At the end of last year, I learned about a "slow read" of War and Peace. Something about the idea of reading a chapter a day intrigued me so I bought a used paperback, of the Louise & Aylmer Maude translation, and plunged in.
For the most part, I did actually read a chapter a day, although there were a few moments when I got behind and caught up, or read ahead because it would fit better into my life. And let me tell you, War and Peace is a potboiler of an action-packed soap opera. That is, up until the second epilogue in which Leo gets all philosophical and stops talking about the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. And Pierre. To be honest, I think just reading it straight through over, say, a month might have been better. I remember the experience of reading A Suitable Boy and feeling completely bereft at the end; I missed all of those people that I'd spent every evening in bed with. Taking an entire year to read War and Peace meant bite sized reading sessions - but also meant that by the end, I'd forgotten what happened at the beginning. Well, not really, there were a lot of parties at the beginning.
Anyway - if you so desire - the slow read was under the auspices of one Simon Haisell, at Footnotes & Tangents. Every day, there's a group chat, and every week, Simon does a wrap up. And some kind soul provided merit badges for the end of every section.
As for me? I am damned happy to have read it, finished it, done the thing I set out to do.
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