Middlemarch by mid-September

I was feeling a little glum this weekend, for no particular reason. You know, the non-specific Man in the Chair syndrome. Well, not so much glum as a bit bored and restless.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm in quite the good mood lately, despite the alleged darkness of my recent Tuesday 200s.

Anyway, I attributed my ADD-addled ennui to bit of Big Blogger post-partum, combined with ruminations on my impending birthdayweek (another year older and what have I accomplished?*) and the prickly annoyance that nothing I've been reading has held my interest (save for Harry Potter, and surely I have more brain power than that?).

Like my friend Belle, I found myself thinking there must be more than this provincial life.

Hmmm. Isn't there a book about living in the provinces? Ah, yes ... and it's been on my to-do list for about, oh, twenty-some-odd (Cat darling, is that hyphenated improperly?) years.

Three times in the past couple weeks I've been drawn to the plight of Miss Dorothea Brooke. I was talking about her to someone at school. There was a write-up on Eliot's epic in one of last Sunday's papers. And then the other day I was hunting down MAK's most recent literary plunge and I happened across a re-release of what Virginia Woolf has called "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

Three's a trend at Bob's Yer Uncle.

Hmmmm. I live in England. I'm (more than) old enough to be considered a grown-up. I'm not afraid of Virgina Woolf. And I would like a project to keep my mind off being as old as I'm going to be in five weeks (it's the 13th of September, for those of you who like to shop early).

All right then. Synchronicity has spoken. When in doubt, return to the classics.

Yeah yeah, I've tried it before and failed, but that won't stop me. I now have a plan.

Twenty-three pages a day from now until September 12th, and I'll have Middlemarch under my belt. I'm already ahead of the curve, on page 83 after three days.

Who wants to join me?

* I know, I know. I haven't accomplished anything aside from getting a the highest grade possible in my teaching certification, starting a new job (and doing well at it), getting published for charidee, winning a silly blogging competition, and going to Africa and the Baltics. Come on, if a Virgo can't be hard on himself every now and again, then we have to completely dismiss life as we know it.

And it was only a little glum/bored/restless ... it quickly passed.