Anna Karenina (the 820 page SAGA SOAP)!

Title: Anna Karenina
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Pages: 817
Completed: March, 10th, 2008
Yearly Count: 8
Rated: 3/5

Okay, okay! I finished it!! That is an amazing feeling, or it should be....but this time it wasn't. I know Anna Karenina is hailed here, there and everywhere but to me it lacked that striking aspect that holds on to your eyes even when you should be putting the book down. I could put it down and then I had to open it and re-open it many times in order to try to get into the lives of the people that it embraced.

For the first 300 pages I really didn't like the book very much, after that I started enjoying it, I began trying much harder to see the value, and feel the love. So, from about page 300 until page 697 it was all "okay", but at that page...when Tolstoy tarnished my last hope of having the book contain one person of quality, it fell apart for me. I think my feelings were abused by the author one too many times and I felt mistreated and really manipulated as a reader. I felt that he had to do this because the book was going to falter, and he wanted a joust. Besides that, almost every night after finishing another section I felt like I had been in a fight with someone because the book is so jam-packed full of arguments, be it with husbands, lovers, mothers, children...it feels like you are submitting yourself to an 817 page long soap opera. well that didn't do it for me. Maybe it will for you, this book is a hit to so many.

I was once told that in order to really embrace a movie or book or play you need to feel like you can relate to someone, or several different people, and on different levels. You need to feel that they are going thought something that you have or just that their personalities are like yours...you need to be them throughout the process. I have felt captured by tons of books, movies, and plays on this principal. In this book I connected with no-one for more than a couple pages. I did at spots with Levin or Kitty, but I did not have that strong connection with them that would hold me.

I think it is excellently written, and it is a powerful testament to what things can come out of disputes, discontent and unresolved issues.The title really should be changed to Anna Karenina: "A book you should read so that you realize that what you think would make you happy, really won't it will destroy you...because you don't know how good you have it now"!

This is a quote pretty much sums up the entire book: "He soon felt that the realization of his desire had given him only a grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. It showed him the eternal error people make in imagining that happiness it the realization of desires" (p. 465).

Read that quote, learn it...live it...skip Anna Karenina. (that's my advice...if you wanted it)

Sunday Salon!- a little bit of everything.

This is my very fist time doing the Sunday Salon, and I am excited about what it is....I just hope I am doing it right. I was wondering what time people usually do it at, or does it not matter?

Well, for me this is a fun thing. I spent all night last night trying to get really far in my reading of Anna Karenina, only to realize that I only read 90 pages. Yeah, that actually is not that bad...but it is no where near the end yet. Okay, it is nearer now. I have only 190 pages left and I can't wait to finish it. I want to know if all my time invested in this book will come to a good conclusion or if the 820 pages will be tarnished by a not-so great ending.

For the first 300 pages I really didn't like the book very much, after that I have started enjoying it, and now my biggest fear is that in the end it will turn out horrible for someone who I have become attached to in time spent with them (or reading about them..however you prefer). I know that sad endings are some times, and many times a reality...I get that, but I want these people to end up okay (at least some of them!).

Another reason I can't wait to fisnish "Anna" is that I just went to our city's HUGE Library book sale and bought tons of good, no AMAZING books for so cheap I am afriad to tell you, or you may riot. Okay, I will: Hardbacks $3.00, all Paperbacks $2.00! Yes. very good. I have also been raiding our local goodwill and second hand stores to find great books. I have found some for under a dollar. I always feel I have come across something amazing when I get a good book for really cheap...it is a secret treasure. Maybe I am a nerd...but I am such a nerd, that that is fine with me. Everyone is a nerd about something, and hopefully it is something that they really love. For me I have several things that are that way: Jesus, my husband, my two little boys, books, rock climbing, and cats (on different days the list would change a tad, well...more would just be added, none taken off).

When I finish this book I will read Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood!! Have you read it?

I am off to see what you all have written about...thanks for letting me be a part of this fun community!!!

booking through thursday: favourite female character?

Q:Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

Since I recently read Franny and Zooey, I'd say Franny is one of them. She is brilliant and at the same time a complete freak! I enjoyed the way Salinger created her, and how she came to be...even if at times she was a little extreme.

I am currently reading Anna Karenina and although she definitely is not my hero, I enjoy Kitty a lot. Her last name is some insane polish name, but whatever. I can relate to her, she is filled with confusion since her mother dictates to her, her father is disappointed in her, her suitor suddenly abandons her...and yet eventually she stays solid. I enjoy reading about her too.

I am sorry to say that I do not have any that come to mind immediately as being "The One" that I absolutely must write down. I wish I did, and I should...so I'll get to work on that in case this question ever comes around again!!!

Thanks for reading this!!