heading out of town with war and peace

This novel, this sweeping story of love, duty, loss, pain, regret, envy, duty.... I can go on and on. This is my company as I feel overwhelmed and stressed. 

Heading out of town for a busy, hot, rainy vacation. I thought of taking another novel, but War and Peace will be my companion for any downtime.

It's a fallacy that  you have to read a contemporary novel for vacation vibes. I am loving this reread :)

Here's hoping that what you are reading is transforming and changing you, and that you find peace while reading. 

books i want to read to finish out the summer

The summer has been extremely busy, and quite overwhelming if I'm to be honest. Reading (my constant companion) has been littered with dnfing up a storm- anything moderately uninteresting or boring GOES immediately.

Sorry not sorry.

I'm slowing working my way through War and Peace. I love Tolstoy so much, and his characters are so remarkable. So rich. So real. I don't think I am in the minority with this thought (though I may be), but I love even all of the war bits.

It's interesting to read alongside the Napoleon biography that I picked up. 

I am getting the itch to re-read as my life gets super busy in the heat of this summer. I'll allow myself to be pulled towards books I haven't read, and will reserve my favorite re-reads for the Fall when I am back in graduate school (unrelated in every single way from literature).

Here's what else I'm reading this summer...

big summer re-read: war and peace: I love tolstoy

I've written about my stressful life, and nothing helps me feel better is working through a huge mammoth tome like War and Peace.

This will be a re-read for me. I have just been having a craving for it. I pondered with several titles (Middlemarch, Moby Dick, etc.), but something is calling me to War and Peace. So, that's enough for me. 

At 1382 pages for the Penguin Edition that I owe both physically and on kindle, I'll be starting on June 1st and having a goal of 25 pages per day.

i have this physical edition & this same translation on kindle

I love sinking my teeth into sprawling classics, and taking my time to structure my reading life around a "big read". 

Leo Tolstoy is one of my favorite writers of all time. I seriously have re-read Anna Karenina (one of my top 3 favorite books) over and over again. I find so much peace inside the complicated characters and stories that Tolstoy wrote.

Like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy creates psychologically complex characters that help you learn so much about yourself as you read them.

If you read Anna's story and connected with her desire to be unfaithful because she felt restrained- you can better know yourself and what you think about infidelity. Do you lean more towards Levin's story? In War and Peace, I am eager to get back into the Napoleonic Era and the French invasion of Russia. Nothing like a good fictional account including Bonaparte. 

I'm aways reading a biography of Napoleon which should be a good accompaniment. 

side by side, this should be a great reading experience

Plans for Reading War and Peace this summer

1. 25 pages per day
2. Read physically
3. Read on kindle at night time (hello eye strain + light)
4. Blog my weekly experience here (along with photos!)
5. Keep notes in my physical book journal

I only read what inspires or motivates me. I don't read for number goals. I don't read to keep up with the literary Joneses. 

This is my life. My mental health. My sanity. I'm excited to dive back into this amazing novel. Feel free to join me. I'll be writing about it here.

Happy reading ☕️