War and Peace Readalong

Sunday, January 2, 2011


I'm officially in. I've been on the fence about joining this readalong, hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey, but a Barnes and Nobel giftcard from my mother-in-law (yeah, she's awesome) made up my mind for me. I bought the translation we are reading (I know it didn't have to be that one, but I had heard great things) and I just got it in the mail. Here's the reading schedule...
  • January 15, 2011: The first check-in will focus on volume 1. In my edition it is about 295 pages.
  • January 31, 2011: The second check-in will focus on volume 2. In my edition it is about 306 pages.
  • February 12, 2011: The third check-in will focus on volume 3. In my edition it is about 332 pages (the longest section).
  • February 28, 2011: The fourth check-in will cover volume 4 and the 2-part epilogue. These sections are about 282 pages in my edition.
So I will be diving into this massive book and hopefully loving every minute of it. If any of you want to join in, visit's Allie's blog for more details.

Photo by moi.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Jessica said...

Good luck with this. I am currently taking part in a year long read-along of War & Peace. So far I am really enjoying it and I have found it alot easier to read than I thought it would be. But I would suggest printing off a family tree and a list of characters off wiki as there are ALOT of characters and the family tree has been a God send for me.

Kristi said...

I'm so glad you're joining! It should be fun. I have the same translation but the UK version has a different cover. How nice of your MIL to get you a gift card for Barnes & Noble! I was naughty and just bought it for my self as an early Christmas present.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Jessica - That's a great tip. I will absolutely be printing one off for reference.

Kristi - I almost bought it before Christmas. It took all my will power to resist the temptation.

Allie said...

YAY!!! I am so glad you are joining! I only read the first chapter last night, but I am hoping to get a little further tonight, once I am done lesson planning. :) It is a lot easier than I thought. The only thing that I can forsee having trouble with are the names. Like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy likes having lots of names for one character. I think that I might take Jessica's advice and print out some helpers.

Anonymous said...

I wish I was brave enough to join in, but I think War and Peace is a book I won't read for another 10 years :\ It is simply too intimidating!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Allie - I just started as well. I was surprised by how much of the dialogue is French and only translated in the footnotes. I'll get used to it though. Here's the link to that family tree...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/WarAndPeaceCharacterTree.jpg

Iris - I'm intimidated, but I'm glad to have others to compare notes with as I read.

Michelle (my books. my life.) said...

Good luck! It took me about 5 months to get through it but it's SO good. Worth the effort.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Michelle - I'm so glad you said that! Sometimes when I'm undertaking a massive book I worry that it won't be worth the time and effort in the end. So that's really encouraging!

Amanda said...

Ha. I began it a couple of weeks ago (go 2011?) and am utterly relieved to see that someone else (others plural, even), started it around the same time. To fortitude, my dear!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Amanda - Yay! We'll have to compare notes at some point.