I finished Anna Karenina this week. On my iPhone. All 4087 pages.
Crazy as it seems to read Anna Karenina on the iPhone screen, it was… well, okay, it was crazy. I admit it. I downloaded the book thinking I’d occasionally attempt reading it while waiting outside the kids’ classrooms at 2:55. I didn’t believe I’d like it, and I didn’t expect to get through half of it, let alone 4087 pages.
Shockingly, I did like it. There wasn’t a strong narrative arc, but I enjoyed it as a collection of wonderfully drawn, gentle portraits of highly messed-up people. Mixed with some amazing metaphors, plus masses of political discussion of which I understood very little.
In fact, I now realize that my entire knowledge of Russian history stems from:
- Anna Karenina;
- Russian Winter; and,
- The Winter Palace.
Oh, and maybe:
Wait, there’s also:
Yeesh — I’m practically a Russia expert!
Or maybe not. While I loved all five of these books, my background knowledge has gaps as big as Siberia. If I decide to read a second classic Russian novel (which I might, but probably not via iPhone), I’ll have to do a little (LOT) more research along the way.
удача!
Well, that’s still more than me. But what about Dr. Zhivago? Did you never see that on TV?
No! Yet another gap in my education.