After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back!
My life-long dream of having a book club has recently taken off and I've gotten through 2 successful meetings!! I decided that the CPA exam was not going to take over my life, and since I won't start a full-time job for another month or so I decided to go ahead with the book club idea. In August we read "The Count of Monte Cristo" - this monstrous book is 1300 pages and after about 300 or so pages I was quite done with it. Those who attempted an abridged (600 page version) were able to make it through. But let me tell you, unless you are really into classic adventure, this book really doesn't offer much literary merit. The story moves fast but the writing is so common and kind of "blah" it doesn't easily take you through the 1300 daunting pages.
Our second book, for September, was "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte. And here is what I feel after finishing it:
This book is the first I have ever read in my life that I have immensely liked and passionately hated at the same time! What an eloquent writing - the words just flow so beautifully and capture you into the characters' lives like you have never experienced before. But those characters!! OH my GOODNESS - I hated almost all of them! They are odious people that you have but momentary sympathy for. Their characters are so dark and eerie that you are gripped to know more but repulsed by their actions/behaviors/thoughts at the same time. No wonder this book is a classic. This is a dark, dark, dark book - but every page kept me going back for more - it was almost irresistibly dark. As much as I love Jane Austen and her almost poetic-like beautiful writing and her wonderful flowery stories - this book, in my opinion, proved to be a more literary classic than any of her works I've read so far. Although written many years ago, and living in an age of terrorism and other terrible human traits, this book goes to the core of the darkness and evil that can be within a human spirit - terrifying but exciting read all in one!!
