Busy Times

It is downright ridiculous how busy I am at the moment. I'm sorry I didn't post anything lately, but I had to decide between blogging and sleeping, and after three sleepless nights my tiredness won over.
I have not quite survived the worst yet, but I thought I'd do a quick update just to let you know that I'm still alive.

The reason for most of the stress is that my piano class at the conservatoire is organising our annual concert on monday which means endless hours of practise, especially because I was a little lazy during the last months.
As if playing part of a huge concert were not reason enough to freak me out, I also have to host the whole evening, because the girl who should have done this originally is moving away: so the last two weeeks were filled with writing speeches, practising like a madwoman and worrying about what I should wear... I'll thank God when this whole thing is over!

As you might expect I didn't do to well with my reading, I didn't even post about The Woman in White last Monday because I wasn't able to keep up with the Readalong schedule, but I am catching up again. And I have many thoughts about this book! I am pretty sure I'll have to read The Moonstone too.

Les Misérables has turned itself into a source of frustration again, but that's not Hugo's fault this time. As you know I went through hell trying to find an unabridged German copy and finally succeeded by borrowing one from a friend of a friend of my mother. So far so good, but seemingly this woman decided suddenly that she needed her book back immediately, despite the fact that it had rested untouched on her shelves for twenty years. I had to give it back when I was only about one third through, and now I have finally given in and ordered an English copy because it is obviously impossible to read this book in German.
But of course it hasn't arrived yet, so there goes my resolution of finishing Les Misérables in April...

Nonetheless I have been reading a lot recently, even if it was not what I had planned: I have to hand in a paper in two weeks and the subject I chose is The Influence of the French Revolution on 19th century literature, so I have been a steady guest in the university library, trying to dig out the few books they have on English literature. So far I am loving my work, it is exciting and I get to write about Dickens, but it is also pretty exhausting.

I hope you are all having a less busy April and for those of you who are taking part in Dewey's 24-hour Readathon (oh, how I wish I could!): Good luck and have fun!