Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Yeah, I’ll Get to It ... Sometime

As one whose only New Year’s resolution for 2010 is to finally read Leo Tolstoy’s epic adventure, War and Peace (a novel that was among my mother’s favorites, but that I’ve successfully avoided for all these decades), I was interested to glance through Beth Carswell’s list of “the top 10 reasons we don’t get to certain books.” For my own part, it’s reasons 1, 3, and 6 that usually stand in the way of my picking up a new work.

(Hat tip to Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.)

2 comments:

kdurkin said...

Yes, one day I will read "War and Peace," or "Anna Karenina," thought I doubt if it'll be in 2010.

The ten reasons are great. I agree with most. However, if I plan to read some books, including those in the TBR pile and then I read a terrific recommendation at the Rap Sheet, or Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind or EuroCrime and I see that book or can get it at the library, I'll go for those first.

This holiday season, I picked up Sjowall/Wahloo's book, "The Laughing Policeman," which had been gathering dust at home. I found I liked it so much I'm going to read others in their great series.

So one never knows. But "War and Peace"...hmm. Would consume a lot of chocolate during that reading over months.

Linda L. Richards said...

As someone who has known you for a long time and who has also read no less than six translations (and maybe more like eight) of War and Peace I've gotta say: What??? Read it already. You -- of all people -- are going to dig it.