Reading 2 religious books at a time has slowed me down

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I'm reading two books at the moment - one at home and one at work and I'm finding them both quite a hard slog. I usually find joy in reading just about any book and I trawl pound shops and charity shops and pick up an array of books on varied subjects and just read away, but it's just not happening with theses two. I'll give a brief overview of the books I'm reading below-

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

I saw all the hype, claim, counter-claim and fatwah when I was much younger and in a way the book had always fascinated me from afar. It was only when I saw it in a bookshop last year that this fascination reignited and I bought it. I am always several books ahead of my purchasing, so it took some time to actually start reading it. And I started earlier this year. It is billed as funny, but I'm struggling to find a great deal of humour in it. The religious (or anti-religious) aspects probably don't mean as much to me as someone who is read and learned in religion but I will persevere with the book. The story is unfolding with some interest, but I find the authors style of jumping backwards and forwards along the timelines of the two main characters quite difficult to follow at times. I do therefore end up reading the same part more than once to re-understand how it fits with whatever proceeds and precedes it.

The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mohandas K Gandhi

This is a translation of the autobiography of the Mahatma Gandhi. As a fairly full autobiography, the start of the book is clearly going to be less interesting than the middle and end of the book, I will encounter the things that brought him to international prominence. Although there are some events in his early life that you can see as a hint to what will come, I don't see much of this early life story as either interesting or hugely significant. I must have faith in the author, though that these things all knit together to form a narrative that allows me to understand him and his life. I don't know whether it's from the reading of two books with religious overtones at the same time that has caused me to struggle and stall with reading at this time. I'm not in any way religious, and I will usually shirk away from religious readings, art, etc. 

After these it's back to reading a fiction book at work and a study book at home to help with the business.

I've not blogged for quite a long time and the 245 days are almost up, but the dream lives on and I can see it happening another year from now, when 245 days has turned into 611 (it's a leap year in 2016.)