Ana Karenina

Read the whole thing, and will admit that I liked slogging through the whole thing in certain ways. It's 853 pages, and I would say the 'good parts' could fit easily into about 50 pages. There are some interesting bits I'll admit. The chasing of the mushroom around the plate, that was interesting. Various bits of "philosophy" presented are actually interesting, but presented so superficially that they are more a prod to look up more about that, and the horse race was interesting.

Other than that, there's a lot of dull, nothing happens for 20 pages, and then the thing that happens, is essentially a scene change... Most of the novel is dull, and pedestrian. Maybe that's why it's so "good"? Because it's nothing fancy, but this is very much the bourgeoisie we're talking about. Even if they want to believe they are "poor".

Having read so many Russian novels recently must be making this easier, because I believe this one was the easiest read yet. I'm getting used to the style, so I don't have to keep stopping to think through what the author is trying to say. That's kinda nice.

I'm not sure what I think about the book as a whole. The characters were relatable, and I enjoyed most scenes, but I usually didn't like the ways Tolstoy would resolve issues in the plot. They felt too harsh and sudden without enough meaning dredged out of them first. Still, I don't know how I'd have done it better, so I won't complain about that too much.

Other than that, I'm glad I read it. It's probably not one I'll reread again anytime soon, but that's more because of the length than the content.