Last night I finished reading the longest book I've ever picked up. 'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy is now sitting on my bookshelf after being read cover to cover. I started reading it last year in December and it took me nearly a year to finish. I did take some breaks from reading it. If I had forced myself to just read this book, it might have been done a month or two earlier. Being labeled as one of the great novels of all time it had always had my interest. I've wanted to read it for forever, it just sat on my bookshelf for the better part of a decade before I read it. It's daunting.
With over fourteen hundred pages it gives the reader time to grow to love the characters. Unless that character is Pierre. He is one of the main characters and dear god is he insufferable. I just didn't like him at all. Even from the get go. The book kept going and going and I was waiting to start to identify with this guy, but it just never happened. The rest of the characters? Good, some even great. Just not Pierre.
This isn't a book report. Go read it for yourself if you want the rundown. No more classic Russian novels for me. One was more than enough.
