On Google+, I had remarked that I should have including "reading more" on my list of resolutions. If I had, that would have provided me with at least one resolution that would likely be accomplished. I shouldn't be too hard on myself; it is still the first month. So far, I have one regret - I didn't make it to church last Sunday, and I won't be able to go next Sunday due to an out-of-town conference. Otherwise, my other goals still have potential.
Anyway, I read Water for Elephants, Bednob and Broomstick, Stuart Little, and Julie and Julia. I just started Anna Karenina. And when I mean "just started" I mean I am 20 pages in after an hour of reading. So I have a ways to go since I don't anticipate the pace to pick up much over the next 780 pages or so. But I will definitely feel a sense of accomplishment once I finish the tome; and so far I do find it interesting.
Once I finish Anna Karenina, I will likely opt for some Stephen King or some other contemporary work that should read fast. Or I may take a break from reading altogether for a while!
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Friday, August 5, 2011
Persevering through the pages
When I was in college, I enrolled in the philosophy course "Existentialism and Literature" in order to fulfill my philosophy requirement. One of the books required for the class was Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Now, for reasons I won't get into in this blog post, I didn't complete that course that semester. I did complete the course later, but with a different instructor and different books.
So, I had struggled through a third of the book before I just walked away from it. Yet I came back to it, before I finished college, in an attempt to read it for pleasure. My second attempt was no more successful than the first. The book made its way to a box with a number of other novels yet to be read (Anna Karenina, War and Peace, and the beginning of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, just to name a few). Fast forward a few years to my time in Brattleboro, and on my third attempt, I made it nearly halfway through the novel.
When I moved back to Maine, though, I took one look at the cover and made peace with me NOT finishing the novel and tossed it in the pile of books to be passed along. But then...it stayed at the back of my mind and one day...well, I guess I just looked at it as my Everest. I had to conquer it because it was there. And again, I am about halfway through the book. There are definitely moments of pure artistic genius, but it is certainly a book that requires one's undivided attention and perhaps my inability to not finish it has stemmed from laziness more than anything else. Either way, I am determined to see it through but I wonder if I am being too stubborn. Is it possible I'll regret spending so much time on this book when I finish it? There's only one way to find out!
So, I had struggled through a third of the book before I just walked away from it. Yet I came back to it, before I finished college, in an attempt to read it for pleasure. My second attempt was no more successful than the first. The book made its way to a box with a number of other novels yet to be read (Anna Karenina, War and Peace, and the beginning of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, just to name a few). Fast forward a few years to my time in Brattleboro, and on my third attempt, I made it nearly halfway through the novel.
When I moved back to Maine, though, I took one look at the cover and made peace with me NOT finishing the novel and tossed it in the pile of books to be passed along. But then...it stayed at the back of my mind and one day...well, I guess I just looked at it as my Everest. I had to conquer it because it was there. And again, I am about halfway through the book. There are definitely moments of pure artistic genius, but it is certainly a book that requires one's undivided attention and perhaps my inability to not finish it has stemmed from laziness more than anything else. Either way, I am determined to see it through but I wonder if I am being too stubborn. Is it possible I'll regret spending so much time on this book when I finish it? There's only one way to find out!
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