7 ms·

Honest question; how do you force yourself to get through a book like Anna Karenina? I have sincerely tried multiple times to get into it, and haven't been able

Honest question; how do you force yourself to get through a book like Anna Karenina? I have sincerely tried multiple times to get into it, and haven't been able to make it more than 30 or so pages. I'm generally a fairly well-read guy, so I would like to knock this classic out, but I am not sure how.

jperoutek 4y ago
I listened to it as an audiobook over the course of a week or two, and it was pretty bearable. I know there is some debate about whether that counts as "reading" the book, but on something like this I consider it close enough.
- bombcar 4y ago
  An audiobook and a character name cross-reference can be instrumental in getting through some of these massive Russian tomes. I was definitely confused by War and Peace (I think it was) until I realized that there was one character with fifteen various names and not fifteen different characters.
throwaway6734 4y ago
It's a great read that sucks you in. I couldn't put it down and finished it over a vacation.
- adamors 4y ago
  Couldn’t agree more, I read it last year and it’s as good as everyone says it is. That said, I did read a lot of Russian literature during that period so the constant names/nicknames didn’t bother me.
  - throwaway6734 4y ago
    Levin's monologue at the end might be my favorite part of any book. Also war and peace is truly amazing in the same vein
_aavaa_ 4y ago
I think it's worth reconsidering why you wish to read this book if you do not enjoy it. The classics are not a homework assignment to be suffered through.
- cal85 4y ago
  A desire for intellectual growth is a very good reason. If other minds that I find interesting tend to mention a particular book a lot, I want in. I want to get it, to understand it, to have what they're having. This drive has led me to learn and enjoy many things that I would have missed out on if I hadn't persevered past the "I don't get this" phase (in literature, programming, science, anything). The notion that people should only read things they already 'enjoy' is modern anti-intellectual bullshit. Some things take effort before the reward. It's perfectly sensible for someone with a thirst for growth to ask for tips on how to get into something that smart people, in their estimation, seem to enjoy. And when they do ask for help, they should be encouraged.
  - _aavaa_ 4y ago
    >> so I would like to knock this classic out, but I am not sure how. First of all, this sounds like wanting to "having had read" a book to check a box rather than the desire for the intellectual growth that comes from reading it. > If other minds that I find interesting tend to mention a particular book a lot, I want in. I want to get it, to understand it, to have what they're having. That isn't a book chosen for intellectual growth, that's a book chosen out of mimetic desire. > The notion that people should only read things they already 'enjoy' is modern anti-intellectual bullshit. Perhaps enjoy was not the best word for me to use. My point being, there are more classic books and books which other intellectuals reccomend than there is time in the world to read. Rather than keep banging ones head against the wall because this particular book does work out, they may be better served by trying a different book (one of the other 1,000s).
    - haswell 4y ago
      > My point being, there are more classic books and books which other intellectuals reccomend than there is time in the world to read. This point was not at all clear from your parent comment, which was easy to interpret as “if it’s hard, why try?”. You’ve clarified that this was not your point, but I understand why someone would interpret the original comment as anti-intellectual.
Etheryte 4y ago
As someone who had this book as mandatory reading in high school, along with many other books I would call dense, I would say the secret ingredient is to go fast. With regular books, I take breaks to ponder the ideas multiple times per chapter. If I know I have to go through 800+ pages, I decide to read 100 pages a day, and just brute force it through. After you've gone through the whole thing, there's plenty of time to go back and revisit the themes you found more interesting, I know other students also made heavy use of notes and sticky notes to grok the thing.
AlexeyBrin 4y ago
If you didn't enjoy it, first try with a different translation or read something else, life is short and there are plenty of good books. Personally I really liked Anna Karenina and read it twice. War and Peace on the other hand, I had to force myself to finish it.
- tombert 4y ago
  Well, I mean, "reading something else" has been what I've opted to do thus far, hence why I've only gotten about 30 pages in, but I've found that sometimes when I force myself to actually one of these "certified classics" I end up feeling glad I did. That's how I felt about Crime and Punishment, for example.
  - ipv4dhcp 4y ago
    crime and punishment is what got me hooked on russian literature. i would try some of dostoyevsky's other works before moving on to tolstoy. just finished karenina this year but enjoyed the idiot and karamazov more.
- throwawayarnty 4y ago
  Highly recommend the 2016 tv series of war and peace starting Paul Dano. Sometimes the movie can be better than the book, especially if the book is a dense classic.
  - AlexeyBrin 4y ago
    Thanks, I saw it and it was good, but I read the book a few years before that.
- hcrisp 4y ago
  You might try "Notes from Underground" by Dostoevsky first, which is much shorter, just to get a taste of his characters and writing style. If you like that, go on to "Crime and Punishment", and then read "The Brothers Karamazov" last. I saw a dust jacket quote that said something like, "Dostoevsky writes about the unconscious as though it were conscious". When I started reading his books, I felt like he naturally reveals his character's psychology through dialogue (both inner and intrapersonal). They are surprisingly relatable. They have quirks and insecurities, can be hot-headed one minute and fearful the next. "Do you know what it means to demand when you are only in a position to implore?" asks one protagonist. They struggle with big questions, their motivations are laid bare, and they endear empathy as would a self-destructive family member. Dostoevsky may not write inspired literature, but he has something important to say, and he says it from his uniquely Russian soul.
defphysics 4y ago
Maybe try audio. I really like the version narrated by David Horovich.
stephen_g 4y ago
I found it quite readable, easier to get through than War and Peace. Has to be a good translation though.
- wholinator2 4y ago
  What translation do you recommend?
  - stephen_g 4y ago
    I just have the newest Penguin Classics version, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Not sure if it’s the best one, but I found it good. I’ve just tried reading some Russian Classics from public domain translations and sometimes they are a lot harder to read.
throw1234651234 4y ago
I think the "go fast" guy is right. The problem with really old classics is that they have been imitated a lot. I had the same issue with "War & Peace" - I felt like I have read the book a 1000 times before. I find Chekov and Bulgakov to be far more interesting. Their work is shorter and hits harder.
- elevaet 4y ago
  What do you recommend by Chekov?
  - sleightofmind 4y ago
    Just about anything. Go to Project Gutenberg, pick a book of plays, or short stories, and just start reading. Be forewarned, though. Chekov doesn't do endings (for the most part) and he made no apologies for his lack of endings. You'll find out with a minimal investment of time whether or not you like his style. I do, despite the paucity of endings. Endings are hard. I suspect one of the things that has enhanced Tom Hanks' acting career is making sure most of the stuff he did had a good solid ending, not a quick fade -- consider Saving Private Ryan, and Castaway. Killer endings. Tolstoy, unlike Chekov, does great endings.
    - elevaet 4y ago
      Thanks. I think this is something that attracts me to his writing - real life rarely has endings.
      - throw1234651234 4y ago
        Ward No. 6
        sleightofmind 4y ago
        Wow. That was a very good read, and it had an ending -- precisely your point, I imagine. Thanks!
MaxBorsch228 4y ago
This is a national meme in Russia. War and Peace is mandatory reading in schools, but it's always only 3-4 students in class who really read it. Most students just skim through ("read diagonally", as we say), use summary or watch the movie.
- billfruit 4y ago
  War and Peace is fairly interesting, in the sense the battle scenes really detailed and action packed, even more than can be shown in movies.
iamwpj 4y ago
I focused on the individual characters I liked. Levin is a personal favorite and as you get further along you get a little more of him. Read each character story as a vignette and don't worry about connecting the dots of the whole book until later -- or until it comes up again. Interestingly, it's the same method I use for Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
- hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
  There is a contrasting beauty of prose in Marquez, though, in spite of war being a common theme. Maybe because of environment: 19-century Russia seems raw and cold, whereas Marquez's Latin America is warm and colorful, and of course magic realism adds another level of aesthetics.
voidmain0001 4y ago
This is how I got through it - I read it in 1990 while riding the bus to and from a summer job. I had nothing else to do to kill the time. I don't remember it being a terribly boring story. So, to get through it - get off the Internet, and all devices since they're just time wasters much like Anna Karenina.
smitty1110 4y ago
Anna Karenia is still on my list, but here's what I did for Jane Austen and the Tale of Genji: Just read one chapter a night. My old AP Lit teacher gave me that advice, said you need to treat these books like a soap opera, because they're written with the same idea in mind.
Forgeties79 4y ago
Some classics just aren’t worth the work if they’re that much of a slog. There’s a reason I never finished watching Gone the Wind but had no issue reading Crime and Punishment.
- InitialLastName 4y ago
  I got to the intermission in Gone with the Wind, said "great, that movie can be over now" and never looked back.
jyriand 4y ago
It all starts with the attitude. If you just want to "knock this classic out" then you set yourself up for a failure from the beginning. I can read classics only for enjoyment of the language and images.
kaiwen1 4y ago
In principle, I understand how this book can fail to connect with some people. I’ve encountered many “great” books that I just couldn’t read. But Anna Karenina is so damn good that it’s hard to fathom others see it differently. The writing and character development are exquisite. I can reread it endlessly, or start randomly at any page. It’s always a pleasure.
josephorjoe 4y ago
first, i'd just read The Death of Ivan Ilyich which is much much shorter. after reading that if you feel like reading tolstoy is something you want to do a whole lot more of, then pick up Anna Karenina or War and Peace. I've read both, because i enjoy reading Tolstoy, but i would not recommend reading them if you do not enjoy the process. there are plenty of other great literary works out there (and most of them are shorter).
ctdonath 4y ago
Massive tomes work well as audiobooks: expert reader paces the content well, forcing you to carry through the bogged-down parts. Anecdote: War And Peace was so massive it broke my audiobook reader app. 400 pages in it just quit progressing.
georgeecollins 4y ago
I read Anna Karenina and also War and Peace at a time in my youth between work and school where I had the time to just relax with friends and just read a lot of novels. Only in retrospect do you realize how precious those times are. War and Peace was hard to start because of all the characters, but I got lost in it and it was really worth it. You don't have to pay a lot of attention to the chapters on the meaning of history unless it interests you. Anna Karenina I felt like I dived right into because it was a "smaller" story focused on really well defined characters. But I don't feel like it gripped me all the way through as much as War and Peace. With books like that-- if you have the time to really sink into them-- you feel like you know the characters as people in the way you know your friends. They are like people you have known. The closest modern book to that I think is A Suitable Boy. But if it isn't for you in terms of your time or your interest you shouldn't feel bad about it.
- huevosabio 4y ago
  Exactly this, there were periods in high school and college were for whatever reason I had full days of nothing to do. I also didn't have a smartphone so wasting time online was less tempting. There were the perfect openings for laying down and just read until you forget to eat. In the end, there was some sort of sorrow of having to leave the characters behind. It is very hard to get such openings today.
DavidSharff 4y ago
It may seem so boring at first because it is so real. The depth of insight into the characters and culture is what makes it so moving as the plot picks up. Another perspective shift that makes it more enjoyable: it's a time machine. I wouldn't care for that level of detail in a modern American context or even a fantasy, but a distinct culture nearly 200 years ago? Sign me up. Then again, if you don't dig it no shame in moving on. There are more books than there is time to read them.
auxym 4y ago
Don't know, I actually didn't have too much trouble getting through Anna Karenina, and it remains one of my favorite novels. Saying this as someone who has tried and failed many times to finish other classics such as One Hundred Years Of Solitude.
stevenwoo 4y ago
This happens to me, too, on occasion. You might want to try an audio book version. This helps in a couple of ways. The narration might change narrator for different characters or change their voice and the name pronunciation is probably much better for languages one does not speak. This also gives you a basis for the character in your mind and frees up your imagination for the text not related to character voice and emotion. I still find some books with a larger number of characters or particularly different cultures/settings requiring multiple re listens at the start for me to be able to see what is described in my mind's eye, versus my brain being immediately receptive to other books from the beginning. It does require a certain amount of concentration to comprehend and not just hear like background music that is available when I am walking or riding a bicycle or cooking, sometimes when I am driving.
goto11 4y ago
> how do you force yourself to get through a book like Anna Karenina? Don't force yourself to read a book you don't enjoy. Life is too short. There are so many books out there. As many 19th century novels, the plot takes some time to get underway, but I was gripped by the characters and the language from the start. Perhaps you should think of it like a TV show which take a few episodes to establish the characters and universe, before the story gets underway.
UIUC_06 4y ago
I've read it three times and it didn't take any forcing. Whereas other long Russian classic novels: not so much. I don't know if this is a "tip" or not, but what I found easy about AK was the descriptions of people's inner lives, and how much insight Tolstoy has on the human condition. He was a very religious man, but the characters don't so much think about Christianity as live it (or try to). Anna's feelings about Karenin's stuffiness, and their inability to connect, are SO modern. You see how they treat their son, and contrast it with the way "modern" parents try to raise their kids. Vronsky's behavior with his fellow soldiers is a beautiful picture of male bonding before there was such a term. Writers are exhorted to "show, don't tell" and Tolstoy doesn't tell you Anna felt guilty, he shows you.
sleightofmind 4y ago
Force myself? That's the last thing I have to do. I can't start reading it again, because I know I won't be able to put it down. But I do look forward to a third pass through the book at some point. And another reading or two of War and Peace. Start with some easy Tolstoy, like Kholstomer, The Story of a Horse, or Master and Man. If you don't like those, maybe you're just not a Tolstoy reader. No problem there. http://www.lrgaf.org/training/kholstomer.htm http://www.lrgaf.org/training/kholstomer.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/986/986-h/986-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/986/986-h/986-h.htm (Master and Man) I love 19th-century English literature, especially Hardy, and the same goes for the Russians Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and the Ukrainian/Russian Gogol, so maybe it's a patience for carefully described settings/characters, carefully developed plots, and a willingness to be dragged, slowly, methodically, and for me, magically into another world and time. Not sure. It's possible certain books only suit certain temperaments. Tolstoy, I'm almost certain, appeals to those who've wrestled with religious belief or doubt for decades, whether they've moved towards or away from belief. He himself scared the Russian elite greatly because of his strong desire to live a truly Christian life, and his apparent willingness to do so. A truly Christian life terrifies most folks, religious or not. Don't assume I'm in sympathy with Tolstoy on this topic. But his sincerity clearly bled through into his writing, and gives it a power few other authors exhibit. There may be authors on a par with Tolstoy, but I'm hard pressed to come up with one I consider better. War and Peace? Best book I've ever read.
adammarples 4y ago
Within a few pages I knew it was great and honestly was sad that it couldn't have lasted longer. If you're not enjoying it, just stop, it's meant to be enjoyed like a nice whisky or something. No point forcing yourself.
AprilArcus 4y ago
I found Anna Karenina effortless, and I don't usually enjoy fiction. Perhaps it's just not the right book for you.

jperoutek 4y ago

I listened to it as an audiobook over the course of a week or two, and it was pretty bearable. I know there is some debate about whether that counts as "reading" the book, but on something like this I consider it close enough.

bombcar 4y ago
An audiobook and a character name cross-reference can be instrumental in getting through some of these massive Russian tomes. I was definitely confused by War and Peace (I think it was) until I realized that there was one character with fifteen various names and not fifteen different characters.

throwaway6734 4y ago

It's a great read that sucks you in. I couldn't put it down and finished it over a vacation.

adamors 4y ago
Couldn’t agree more, I read it last year and it’s as good as everyone says it is. That said, I did read a lot of Russian literature during that period so the constant names/nicknames didn’t bother me.
- throwaway6734 4y ago
  Levin's monologue at the end might be my favorite part of any book. Also war and peace is truly amazing in the same vein

_aavaa_ 4y ago

I think it's worth reconsidering why you wish to read this book if you do not enjoy it. The classics are not a homework assignment to be suffered through.

cal85 4y ago
A desire for intellectual growth is a very good reason. If other minds that I find interesting tend to mention a particular book a lot, I want in. I want to get it, to understand it, to have what they're having. This drive has led me to learn and enjoy many things that I would have missed out on if I hadn't persevered past the "I don't get this" phase (in literature, programming, science, anything). The notion that people should only read things they already 'enjoy' is modern anti-intellectual bullshit. Some things take effort before the reward. It's perfectly sensible for someone with a thirst for growth to ask for tips on how to get into something that smart people, in their estimation, seem to enjoy. And when they do ask for help, they should be encouraged.
- _aavaa_ 4y ago
  >> so I would like to knock this classic out, but I am not sure how. First of all, this sounds like wanting to "having had read" a book to check a box rather than the desire for the intellectual growth that comes from reading it. > If other minds that I find interesting tend to mention a particular book a lot, I want in. I want to get it, to understand it, to have what they're having. That isn't a book chosen for intellectual growth, that's a book chosen out of mimetic desire. > The notion that people should only read things they already 'enjoy' is modern anti-intellectual bullshit. Perhaps enjoy was not the best word for me to use. My point being, there are more classic books and books which other intellectuals reccomend than there is time in the world to read. Rather than keep banging ones head against the wall because this particular book does work out, they may be better served by trying a different book (one of the other 1,000s).
  - haswell 4y ago
    > My point being, there are more classic books and books which other intellectuals reccomend than there is time in the world to read. This point was not at all clear from your parent comment, which was easy to interpret as “if it’s hard, why try?”. You’ve clarified that this was not your point, but I understand why someone would interpret the original comment as anti-intellectual.

Etheryte 4y ago

As someone who had this book as mandatory reading in high school, along with many other books I would call dense, I would say the secret ingredient is to go fast. With regular books, I take breaks to ponder the ideas multiple times per chapter. If I know I have to go through 800+ pages, I decide to read 100 pages a day, and just brute force it through. After you've gone through the whole thing, there's plenty of time to go back and revisit the themes you found more interesting, I know other students also made heavy use of notes and sticky notes to grok the thing.

AlexeyBrin 4y ago

If you didn't enjoy it, first try with a different translation or read something else, life is short and there are plenty of good books. Personally I really liked Anna Karenina and read it twice. War and Peace on the other hand, I had to force myself to finish it.

tombert 4y ago
Well, I mean, "reading something else" has been what I've opted to do thus far, hence why I've only gotten about 30 pages in, but I've found that sometimes when I force myself to actually one of these "certified classics" I end up feeling glad I did. That's how I felt about Crime and Punishment, for example.
- ipv4dhcp 4y ago
  crime and punishment is what got me hooked on russian literature. i would try some of dostoyevsky's other works before moving on to tolstoy. just finished karenina this year but enjoyed the idiot and karamazov more.
throwawayarnty 4y ago
Highly recommend the 2016 tv series of war and peace starting Paul Dano. Sometimes the movie can be better than the book, especially if the book is a dense classic.
- AlexeyBrin 4y ago
  Thanks, I saw it and it was good, but I read the book a few years before that.
hcrisp 4y ago
You might try "Notes from Underground" by Dostoevsky first, which is much shorter, just to get a taste of his characters and writing style. If you like that, go on to "Crime and Punishment", and then read "The Brothers Karamazov" last. I saw a dust jacket quote that said something like, "Dostoevsky writes about the unconscious as though it were conscious". When I started reading his books, I felt like he naturally reveals his character's psychology through dialogue (both inner and intrapersonal). They are surprisingly relatable. They have quirks and insecurities, can be hot-headed one minute and fearful the next. "Do you know what it means to demand when you are only in a position to implore?" asks one protagonist. They struggle with big questions, their motivations are laid bare, and they endear empathy as would a self-destructive family member. Dostoevsky may not write inspired literature, but he has something important to say, and he says it from his uniquely Russian soul.

defphysics 4y ago

Maybe try audio. I really like the version narrated by David Horovich.

stephen_g 4y ago

I found it quite readable, easier to get through than War and Peace. Has to be a good translation though.

wholinator2 4y ago
What translation do you recommend?
- stephen_g 4y ago
  I just have the newest Penguin Classics version, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Not sure if it’s the best one, but I found it good. I’ve just tried reading some Russian Classics from public domain translations and sometimes they are a lot harder to read.

throw1234651234 4y ago

I think the "go fast" guy is right. The problem with really old classics is that they have been imitated a lot. I had the same issue with "War & Peace" - I felt like I have read the book a 1000 times before. I find Chekov and Bulgakov to be far more interesting. Their work is shorter and hits harder.

elevaet 4y ago
What do you recommend by Chekov?
- sleightofmind 4y ago
  Just about anything. Go to Project Gutenberg, pick a book of plays, or short stories, and just start reading. Be forewarned, though. Chekov doesn't do endings (for the most part) and he made no apologies for his lack of endings. You'll find out with a minimal investment of time whether or not you like his style. I do, despite the paucity of endings. Endings are hard. I suspect one of the things that has enhanced Tom Hanks' acting career is making sure most of the stuff he did had a good solid ending, not a quick fade -- consider Saving Private Ryan, and Castaway. Killer endings. Tolstoy, unlike Chekov, does great endings.
  - elevaet 4y ago
    Thanks. I think this is something that attracts me to his writing - real life rarely has endings.
    - throw1234651234 4y ago
      Ward No. 6
      - sleightofmind 4y ago
        Wow. That was a very good read, and it had an ending -- precisely your point, I imagine. Thanks!

MaxBorsch228 4y ago

This is a national meme in Russia. War and Peace is mandatory reading in schools, but it's always only 3-4 students in class who really read it. Most students just skim through ("read diagonally", as we say), use summary or watch the movie.

billfruit 4y ago
War and Peace is fairly interesting, in the sense the battle scenes really detailed and action packed, even more than can be shown in movies.

iamwpj 4y ago

I focused on the individual characters I liked. Levin is a personal favorite and as you get further along you get a little more of him. Read each character story as a vignette and don't worry about connecting the dots of the whole book until later -- or until it comes up again. Interestingly, it's the same method I use for Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
There is a contrasting beauty of prose in Marquez, though, in spite of war being a common theme. Maybe because of environment: 19-century Russia seems raw and cold, whereas Marquez's Latin America is warm and colorful, and of course magic realism adds another level of aesthetics.

voidmain0001 4y ago

This is how I got through it - I read it in 1990 while riding the bus to and from a summer job. I had nothing else to do to kill the time. I don't remember it being a terribly boring story. So, to get through it - get off the Internet, and all devices since they're just time wasters much like Anna Karenina.

smitty1110 4y ago

Anna Karenia is still on my list, but here's what I did for Jane Austen and the Tale of Genji: Just read one chapter a night. My old AP Lit teacher gave me that advice, said you need to treat these books like a soap opera, because they're written with the same idea in mind.

Forgeties79 4y ago

Some classics just aren’t worth the work if they’re that much of a slog. There’s a reason I never finished watching Gone the Wind but had no issue reading Crime and Punishment.

InitialLastName 4y ago
I got to the intermission in Gone with the Wind, said "great, that movie can be over now" and never looked back.

jyriand 4y ago

It all starts with the attitude. If you just want to "knock this classic out" then you set yourself up for a failure from the beginning. I can read classics only for enjoyment of the language and images.

kaiwen1 4y ago

In principle, I understand how this book can fail to connect with some people. I’ve encountered many “great” books that I just couldn’t read. But Anna Karenina is so damn good that it’s hard to fathom others see it differently. The writing and character development are exquisite. I can reread it endlessly, or start randomly at any page. It’s always a pleasure.

josephorjoe 4y ago

first, i'd just read The Death of Ivan Ilyich which is much much shorter. after reading that if you feel like reading tolstoy is something you want to do a whole lot more of, then pick up Anna Karenina or War and Peace. I've read both, because i enjoy reading Tolstoy, but i would not recommend reading them if you do not enjoy the process. there are plenty of other great literary works out there (and most of them are shorter).

ctdonath 4y ago

Massive tomes work well as audiobooks: expert reader paces the content well, forcing you to carry through the bogged-down parts. Anecdote: War And Peace was so massive it broke my audiobook reader app. 400 pages in it just quit progressing.

georgeecollins 4y ago

I read Anna Karenina and also War and Peace at a time in my youth between work and school where I had the time to just relax with friends and just read a lot of novels. Only in retrospect do you realize how precious those times are. War and Peace was hard to start because of all the characters, but I got lost in it and it was really worth it. You don't have to pay a lot of attention to the chapters on the meaning of history unless it interests you. Anna Karenina I felt like I dived right into because it was a "smaller" story focused on really well defined characters. But I don't feel like it gripped me all the way through as much as War and Peace. With books like that-- if you have the time to really sink into them-- you feel like you know the characters as people in the way you know your friends. They are like people you have known. The closest modern book to that I think is A Suitable Boy. But if it isn't for you in terms of your time or your interest you shouldn't feel bad about it.

huevosabio 4y ago
Exactly this, there were periods in high school and college were for whatever reason I had full days of nothing to do. I also didn't have a smartphone so wasting time online was less tempting. There were the perfect openings for laying down and just read until you forget to eat. In the end, there was some sort of sorrow of having to leave the characters behind. It is very hard to get such openings today.

DavidSharff 4y ago

It may seem so boring at first because it is so real. The depth of insight into the characters and culture is what makes it so moving as the plot picks up. Another perspective shift that makes it more enjoyable: it's a time machine. I wouldn't care for that level of detail in a modern American context or even a fantasy, but a distinct culture nearly 200 years ago? Sign me up. Then again, if you don't dig it no shame in moving on. There are more books than there is time to read them.

auxym 4y ago

Don't know, I actually didn't have too much trouble getting through Anna Karenina, and it remains one of my favorite novels. Saying this as someone who has tried and failed many times to finish other classics such as One Hundred Years Of Solitude.

stevenwoo 4y ago

This happens to me, too, on occasion. You might want to try an audio book version. This helps in a couple of ways. The narration might change narrator for different characters or change their voice and the name pronunciation is probably much better for languages one does not speak. This also gives you a basis for the character in your mind and frees up your imagination for the text not related to character voice and emotion. I still find some books with a larger number of characters or particularly different cultures/settings requiring multiple re listens at the start for me to be able to see what is described in my mind's eye, versus my brain being immediately receptive to other books from the beginning. It does require a certain amount of concentration to comprehend and not just hear like background music that is available when I am walking or riding a bicycle or cooking, sometimes when I am driving.

goto11 4y ago

> how do you force yourself to get through a book like Anna Karenina? Don't force yourself to read a book you don't enjoy. Life is too short. There are so many books out there. As many 19th century novels, the plot takes some time to get underway, but I was gripped by the characters and the language from the start. Perhaps you should think of it like a TV show which take a few episodes to establish the characters and universe, before the story gets underway.

UIUC_06 4y ago

I've read it three times and it didn't take any forcing. Whereas other long Russian classic novels: not so much. I don't know if this is a "tip" or not, but what I found easy about AK was the descriptions of people's inner lives, and how much insight Tolstoy has on the human condition. He was a very religious man, but the characters don't so much think about Christianity as live it (or try to). Anna's feelings about Karenin's stuffiness, and their inability to connect, are SO modern. You see how they treat their son, and contrast it with the way "modern" parents try to raise their kids. Vronsky's behavior with his fellow soldiers is a beautiful picture of male bonding before there was such a term. Writers are exhorted to "show, don't tell" and Tolstoy doesn't tell you Anna felt guilty, he shows you.

sleightofmind 4y ago

Force myself? That's the last thing I have to do. I can't start reading it again, because I know I won't be able to put it down. But I do look forward to a third pass through the book at some point. And another reading or two of War and Peace. Start with some easy Tolstoy, like Kholstomer, The Story of a Horse, or Master and Man. If you don't like those, maybe you're just not a Tolstoy reader. No problem there. http://www.lrgaf.org/training/kholstomer.htm http://www.lrgaf.org/training/kholstomer.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/986/986-h/986-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/986/986-h/986-h.htm (Master and Man) I love 19th-century English literature, especially Hardy, and the same goes for the Russians Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and the Ukrainian/Russian Gogol, so maybe it's a patience for carefully described settings/characters, carefully developed plots, and a willingness to be dragged, slowly, methodically, and for me, magically into another world and time. Not sure. It's possible certain books only suit certain temperaments. Tolstoy, I'm almost certain, appeals to those who've wrestled with religious belief or doubt for decades, whether they've moved towards or away from belief. He himself scared the Russian elite greatly because of his strong desire to live a truly Christian life, and his apparent willingness to do so. A truly Christian life terrifies most folks, religious or not. Don't assume I'm in sympathy with Tolstoy on this topic. But his sincerity clearly bled through into his writing, and gives it a power few other authors exhibit. There may be authors on a par with Tolstoy, but I'm hard pressed to come up with one I consider better. War and Peace? Best book I've ever read.

adammarples 4y ago

Within a few pages I knew it was great and honestly was sad that it couldn't have lasted longer. If you're not enjoying it, just stop, it's meant to be enjoyed like a nice whisky or something. No point forcing yourself.

AprilArcus 4y ago

I found Anna Karenina effortless, and I don't usually enjoy fiction. Perhaps it's just not the right book for you.