In other news, David MItchell's Number9Dream is probably as good a follow-up to Swann's Way as any. At least based on the first 75 pages or so. Dreams, daydreams, and memory. I think my cat just barked in his sleep. What?

It's my first dip back into Mitchell's stuff after reading Cloud Atlas a while back (which remains, I believe, according to a non-statistical rifling-through of my mental inventory of memories, the book I've convinced more people to read than any other, fascinatingly, though I do believe Never Let Me Go runs a close second these days, natch). If nothing else, dang, it feel nice to read somewhat less than slowly. (But please don't pop-quiz me on the last fifty pages or so of Swann's. They needed to happen before my birthday, and the hours were running short and quick.)