It's a good news - bad news situation. As of a few minutes ago, I have officially caught up. Now, like so many others, I am sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next episode. I guess the good news is that I can get back to my own writing that seems to have been put on hold. My muse was as entranced as I was.
Thank you, Angharad, for propagating these little bundles of sweet entertainment.
Portia
Comments
How long is it?
The proper response is
"That's a rather personal question."
What? From Monty Python, it's a classic!
Really, how many hours did it take to read?
Fun though.
john in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Hours? Who's counting
I think I averaged 50 or so chapters a day. Probably three or four hours a day times 19. I guess 75-80 hours would be about right.
Portia
Portia
It took
slightly longer to write, even with Bonzi's help.
Angharad
Angharad
Statistics
There's now a statistics page in the Bike archive (link below) listing approximate word counts for each segment.
So, Portia would have read about 1.3 million words in 80 hours, or 16,250 words per hour, or about 271 words per minute. Good going!
There are some authors here, of whose works I struggle to read the first one or two paragraphs, and certainly don't bother finishing. I think it's a tribute to Angharad and the engaging nature of her work that people can and do read themselves current. It also shows me that unless you can quickly capture a reader's interest, you've probably lost them for good.
Perusing Stats
Bike Archive
Bike Resources
Three weeks on Bike
And not a saddle sore anywhere. I had originally read it up to about chapter 20 and stopped because it was really causing my anxiety to melt down. Then when it got to somewhere around 600 or so sat down and read it through as a novel. It is astonishingly good writing; so realistic in some ways. And, in the tense parts, I could simply keep reading and get past it.
The sections where Cathy was defending the Castle and her home with a bow were quite charming, though I find the attitude of the Plod really strange toward self defense.
Cathy's personal pilgrimage was really instructive for me. There was a large part of it when I would have cheerfully given her a flogging over her interpersonal relationships, but now I notice that she has become much more balanced and kind to those around her.
It took me about three weeks to catch up. I found myself sort of "living in the book" the way I have in the past while reading an Elizabeth Haydon book. David Weber, and Asimov both had the same effect in my life.
All in all, great fun what!
Gwen