Ending the summer reading

I often experience déjà écrit here -- that is, I believe I've already written about something, and so I don't write it.  [And how about those accent marks, eh?]

Anyway, I had to take a long train ride, and was finally able to finish a book I've been reading a long while: The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki.  Since I walk to work and have a ten-year-old at home, I don't have that much time to read, so it took forever to get through the 660 pages, but man it was worth it.

It's somewhat similar to the Arabian Nights in that one story follows another, and stories are nested in each other to the point that you forget that you're reading a story in a story in a story.  Add to that the narrative in which the whole thing is couched, and the constant interruptions... sometimes the suspense nearly made me jump from my seat and shout something.

More often, it made me laugh out loud, which is always fun on a bus or plane or train.

Some of the stories are both funny and compelling, and the character telling the story is periodically interrupted by the ongoing "real" story, and you're on the edge of your seat wondering what in the world will happen.

If you read it or have read it, I'd love to know.