Still not a lot to say, but

as a result I finally finished reading 'The System of the World'.
I read a few pages at a time when I bought it at Christmas and, as with the first two books of the (huge) trilogy, thought god, this is hard work. Did the same again a few days later, then a hundred pages or so and found that a bit too much. But kept coming back and read the last 400 odd pages last night. If you like that kind of hard work reading, it's totally absorbing. The plot is spread a bit thin over the 860 pages (and the main plots if there are any) are even airier, spread through the whole trilogy.
But at the same time there's this wonderful rich, dense, claustrophobic detail about the world in between the late 16th and early 17th C. Sewers and criminals and cities and their governments and celebrities crowd the pages and are juxtaposed with ascorbic wit. There's a feeling that you're actually wading through a stew of history. With sudden voice-overs and close-up shots of kings and Queens and Isaac Newton! I've no idea if the history is accurate! It feels real.
Well I love it.

Barney must be cooking.