Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

I'd heard that the BBC were producing a show based on this book. That got me interested and I was ready for something unusual as well. This book is set in the late 1800s during the Napoleonic wars. Magic is a real thing but no one has been practicing it in England for hundreds of years. Until Mr. Norrell enters the scene.
This book is just over a thousand pages set in tiny type (my paperback copy, anyway). The pace is leisurely but the subject is interesting and the style is old-fashioned. So I was drawn in pretty quickly in the first few hundred pages. But trying to read this at night with tired eyes, reading glasses, and small type often meant that I'd only get through about ten pages at a time. I started this book in March, got to page 750 and decided I needed a break. That break included reading about seven other books.
And then Netflix picked up the BBC show. I watched the first two episodes and thought the show was great fun. So that got me all interested again and I wanted to finish the book before getting to a point in the show that was beyond where I'd read to in the story. Those last 250 pages were read pretty quickly and, indeed, the pace quickened considerably as well. I was glad I perservered. I'm about halfway through the show now and ready to continue watching. I think they've done an excellent job with the casting so far and the pace of the show is brisk.