As I've mentioned many times now, I have recently become quite a reader of classic literature. For the past couple of months I've been trying to read
The Last of the Mohicans. Just by mentioning that I've been reading it for months tells you that this cannot be the most grabbing book I've ever read. This weekend as I pulled myself through another chapter, I realized two things:
- Even as I was "reading" it, I wasn't actually paying much attention to what I was reading. Consequently, I didn't even have a great sense for what was going on, which made it even worse to read.
- Having this as the novel I'm currently reading tends to turn me away from reading toward other activities like dinking around online doing nothing.
The upshot of all of this is that I decided to just put the book back on my shelf. There isn't much point in doing pleasure reading that isn't actually enjoyable. Honestly stubbornness is the only reason I stuck with that book as long as I did. Maybe someday I'll decide it's worth it to read it, perhaps a
different edition would help me get through it.
All that being said, I cannot say that this is an awful book. A quick look at the comments on Amazon shows that people pretty much either love this book or hate it. Unfortunately I'm in the second category. I you decide to read it, perhaps you will be lucky enough to be in the first category.
3 comments:
Philip, I have tried to read a few books like that too. You've got it right. Just put it on the shelf.
Love,
Grandpa V
Phil,
I'll save Ian the effort. The good news about Twain is that all his stuff is now in the public domain. There are two essays he wrote regarding Cooper. The first establishes his rules, but doesn't talks specifically about Last of the Mohicans. you can find it at:
http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html
The second talks about Mohicans specifically, with some choice dissection of a couple passages. It's at:
http://www.llumina.com/mark_twain_on_cooper.htm
Enjoy
Hey Phillip. This is Tiff. When you mentioned in the car the other night that you had a blog, I thought I would look you up. And say hi. "Hi!"
I would have to agree with you, "The Last of the Mohicans" is not the easiest book to get through. I am an avid reader, and I felt I was slogging uphill trying to find the concentration to finish. I suppose I just didn't care enough. Hope you are having a good week. :)
Post a Comment