If you are at all familiar with the Summer of Genji reading schedule, you will probably notice that I’m a little ahead of where I’m supposed to be at this point:

940 down, 180 to go

There are two reasons for this.  First of all, I really want to finish before going on vacation in the first week of August.  Bringing a book this big onto a plane simply seems absurd.  Second, though, is that the nature of this book begs for it to be read in huge chunks.  There are so many characters, often identified only through generic, frequently changing titles, that if you stop reading for even a day, it’s easy to forget completely who you are reading about.

Plus, many of the best moments in the book consist of a subtle shift in the relationship between characters over the course of 50 or more pages.  If you didn’t read it all at once, however, it is much harder to pick up on these shifts.  I’ve noticed several times that the first 20 minutes I spend reading in the evening are slow, and at times dull.  30 minutes later, however, I don’t want to put the book down because some enthralling sub plot has begun to develop.  Ultimately, I’ve found that my enjoyment for the book increases dramatically the more of it I can read in a single sitting.

It’s worth noting that this edition of the book (Royall Tyler’s translation) helps immensely in identify characters and their relationships through footnotes and appendices.  I can’t imagine reading Genji without them!