That's right, I finally laid to rest the book I've been reading for the last, ahem, 2 and a half years. In my defence, it IS long. Not so in my defence, I keep on getting distracted by other, more fleeting books, written by Hauerwas and Lewis.
And so my next challenge is Anna Karenina. I thought I would let myself into the story gently, reading some of the preface, and introduction. I slowly and carefully started the preface by the esteemed John Bayley, thinking that this would help give some grounding for a book I've not read, nor heard much about.
I think it's safe to say that the preface did. In fact, it almost did away the need for reading the story, by detailing what happens to the main character. I know, generally, plebs like me don't read literary work by Tolstoy, but what kind of preface to a book is that?! Imagine a preface to a film that gave away the twist at the end. There's no point.
"Here's that DVD you wanted. It's really cleverly done. Oh, and at the end of the film, you find out Bruce Willis is ghost. ENJOY!"
Douchebag of a preface.
No comments:
Post a Comment