I DID IT!!!! Hooray!!!!! I finally finished A Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens! This book has been a little monkey on my back for a good year & a half... ever since my friend Rachelle (a woman with a degree in English Lit) said it was her favorite book. I started this book 4 times before I was able to break through the first 60 pages and actually finish the dang thing. One of those times was even a book on tape... I even struggled with that!
Truth is, Dickens is just dang tough stuff to read. So captivating, but very difficult to trudge through. At one point, I ventured to look up a bunch of the impressive vocabulary words in the dictionary, but the frequent interruption of flow got old quickly! But, I gotta say, I LOVED the book. I love how he tied everything together so well with so many characters. Even though I was completely confused through several scenes in the book, at least at the end, you understand what was happening after the fact and see how it ties in. Ahhhh. It was very refreshing to have it end so beautifully. Thanks for the recommendation, Rachelle. Wouldn't have done it without ya!
Another monkey I got off my back was the John Adams biography by David McCullough. What a great man Adams was (and his sweet wife) and what a wonderful writer McCullough is! This was another book that took me literally months and months to read. But reading it taught me just how little attention I paid in my American and World History classes in high school. Back then, dates were pretty irrelevant to me... leaving me with NO CLUE that the French Revolution happened just after the American Revolution. I'm glad I was able to finish the Adams biography before fully reading 'Two Cities'. I'm sure the timeline would have still been lost on me without that frame of reference and my somewhat increased knowledge on what was happening in America at the time. Shameful how all that good history education was wasted on my teenage mind!
So now that I've finished these, I'm fascinated by the whole thing and it's pushed a bunch of other books to the top of my 'to read' list. I'm excited to get my hands on the Scarlet Pimpernel, and especially the unabridged Les Miserables. I have read an abridged version, but I think I've matured to the point where I could handle the big cahuna now! Anyway... just thought I'd share my triumph!!
6 comments:
YAY!!! You're my hero :) I've tried unsuccessfully to make it through A Christmas Carol...that's how pathetic I am, so you are A-MAZ-ING!!!!
I am so proud of you. I finally finished my book too. I understand the pure joy for finishing it. Let's do something together this week...I haven't seen you in FOREVER!
I'm so stinkin' proud of you for sticking to it! Dicken's is tough, but so worth the investment of time and brainpower to get through it. Bravo! I do love that book,(just read it again a few months ago on my trip to France and I understood so much more after having been to some of the places and learned more of the history of that period.) I'm glad that you did love it after all that. I'd feel like a real heel if you didn't, especially after that investment of time. It is a gruesome tale, to be sure, but also one about the triumph of the human spirit, and the ability each of us hopes to have to step up and do something great for someone else when the moment presents itself.
As for the John Adams book, I have been struggling to get through for a long time and finally stopped. You have inspired me. I will pick up tonight and keep plugging away!
Good job lady! I'll read the Scarlett Pimpernell with you, OK?
Wahooo! I am proud of you.
And those are two big thick fat books.
Good books, but thick, in more than pages.
Way to go.
i am really impressed! I am not very good at thinking lately!
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