War and Peace and Fun

"Hear the voices in my head/

I swear to god it sounds like they're snoring/

but if you're bored than you're boring"

Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger 

So, I'm through the assigned reading of War and Peace for The Club's meeting on saturday.  Strange book.  The first section was all dinner parties for Russian nobles, and it was very good.  The second section was the first battle between the Russians and the French, and it was boring as shit. Yakov Smirnoff was right, those Soviets are ass-backwards. Also, I had some trouble in parts, because, due to Tolstoy's writing style or some barrier in the translation, I couldn't at times tell if I was reading a satire or earnestness.  That's one of the problems with my generation.  We drink in irony like water, but we're not too great with sincerity.

I've been asked twice in the last two weeks if I ever "read anything for fun".  Apparently most people do not consider 19th century Russian Literature or books about Civil War battles to be "fun".  I would beg to differ, especially if you read any story about William Sherman.  Seriously, look at this...

You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.

And he wrote that to one of his close friends! Am I the only one who thinks that's riveting?

(Don't answer that.)


Yeah, I choose a lot of books that aren't casual reads.  As mentioned before, this is one of the reasons I joined The Club, because I'm not great at picking fiction books.  Much better at non-fiction, I know what I like, but, as one co-worker told me, "you like to read to learn things", and she wasn't exactly using a complimentary tone.  "Learning things" is not exactly what I look for, but it's on the path.  What I'm looking for are books that I can engage with.  It's not worth reading 500 pages if 2 days after finishing, I've completely forgotten everything about the book.  Something needs to stick in my head, and it doesn't have to be brilliant, or historical, just something that makes the experience constructive.  An idea, a different way of looking at the normal, or maybe the way the author writes characters.  I am not a Stephen King fan, but his Dark Tower novels might be my favorite literary series, and a lot of that is based on how his main characters come together in the books.  Maybe that's why I struggled with the second book of W&P:  My favorite part of book one was Pierre, the uncouth, unsophisticated, and unrealizing bastard son of the dying Count Bezukhov.  He was my connection to the novel, and he's nowhere to be seen in Book 2.  Dammit, I want my Pierre.  

Of course, I could just have someone read the book and explain it to me later....