My post about Les Miserables provoked some good discussion–including teaching me another telling internet abbreviation (“TL;DR,” meaning “Too Long; Didn’t Read”)–including this exchange:
Amsdorf: I’m glad to hear you too have taken up the book. I have been reading it slowly, on and off, for nearly a year. It is a text to luxuriate with. It is very slow going but the book, as you indicate, is masterful. I have intentionally *not* seen any movie, or play, based on the book yet.
Me: Well-said, Amsdorf. “A text to luxuriate with.” I did the same kind of “on and off” reading for over a year, actually, with War and Peace. That’s actually not a bad way of reading a 19th century super-novel. I should have one going all the time.
Which started me thinking: Which one should I take up next? My wife is reading Trollope, no less. Maybe one criterion should be that it’s so old, so classic, and so un-commercial that it’s available free on Kindle. But I won’t press that point. What would you suggest?
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