I would just like to announce that I passed the halfway mark in War & Peace yesterday. Yep, I am now on page 600. Only a nice round 500 pages left to go. <pat myself on the shoulder>

Now that I have read the majority of the classic, I feel that I am qualified to make a few comments.

1) It is a very long book. I have always considered myself to be a devoted reader, but this calls for new heights of devotion.

2) I think that it was Part 4 in which everything that I thought had happened turned out not to be true. That’s a mark of a good writer.

3) That being said, let me remark that Tolstoy is a good writer. I have been interested in watching how he examines a character’s most minute body movement, voice inflections, and habits to reveal the personality of the character. I am trying to use this type of observation on the people around me. I hope nobody ever uses the technique on me, though, because it would freak me out.

4) I enjoy how he depicts war. I’m guessing that he might even end up to be a pacifist. We’ll see. I do have another 500 pages to go.

5) With 600 pages under my belt, I no longer have to turn to the front pages to figure out who everyone is. The book follows 5 families. That’s a lot of people to keep track of. Good thing the book is so long.

5) It is a very long book.

6) I do not think that I will read it again. Well, maybe after 15 years or so. I am thinking that reading War & Peace is like childbirth–you don’t really enjoy it while it’s happening (even though it’s a positive experience overall), but a few months (or years) will dull the memory sufficiently to give you the courage to try it again.

7) I do, however, think that I will watch the 20 episode mini-series starring Anthony Hopkins. I watched once during college (Emily and I had a penchant for watching impossibly long movies) and really enjoyed it– even though I had no idea what was going on.

So there you have it. In the next few days I will find out if Natasha comes to her senses (I am most irked with her currently), if and how Pierre’s wife dies and leaves him in peace, if Rostov ever grows up, what happens to Napoleon (the only things I know about Napoleon I learned from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, namely, not much), and if Miss Bourrienne swindles the Prince.

Everybody who visits sees the book lying in state on the couch arm or the table and asks in a knowing voice, “Who’s reading War and Peace?”. I get all excited that I have finally found someone else who has read it and can assure me that it will, someday, end. And perhaps end well. But apparently I don’t know anybody who has read it. Do I?