OK so I took on the task of reading War and Peace, and like a pretentious jerk I said to myself "I'm going to read this with a guide so I can understand all of the social references..." Well it has been about a month and I am only 500 pages in. The problem with my original theory was the fact that there was soooooo much going on, and I have little to no knowledge regarding Russia at the turn of the 19th century. That's OK though. I will continue to muscle through this until it is done, maybe next time I will pick up the Bible.
Even though I am taking forever getting through this I have to say that it is a great book so far. I suppose Virginia Woolf was right when she regarded War and Peace as the greatest novel ever written (I will allow that comment considering she died before a lot of things had been written...Atlas Shrugged). But even so, this is a heavy read and I've found that I have read about 5 trash books since I started reading this. You know...Trash Books.
Like Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. They are quick interesting reads, but there is not too much thinking required when having to read one. Perfect for when I am trying to give my overwhelmed brain a break from Tolstoy (it doesn't take much to overwhelm me). There are five books in this series and they are entertaining. The stories are cool, and guess what...involve Frankenstein!!! Holy Crap! Didn't see that coming, but they are worth checking out. I have read the first three in the past few weeks and really like them.
One thing that I also just finished reading was Into the Wild. This was an incredibly interesting story that involved the college grad that gave away everything and hobo-ed around the country before dying in the Alaska wilderness. Crazy story, and I did not see the movie but I heard it was pretty good. My only problem with the book was the way Jack Krakauer wrote the damn thing. It just was not enough to turn into a stand alone book. What Krakauer lacked in evidence and facts he had to make up for with filler stories that seemed to take away form the actual story. He just didn't have enough information to make a full length book, and it made reading the thing repetitive and boring. I imagine that if the makers of the movie had used a little bit of creative license the movie would have been great. I would recommend that you save yourselves some time though and either rent the movie or read his original 9,000 word article.
So in conclusion skip Krakauer, read Koontz. (that may sound shallow, but it is the truth)
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