I just ordered Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" on Amazon.

[vixengrl]

I tried to read it about a million years ago when I was younger--just couldn't hang in there. Saw it as hours of my time I'd never get back. Shame of it is, I was a Literature major. At any rate, I read a criticism recently that he's better appreciated once the reader is mature. Well, here's my test. The same apprehension of just slogging through any great work has kept me off Tolstoy, too. (Probably why I prefer poets for my "lit fix"--brevity is the soul of wit and all that).

Anyone else diffident or outright intimidated by massive works of literature? Ever leave off reading a thing you know is supposed to be great, but by god, there's a sock drawer to organize? And you always think--"Well, one day I'll finish...(War and Peace, FinnegansWake, Atlas Shrugged (what the hell is that doing in my list?!--but then again, it has enough pages to be a pretty weighty doorstop, no?)"

And what book was it you meant to tackle?

[Codeine]

1. Proust has defeated me three times

in the last few years. I'm just not getting it. I will probably die a Philistine never able to finish In search of Lost Time/Rememberance of Things Past.

Tolstoy, however, proved a breeze. There's a real immediacy to his writing.

[villager]

2. Is this where I confess to still needing to finish "Sometimes a Great Notion?"

Of course, I've been more distractable in recent years, anyway, and am trying to reclaim chunks of unbroken "reading time" in this new year...

Maybe I need to be offline more...?

[JDPriestly]

3. I loved reading Proust so much the first time that I wanted

to write a dissertation on it. I have my Proust books on my shelf and hope to read them again in the not too distant future.

Good luck! I hope you enjoy it.

[Jim__]

4. Ulysses - not really that big of a book in itself.

But, I think that before I tackle it, I have to re-read The Odyssey. It was rated the best book of the 20th century, but I know some people find it difficult, so I keep putting it off.

[ananda]

5. As for Ulysses.. and Proust...

I was about three quarters through when I lost my old copy
of Ulysses, and I was rather liking it believe it or not.
The book just disappeared in a move to another city, along
with the notes inside it.
Huge bummer. I still haven't replaced it.

I did replace Guy Davenport's Geography of the Imagination
though, which has essays on Joyce and other great works.

I take it that In Search of Lost Time is the same book
also translated as Remembrance of Things Past?

I've never even tried to read Proust... and I don't know
that I ever will. I don't know what I'm going to read
next, but I'm sure something will speak to me when the
time is right.

Happy reading ya'll!

Sue

[tigereye]

6. I read Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead when younger, a lot of

Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, lots of classics, but not Proust. As another Lit major, I always meant to...

I have a copy of Ulysses, but have never managed to finish it after checking it out surreptitiously as a teen(I worked in the library and checked it out since i wasn't supposed to...), rather embarrassing. I keep telling folks in my book group that we need to tackle it, just so I will be forced to finish it... ;)