Another reason to love discount stores - I was at one of my local ones and spotted their rack of YA fiction ... including hardcover copies of "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" for $12.99 each. Win! (I'm now most of the way through "Catching Fire" ... this isn't going to have a happy ending, is it?)

I'm trolling through ManyBooks to see what I want to download to my Palm. OK, I may be mulling an ereader if I find enough to download that I want a bigger screen for. In any case, War and Peace is there. The great books are often really deserving of their reputation, but I'm curious if anyone here has read it and really enjoyed it rather than read it for the pride of saying "I read it." Is it a slog? Will I find myself flipping through boring bits? Or will what some people call boring bits turn out to be wonderful prose that's worth the examination?

I attempted an abridged version in either high school or early college...iirc, the answer to all your questions is "Yes." I remember being entertained by it, if not so sure I got the Larger Point...it's quite long, even when they cut things.

What Erika said. It is quite a wonderful book but you will find yourself skipping parts of it. The way most people react to the extended travelogue in LOTR. (I'm a freak who enjoys the extended descriptions of scenery and travel.)

War and Peace was my lunchtime read one summer. It's definitely a Russian Novel, which means there's going to be social commentary. Tolstoy isn't as blatant as Dostoevsky about the commentary -- the latter thinks nothing of leaving the characters hanging for a few pages while he discusses his philosophy of the world. But you'll probably get lost at times if you don't have at least a very basic grounding in Russian history.

I rather enjoyed it. But you might want to check out Anna Karenina first if you're a novice at Russian Novels. It's pretty long, but less of the commentary than War and Peace.

(In fairness -- in college, I took a seminar course on 19th century Russian intellectual history. Yes, I read some of Lenin's work for the class. No, I wasn't impressed with his political philosophy.)

The way most people react to the extended travelogue in LOTR.

Oh, you mean the really interesting bits going through the mountains and across the plains?

I think I'll dive into War and Peace. I think I know too much about Anna Karenina to be interested in what happens, ie, trains.

Also, I've been catching up on older books, but I keep getting distracted by the social/political assumptions. A lot of my favorite action/adventure books turn out to have a female character who only exists as a victimtrophy. I could accept that, reluctantly, if the female had at least some competence or purpose. It's really impacting my appreciation of classics.

I read it for a class, but I actually really loved War and Peace.

Oh, you mean the really interesting bits going through the mountains and across the plains?

Fellow freak! Let your feeeeaak flaaag flyyy!

In any case, War and Peace is there. The great books are often really deserving of their reputation, but I'm curious if anyone here has read it and really enjoyed it rather than read it for the pride of saying "I read it." Is it a slog? Will I find myself flipping through boring bits? Or will what some people call boring bits turn out to be wonderful prose that's worth the examination?

I'm trying to read it as one of my should-reads for the year. I like it, it's just really, really long. I find the war bits harder to digest, but for other people that's what they like. I actually listened to the first 2 parts on my 8-hour drive from Pasadena on Saturday, so I could pick it up again where I left off for another try.

IObookN, The Invisible Bridge is great so far. I highly recommend it.