Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well! It’s time for the twelfth(!) post in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you want to join in the challenge, you can find this year’s list of topics here, and if you’d like to read other people’s responses to this week’s topic, you can do that here.

A Famous Book I’ve Never Read and Why

I love to read. Love, love, love it! It’s my escape from the world and all of its scary craziness, my escape from myself and my craziness, and it’s also what I do for work and how I relax.

I have read many books in my (almost) 37 years. Some were great, and some were terrible (Grease, I’m looking at you!). Some were very well-known books, and others weren’t.

I like many genres, styles and formats, and my long, drawn-out point is that I am open to reading just about anything. Anything at all. Except for ‘War and Peace’.

I remember, growing up, my dad had a copy of ‘War and peace’ beside his bed. He would have a ‘main book’ that he’d read throughout the day and on most nights (I remember him rereading ‘The Cruel Sea’ about a gazillion times), though now and then, I’d find him reading ‘War and Peace’.

It took him years to finish it. Partly because he had a family and was super busy with work, and partly because it was so long and huge a book that if he read it for any extended period, he would start to get bored, and he knew if he got too tired of reading it, he wouldn’t want to finish it. So he read it piecemeal. He did finish it, though, about a year or so before he passed away.

For me, it seems like a book of torture; it’s a great slab of a book that just sat by my dad’s bed – a constant reminder that it was waiting to be read. I’m confident it’s brilliantly written, and some people love it, but it’s too daunting for me.

There are tons of other famous books I’ve never read, too.

I’ve never read ‘Little Women’, and I only mention this one because it was a book that was always on my mum’s nightstand, though it is on my list.

I’ve also never read any of the books from the major religions, such as ‘The Bible’ (although, being raised in an incredibly catholic family, I certainly read stories from it at Sunday school). I plan to gander at those at some time in my life, though I’m not a religious person. However, I find it incredibly interesting how many unconnected faiths and beliefs have a lot of similar stories, for example, ‘The Great Flood’.

Another famous book I’ve never read is ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I have no real reason other than that I’ve not gotten around to it, though I’m sure I’d have read it long ago if the story contained at least one alien or an axe-wielding maniac. Preferably both!

Well, that’s my twelfth post in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge complete. I’m curious to see which famous book you all have never read!

As always, thanks so much for spending your time with me today!

Until next time,

George

© 2023 GLT

Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Tags: book, books, famous, famous books, read, Reading, War and Peace, Wednesday, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge