Derailed

My reading list for July has been derailed by chance encounters, as so often happens. The day I finished Housekeeping, I ran into neighbors bearing books. One gave me Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, which I’ve started. Another put The Great Influenza by John M. Barry in my hands, and I’m a good bit into that; as the son of an epidemiologist, I couldn’t resist that one. And then I found myself at Bought Again Books with a bit of birthday money in my pocket, and I wound up leaving with A.S. Byatt’s Possession, which I’ve enjoyed the first few chapters of.

In short, I’m enjoying a bunch of books I had no intention of reading. But that’s fine. Gilead isn’t going away–it’s just another pleasure deferred while I attend to things unlooked-for but welcome.