Update: Sons & Lovers and Life of Pi

Well, this is not a triumphant posting.

To start with, I've utterly failed to take on War and Peace, despite cockily declaring that I'd do so a couple of months ago. I have only shoddy excuses -- distractions leading me in other directions, etc. Since April, I've read just two books from my list: Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence.

But: I did love both of them. I've blogged about them here.

Next on my list? I want to tackle Moby Dick. Every time I pick up a newspaper or an apparently unrelated novel, I seem to encounter a reference to it. But maybe I'll tackle something shorter and/or lighter first...

Julie, Let's read this together, *Tolstoy, *War and Peace

I started War and Peace last night. I fell asleep, not because it was particularly boring, but because I was tired. I thought that I had made some progress when I saw this morning that I was on page 32. Then I realized that the book started on page 30.

So I asked myself why I would want to read something that is so painful to get started. Well, I guess it's because I feel I have something to gain from it. What that is I won't find out until later, but there has to be a reason why people love this book, and I'm curious to find out what that is. It's not particularly easy to get started writing a story either, but I do that and am always glad that I did.

I'm taking it in small steps. I'm going to commit to reading Book I, Part I right now. If anyone wants to read this with me we can discuss it on here if you'd like. I think knowing others are reading it will help me to keep going.