Unexpected professional responsibilities (a 3 day training in Seattle plus 2 full days of prep for classes, dealing with snafus getting my files and furniture set up in my new room, and crafting curriculum with colleagues) plus a spate of extraordinarily fine, sunny weather in what has been an unusually gray and dreary summer conspired to keep Tolstoy at bay.
Here it is: I have not done the reading. And it's not just the external influences that have slowed me down. It's the novel itself. But it's not how you'd imagine.
It's because I'm loving this book. Truly loving it. Seems paradoxical, but all you readers know exactly what I'm talking about. When you come to feel that the characters in the book are an integral part of your life, you don't want to rush through the text just to meet a deadline. Instead, you want to savor every moment. So rich, so thought provoking, and so current is War & Peace, despite its focus in Russia during the Napoleonic wars, that I don't want to sacrifice my reading experience to expediency.
Can you remember back to the books you loved so much that you were willing to defy your own predetermined pace just to keep experiencing them on their own terms, for as long as possible?
Which books were they? I wrote about a few of mine yesterday for the Broke and the Bookish's ''reader's choice" Top Ten Tuesday, and I hope to read any of the ones you adored that I haven't yet experienced.
So while I'm waiting on a rainy day to get back to War & Peace, what savor-worthy story should I add to my TBR list?
MFB,
L
2 comments:
I usually have the opposite problem. When I really like a book I put things aside to push through. Maybe I'll take your approach next time and see if I find the book even more enjoyable!
-Shannon
I know just what you mean. One of my favorite books, that I wanted to put under my pillow while I slept so that I would dream about it is The Shadow of the Wind. Another I never wanted to end was The Book Thief.
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