Reading Matter

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading Anna Kareninininina by Tolstoy, considered one of the greatest novels of all time. I started in late December and it took me nearly three months, reading before sleep every night. The writing style is very clean and I appreciated Tolstoy’s sense of humor; for a 900+ page story about mid-19th century Russia, the characters are reasonably modern and relatable. The story itself is epic, taking place over a couple of years and encompassing dozens of characters, which actually hurt my enjoyment. Characters come into the story with their own chapters, only to disappear for hundreds of pages before they reappear. Some characters never return, which I found odd. I did find it really interesting that one of the main male characters clearly demonstrates many of the characteristics of someone with autism, but is never identified as such, of course. For the longest time I wasn’t sure why the book is even named after Anna until near the end when it became clear.

My family gave me a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas but I haven’t had much chance to use it as I’ve been finishing Anna and then, in a neck-snapping change of tone, immediately started mad genius Stephen Colbert’s latest book, which I also received for Christmas. But this week I turned to the Kindle for Stephen King’s The Shining. I’m not a big fan of Stephen King but I’m having a hard time putting the Kindle down. And I’m finding my enjoyment of the book enhanced by my familiarity with Kubrick’s movie as it’s fascinating to see the differences.

As I told Carol, my only regret about reading The Shining on my Kindle is that when I hit the scary parts, I’m reluctant to put the device into the freezer.