Word to the wise, don't pick an 800+ page Russian novel to kick off a goal to read a book a week. It will take longer than a week to read. I heard a theory once that the reason Russian novels are so long is that the authors had all winter to write their books and the readers had all winter to read the books. As a result, they could write incredibly complex, long novels and still sell them. After reading this book I totally believe that theory.
It literally took me a month to finish this book. Sure, I read the entire Percy Jackson series for one of the weeks in there, but really... it took me a month. To be perfectly honest, it didn't really inspire me when I was reading it and it doesn't really inspire me now. Maybe it's just that the bar was set too high. Anna Karenina is one of those books that you always hear about in connection with Literature. The kind you know you're supposed to read and think about and then write a 20 page paper about. You imagine that you're going to learn the secret to life by reading this book because heck, if it's so thick it had better have the secret to life hidden in its pages.
Unfortunately, I felt like this book was the opposite of everything that it was supposed to be. The story dragged on and on. I felt like the author was so busy telling the story that he couldn't go into any depth about what was going on--it was a mile wide and an inch deep. As a result, I didn't feel like it raised any thought provoking questions. I was just glad when the book ended and I could check it off my list. I can now say I've read Anna Karenina.
Don't you hate it when books disappoint you like that?
1 comment:
I love the name of your blog and everything it stands for! I also love the fact that I can have an honest opinion about some books that I may never read; because being an English teacher gives me little freedom in my book reading time. I'm glad we are reconnecting old friend.
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