jimstoic’s Reviews > In Search of Lost Time: The Complete Masterpiece > Status Update

I'm hoping to finish reading by April 5, which is an important day in my life.

I'm picking up speed, partly by giving up on the New Yorker, which I'd previously read one day each week, and partly by spending more time reading.

I'm halfway through in both pages (2,100/4,200) and books (3/6--this edition treats "The Captive, The Fugitive" as a single book). While not as dull as similar passages in various scriptures, the genealogical parts of "The Guermantes Way" made it difficult to maintain the momentum of my reading. Book Four, "Sodom and Gomorrah," seems likely to remedy that.

I remain fascinated. It occurred to me recently that the depth and extent of the novel, in combination with its autobiographical nature, make reading it something like downloading the author into one's mind. There are very few people with whom I've shared as many quiet moments, and of them, even fewer who have expressed themselves so eloquently.

924 pages down; 3,360 to go. It's such a pleasure to read that it saddens me to think of finishing. At my current rate, I'll finish next January.