Post-book meh

As expected, I raced through The Pillars of the Earth. And I loved all 976 pages of it. And I was gutted when it ended. It was entirely what I was hoping it would be - an epic saga (similar to Edward Rutherford's London). I sometimes have trouble keeping characters straight in books like this (see: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell), but Follett introduced them slowly enough and with plenty of description so I managed to keep them all separate.

The sequel (World Without End) is waiting for me on my nightstand, when I finish The Book Thief. Poor Book Thief - it has the misfortune to follow a book that is now in my top 10, which means that I'm spending most of the time reading it wishing it were something else. Oh well, some book has to do that, and I don't think I would have liked it much in any case.

We went to a BBQ at our across-the-street neighbors last night - they managed to get themselves organised and invite a bunch of neighbors over all together. We've been meaning to do it for ages but the inertia is just too strong! We met some new people from down the street and got to catch up with other neighbors who we really should talk to more than we do.

We took the small boy on a bike ride today, up to Mendlesham Green. 5 miles each way, and on country lanes the whole way out. We decided to do a loop rather than backtracking, and were on roads with a few more cars on the way back. James is so much better at riding than he was a year ago - the wobbles are few and far between and even the whining from last weekend (It's too FAR, Daddy!) has diminished.

We watched Stardust again this afternoon after the bike ride - I'd forgotten how much I loved it the first time around. Definitely a keeper.