I finally finished last year’s Hugo winner, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.  The paperback edition is 1006 pages long (I guess the hardback was only about 800 pages), so I wasn’t able to read it in a single sitting…or even a single month.  But I’m glad I didn’t let the length discourage me.

And even though the book is rather long, loaded with footnotes, and only intermittently filled with action, it was well worth the time.  I raced through the last 200 pages or so, wondering how the author was going to tie together the threads of the story — I wasn’t disappointed, even though not everything was neatly wound up (much like life itself).

Recommended.

I was sorting through some old papers tonight, including old tax returns.  I decided I didn’t need to save the instruction booklets, but I’m glad I didn’t just recycle them.  Until the 1994 tax year, the Feds printed our Social Security Numbers right on the mailing label; starting with that year, they moved the peel-off label (complete with SSNs) inside the booklet, at least through 1996, which is the last booklet I found.  The State of California printed the numbers on the mailing label at least through 1997.

I bet they don’t do that today.