read, read and read some more

It might be time for me to stop watching TV and reading blogs.

However much I love, love, love these activities, there is the inevitable fact that it means I read less books. And I have realised that if I am to successfully study English I have to read a lot more.

So I have devised a new system in which for the first time ever I plan to finally manage to read two novels at the same time.

In morning and afternoon I carry Lolita with me on public transport. That gets me through about 40 pages a day; sadly, I seem to have become a slow reader. Then in the evening I settle down in bed with an untransportable Middlemarch, which has definitely managed to entirely cure my insomnia.

Scattered on my desk are the books on which I am currently writing a life-devouring essay. There is also my abandoned copy of Visions of Gerard, just because I love it.

In my bag is the discounted early Charlotte Bronte short novel I bought for £2 off. Doesn't it look pretty?

Slight panic set in today after the excitement subsided when I took delivery of a free set of books of Shakespeare. Free, because they are part of an essay-writing course.

All these books definitely create the feeling that I am reading, reading and reading some more, even if Lolita is the only book I am actually reading at all. Oops.