Observations
from my weekly wanderings, usually in Northern Virginia (NOVA).
I
finished War and Peace a week ago. It took me two months and change. Meanwhile,
some of my fellow book bloggers read 4, or 5, or 6, or 10, or more books.
Ordinarily,
I am quite fond of these bookish friends, but recently each time they post a book review, I feel certain they are mocking me.
To
which I reply, ***raspberries***
This
is a REALLY BIG BOOK (RBB). And what’s more – I’ve got more RBBs, ahead on my
reading schedule. Some call them chunksters (somehow, that name makes me cringe
a little), or tomes, or opus, but I am coining the acronym RBB.
Starting
with Tom Jones (2 books back) and then among the next 10 books, I have the
following RBBs.
TomJones – 346,000 words
War
and Peace – 580,000 words
The
Count of Monte Cristo – 460,000 words
Les
Misérables – 655,000 words
The
Fountainhead – 311,000 words
Atlas
Shrugged – 645,000 words
Which
is a rough equivalent of 30 regular sized books. So yeah, ***raspberries***
Oh
and, I’m also reading through the Bible – 788,000 words.
Feeling
a bit guilty about the raspberries now though ;-) Just tongue in cheek.
Oh by
the way – interesting bit of coincidence. This wasn’t planned in my reading
schedule, but The Count of Monte Cristo is almost like a sequel to War and
Peace. Historically, CofMC follows W&P, and the historical person Napoleon
plays a secondary, though significant role in each.
Interesting side note on the relation between War & Peace and Count of Monte Cristo! I think book # doesn't matter at all. It's about the experience, not how many pages you read. :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel like The Fountainhead was an RBB -- it flew by pretty quickly. So... there's hope for you?
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool observation about W&P and Monte Cristo. Maybe if I promise myself the latter as a "carrot," I can get myself to finally read the former?
anything that helps.
DeleteI alllllllllmost bought myself a copy at the bookstore this week, but ended up getting Moby Dick instead because it was a) cheaper, and b) prettier.
Deletetsk tsk...as if judging a book by it's cover is not bad enough, you stooped to judging by price tag as well. But you made me LITERALLY LOL (more of a derisive snort really).
DeleteNo wait...chortle actually. Derisive chortle.
DeleteOkay, chortle I can handle. A snort? We might've had to break up.
DeleteYeah, I know. But... MD was hardcover too, and they only had paperbacks of W&P.
OK...that saved you. My bookcase is more like a trophy case and I have to have hardcover.
DeleteI tend to upgrade books to hardcover if I really love them, or if I found them cheap. But I love too many books to buy only hardcover -- I don't have that much money or space!
DeleteRe-Reading The Count of Monte Cristo now...picked it up on a whim!May do a reverse time tale reading and re-read War and Peace after I finish Monte Cristo...sorely tempted!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving CofMC, but I knew I would. I'm anxious to see if my feelings at the end are much different than they were when I read it as a teen.
DeleteFunny...I read it the first time as a teen as well. But then I have re-read it a couple of time since then....and I still LOVE it! Look forward to your thoughts once you are done!
DeleteI really want to read War and Peace. Anna Karenina was so good. But...all.those.Russian.names. It's not the length....it's keeping track of all the names. But, soon.
ReplyDeleteThe names are a challenge, so I printed out the wikipedia list of characters and kept it handy. It helped a lot, and about a quarter of the way through, I didn't need it anymore.
Delete