I’m surprised! In general, I think I’m far less forgiving of a book’s flaws when I’m on a plane trip. I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay on a plane and hated it; and while I don’t think I’d have liked it anyway (it turns out I’m not a Michael Chabon gal), being on a plane and unable to get away from it made me resent it very deeply.

Or a plane or a subway. Public transportation really does force you to stick with what you’ve brought.

It DOES have tiny typeface! It is the most discouraging of typefaces!

I’m a picky reader too, and I’m less and less likely to abide with boring nonsense as I get older and older. It was a combination of the bus thing, the epistolary novel thing, and having had it recommended by a reader-friend whose taste I respect.

I did, and I can imagine a world in which successive rereads render it one of my most comforting comfort reads. Like Tam Lin.

I do toooo! I read this mostly because it was an epistolary novel, and if it hadn’t been, I might have crapped out despite the bus thing. I might have just spent that time staring out the window and thinking about pelicans.

You could skip past it. The story doesn’t really get going until after that. But in fact, I don’t think you would like this book at all.

Fair enough!