It has been quite a while since I have blogged. It is amazing how easy it is to get out of the habit of doing something – even something that a person enjoys doing.
I am currently reading The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts. This is a sequel to his previous book Shantaram. I purchased this book well over a year ago and it has been sitting on my shelf gathering dust. I had read Shantaram in 2006 and while I enjoyed it, for me it was a three star read. I don’t remember why I rated it only 3 stars other than I recall comparing it to A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and found Shantaram lacking when comparing the two. In retrospect this wasn’t fair as they are completely different in quite a few ways.
The other reason I have put it off is that it is 872 pages. It is a biiiiiiiiig book (and heavy). But that leads me back to my 2017 reading goals which is to read some of my big books – I currently own 74 books that I have not yet read that are 450 pages or longer. I really need to buckle down and get some of them read – I have a tendency to be concerned about the quantity of books rather than the quality/enjoyment factor, which leads me back to my 2017 reading goal.
I picked up The Mountain Shadow five days ago and am already close to 60% complete. I am enjoying this book so much more than Shantaram. The book picks up two years after Shantaram ended. The main character, Lin, is still working as a passport forger, however, things are changing in Mombai and competition is not only becoming stiff but dangerous – “The Company” is getting into drugs and guns and Lin doesn’t want anything to do with it. I hope the second half of this book continues to be as good as the first half.
So my big book project is getting off on the right footing. My next read will be a smaller book and then it will be back to a big book again.
indydriven 
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