Coptic Cop Out

I don't like leaving book unfinished.

I don't know why this is but I suspect it has something to do with my younger years when, for reasons I can't now recall, I never seemed to be able to get more than half way through any of the Alfred Hitchcock "Three Investigator" books.

Maybe one day a psychotherapist will explain why this has turned me into a compulsive completer finisher, in the literary department, but for now it is a cross I have to bear.

And it is a pain in the meeples. Because every now and then I start reading a book which is so tedious that it slows me down to a grinding halt. My conscience will not allow me to start another until I have done my duty - but I find myself only reading a page, or worse still a paragraph, at a time and then getting bored and going off to do something else instead.

Why do I do this ? There are so many other books in the world that I'd like to read why do I torture myself so ?
Right now I am building up a huge backlog of books because I have become well and truly bogged down in "The Keys of Egypt". According to the cover this is a 'ripping tale of obsession and rivalry'. The story of the race to read the hieroglyphics.

I'm sure it is a ripping tale - but not the way it's being told in this book. I can't wait for Champollion to kick the bucket and put me out of my misery.

This should be an ideal read for me. A triumph of 17th Century Cryptography - the Bletchley Park of its day - with loads of history chucked into the mix (French Revolution, Battle of the Nile, the dynastic lines of ancient Egypt). I should be lapping it up.

But the writing is as dull and flaky as the papyrus which rotted in the Egyptian sands. (Yeah, I'm no writer either !!)

According to the Times it is a "first rate blend of high scholarship and great narrative pace".
Well I wish the pace would pick up a bit so that I can get onto my selection of Peter Carey short stories.