May 18, 2012

  • Week 20: War and Peace

    I finally finally finished it! I think I started it in December of last year, picked up a copy from the library and then when I went to renew it, it had been requested by someone else so I had to return it. I found a free Kindle version so I decided to get that and just slowly chip away at it on Mom's iPad. Half a year later, I'm 100% done!

    You know, it really wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. And my timeline makes it seem worse than it is. If you really think about it, I've gone through several dozen books in 2012 already. I think part of the reason it took me so long to finish War and Peace was just because it was on the iPad, and I really much prefer physical books.

    I definitely recommend you read a physical copy of War and Peace too. It's huge and unwieldy, so probably not when you're traveling. But honestly, there are so many footnotes, it's a pain to have to go look for them when you're reading the electronic version. Or maybe it's just the free version that's annoying.
    There is a lot of French in this book. Enough that you can't always figure out what they're saying by using context clues. There are conversational exchanges where both people are speaking in French.

    And the book really reminded me of Moby Dick in that there's a fictional story with characters and a plot, etc. and then there's a lot of historical and social commentary. Entire chapters of Leo Tolstoy making interesting analogies to bees, or expanding on historical accounts of the war. I'll admit I skimmed those.

    In the end, if you're not intent on reading this, then I'd skip it. Read Anna Karenina instead.