mirror finished before I do the Day Without Mirrors challenge next week so I can incorporate my review into my reflections on the challenge.  (Pun partially intended.)  But I am literally 75% done with my China book.  I'm on page 300 of 400.

Guess that means no Candy Crush for a while, huh?  (Yeah, I'm addicted.)
When I get behind like this, I like to set rotations because I feel like I work faster when I multitask.

So I'll probably read Mirror, Mirror on all my lunch breaks (it fits in my purse better).  At home, I'll use the following rotation*:
China to a stopping point (chapter or page break)
Mirror, Mirror to stopping point
China to stopping point
Rinse (do something else, like housework, work on a church lesson, text/play on the phone) and repeat.

Heck, I should be doing this rotation, anyway, right?
*Reading may be done during commercials of shows I happen to watch, such as Jeopardy, the news, WoF, Community, Liberty's Kids, and Castle if I'm still going on Monday.