2017 Reading Challenge discussion

A favorite category every year, as we all try to catch up on the books we should have read long ago. :-)

I have finished another of Dostoevsky's grand novels - one that has been on TBR list for years. Though it is not as good (in my humble opinion) as "The Brothers Karamazov" or "Crime and Punishment", his semi-autiobiographical novel "The Idiot" was another wide-reaching masterpiece of Russian literature. His characters are detailed, believable and typically TRAGIC, as his usually are. The reason that I am drawn to Dostoevsky, though, is his complex issues of good vs. evil, the morality and depravity of the human spirit, and the wrangling of living within a hardened world - and unfortunately I did not see much of that in this novel to the extent as in his others. Still, I enjoyed it immensely, and am glad to check it off my list.

I am reading "The Divine Comedy" by Dante. I read it in college years ago though admittedly, not completely and I barely remember anything about it. I read Dan Brown's "Inferno" a while back and the multiple references to Dante rekindled my interest. Hopefully, I'm mature enough to handle it this time around :)

Wendy wrote: "I am reading "The Divine Comedy" by Dante. I read it in college years ago though admittedly, not completely and I barely remember anything about it. I read Dan Brown's "Inferno" a while back and th..."

So, I am on Canto 27 of "Inferno", the first book in "The Divine Comedy" and I have decided to stop at the end of Inferno on Canto 34, for now, It actually is sold as its own book so it is a complete book, lol. I should be finished this weekend. I downloaded it on my phone and hope to finish the entire thing in time, but it is so intense, I need to be able to pick it up and put it down, spread it out...like the Bible. This beast of a masterpiece requires research. It is not simply a book that one reads and absorbs. It is a book that you study. I have so much respect for Dante. Three books of poetry, 33-34 cantos a piece, 14, 233 lines in the terza rima verse that he invented for the story. I WILL finish all 693 pages in time, maybe by the end of the year, but for now, I need break. Mercy.

For this category, I chose "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton. Ugh, I almost didn't finished. This took me SUPER long, and I couldn't connect with the characters or cared much about the plot. It was slow paced and there wasn't much to it in my opinion. It actually irritated me more often than not. I'm glad it's out of the way.

Lord of the Flies

I had watched the movie of course but had never read the book. I really enjoyed reading this and thought it was an excellent book.