I wasn't lying when I said that Everything is Illuminated was going to change the way that I read literature - was going to raise my expectations substantially. Since finishing it, I have read one novel, started a series of short stories, started two other novels. Nothing has stuck (though the novel that I have most recently picked up may be worth putting the effort into reading). Nothing has inspired (though another novel that I started reading I could tell needed more time and dedication than I could offer it at the time). No author has had the same originality of voice - reading seems easy and simple.

I still don't know what to say about Everything is Illuminated though. While I was reading it and came across particularly impressive sections or chapters, I marked them. Folded the page in half, lying the outside of the page into the spine and putting a crease in the page. My book is littered with a half dozen of these desecrations. It is a practice that I have never done before - one that I have not felt the need to do again since.

I am slowly reading through these passages again. Just to give me the opportunity to really consider the novel before sharing my views with you.

The novel I have read in the interim, by Tom McCarthy, is deserving of a note or quasi-review. Expect that later this week.