Having heard many good things over the years about Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth I thought I might give it a whirl, and I'm glad I did so. Popular fiction at its best: gripping plot, excellently researched, engaging characters (both the good guys and the villains) and lots of it at 900 pages or so. I'm around the halfway mark and keenly looking forward to finding out if Tom Builder gets to build his cathedral. Indeed, if he doesn't I'll be inclined to ask for my money back.
In contrast, each poem I read by Sylvia Plath makes sturdy demands on my concentration, and even then seems to get away from me. In almost every case I feel a distinct reluctance to move on to the next as I'm somehow letting the writer down until I achieve a full, slow, deep reading - but that doesn't always seem possible given the need to just get on with it (and find time to get back to reading The Pillars of the Earth.)
So, quite a contrast here, but I'm more than happy with it. Both ways of reading strike me as valid and sort of necessary for me as a reader. And both are extremely rewarding in their different ways.
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