Tuesday, March 27, 2012

March Reading UPDATE: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

I've tried. I've really tried. Challenging books do not intimidate me. In fact, I love reading "brain food." So it's part of my 2012 challenge to myself: read one classic per month.

In March, I decided to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. And I'm only 22% into the book [on my Kindle]. You know why? Because it's totally boring, that's why. It makes a much better musical than it does book. There's a reason for my boredom: the writing style. It's a remarkably compelling story, when Victor Hugo is actually telling it. The problem I'm having is there's so much exposition & description of France at the time that my eyes start to cross as I'm reading it.  Right now, I'm hung up on the Battle of Waterloo... which I entirely don't care about. I want to know about Jean Valjean & how Javert tracks him for life. I want to see the great fall of the Thénardiers & how Eponine grows up. When Victor Hugo is telling me this part of the story, I'm 100% in love with the book. But when he's off on a tangent, talking about all manners of things I don't care about, my mind begins to drift & I just stop caring.

As a side note, the story itself is super-depressing. I've been in a good/happy mood lately, so it could also be that I'm avoiding reading it because it's a total depressant.

Clearly, I won't finish this book in March. To be honest, I don't care if I finish it at all. And that hurts; I hatehatehate abandoning a book while I'm reading it. But I might have to call this one a Fail & be done with it. All that remains is to pick a classic to read during April. Since I'll be traveling to London during the month, I can confirm I'll choose an English author. At this point, I'm trying to decide which one so I can enjoy my reading. I hate feeling like I'm slogging thru just to say I read something.

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