I've been doing a good job of not buying any new books until I've read (almost) everything in the fabled to-be-read stack. (Confession: I bought, read, and enjoyed Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies last week.) As much as it pains me, Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven will have to wait. The same applies to Marcel Proust. I'm still slogging through three massive books: John Steinbeck's East of Eden, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, and Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day.

You could say I bite off more than I can chew. I wouldn't argue. As a co-worker once asked me, "You're twenty-six--do you seriously read these kinds of books?" Well, yes, I do. I hadn't realized there was an age limit. Laughter. "And your brain hasn't exploded yet?" Well, that's another story.

Anna Karenina is coming along pretty nicely. East of Eden--not so much. And I like Against the Day, but every time I try reading it again, I get overwhelmed: Oh, shit, I'm only on page two hundred fifty! And I haven't picked it up in weeks! I'll never finish it! Then I realize that there's really no comfortable way to read such a huge book, and I settle on something else.

However, I take small comfort in the fact that it took me almost an entire year (last year, to be exact) to read Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. Still, I tend to over-react.

Or maybe my brain really has exploded.

Comments

[Care]

Isn't slog a great word? I was slogging through Tolstoy's AK but had to put it down. I was enjoying it but I kept finding other stuff to do than continue it. (I did rent the Garbo movie version!) SO, I look forward to hearing more about this. PS I blogged about you in a post...

[bookchronicle]

For 2008 my ambition is actually read the books I already own. It shocks me sometime how few I've read. Unfortunately, April was a rough month when it came to clearing shelf but my hopes are up for May. I read Anna Karenina last summer and I think it may be one of my favorite books.