"World Without End"

I am on the last part of Ken Follett's second book about the Middle Ages. "World Without End" seems to be the Book Without End.... for the simple reason that I keep having to put the book down and walk away from the story when it gets too intense. Which it does. Very often. Between the knights and the bishops, the priors and the nuns.... they all come together to make an amazing story.

I wonder, though, why the author didn't continue this book with the characters which were in the first book (The Pillars of The Earth). This volume begins two hundred years after the first book ended. He refers to the first book's characters in this volume... so why didn't he just continue on with them?

I'm hoping to finish this book in the next day or so. Oprah's next book selection will be on January 30th, so I not only want to finish "World Without End," but I would also like to read a couple of books before the next Oprah book. And I'm hoping that the next book she picks is one that I have already read--- which has happened about four times so far.

Such pressure....... so many books, so little time. (And that right there should be my biggest complaint: so many books.) What I really need to do is stay out of the library's bookstore, and stay out of Half-Price Bookstore--- both places have too many good books for just one dollar. And how can you leave them there at that price?