This marvelous website includes audio files for Russian name pronunciation.

http://www.fredonia.edu/faculty/emeritus/edwinlawson/russiannames/

Bush learning on job.

This must truly be a joke because we all know the boy can't read.

Yeah, me and Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskoya

The mere mention of reading ‘War and Peace’ usually makes people tune-out or at least wrinkle their nose in confusion as to why a person would do that (which in a library, does add to one’s concern…). So before I could begin, I had to try to figure out: ‘What’s the big deal?’ I’ve discovered a few interesting things: 1) There is a ‘progressive metal’ band called ‘War & Peace’, but I haven’t had much luck finding an online sample of their music…2) It’s been made into operas, movies and TV mini-series, as recently as 2007 (so if all else fails, I can watch the movie and hope that no one notices I haven’t read the book)… 3) There seems to be a great deal of discussion around why this is such a hard read. Even Oprah has multiple links on her website called, ‘How to Read War and Peace’.

Is it the length? That doesn’t seem daunting. I prefer series literature so that I have more to read. Is it the language? It’s been translated repeatedly – at least one of the translations should resonate with potential readers. Is it the content? In an era where war/battle/soldiers/shooting is a much sought after theme in entertainment mediums such has movies and video games – I can’t imagine that our collective consciousness is too delicate for the subject matter. Maybe it’s all the accolades the work has received. Could potential readers be frightened off by the works’ status?

Before I started reading, through the introduction and first 15 pages I was definitely of the notion that this task was too daunting and for every reason I’ve mentioned and more importantly, fear of appearing ignorant to my fellow reading group. I undertook my initial reading like I was studying for an exam. I scrutinized every detail, searched for hidden meaning, tried to consider in depth the consequences of character dialogue; this was wrecking the book. It became a chore and not wanting to fail, I had to change my approach or begrudge every moment with this text.

Normally I love reading fiction. I sail through it eager to see the story play out. So why should this be any different. Simply put, it’s a work of fiction and I am now treating it as such. With this new approach, the rest of my reading (and social life) has gone very well. I no longer feel like yelling at the other ballet mothers, ‘Keep it down!’ ‘Can’t you see your concerns about child development and social integration are nothing in comparison to my reading War and Peace!?!?’

Anyways, the washing machine has shut off, so I must return to my mommy-duties (yeah, me and Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskoya). See you all in the land of War and Peace (and Vodka baby!!!)

xo,

denise

PS – I’m going to try and make us a genealogy chart asap :)

End of Month 1 approaches

We're creeping up on the last week of the first month of the year. In theory, I have read nearly 60 pages of W&P, but in fact I've read the first fifteen pages about 4 times. I'm determined to get back on track though -- by changing my reading time. At the moment, I've been reading The Book at the very very end of the day: after the Pumpkin Princesses (aged 2 and 4) are all tucked up in bed, work for the day has been done, homework, housework... you get the idea. By the time I'm ready to settle in and read, I'm often confused by the lack of sparkly vampires and their half-human spawn in The Book. Which perhaps shows that it's time to make some time to read when I've half a brain to imagine with.

First Post - about this blog

A few of my colleagues at the North Vancouver City Library and I were chatting about books we wanted to read but never seemed to have enough time for. That led us to some chitty-chat about War and Peace, and an initial decision on my part to read the thing during the winter of 2009. NOT!

Early in the new year, the shame of not following through with my initial commitment compelled me to revisit the conversation with these same colleagues and we asked 'why don't we do this together', embark on this literary right of passage as a team? We can support each other, pretend, even, that we understand the thing and delight in having scaled the narrative summit of all narrative summits (at least that's what one pundit suggests). And we are, after all, a group of avid library users (and workers), but of course, we would need some rules. So in short order we came up with some and yes, here they are . . .

1. Membership is open to anyone at any time during the year (2010), but you have to catch up and commit to complete the thing in time for seasonally-appropriate libations expected at the end of December
2. We will read the Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky translation (available fairly inexpensively at the local bookstore).
3. We will attempt to cover 150 pages a month (that should take the year) and allow those of us with developmental reading difficulties enough time to get through, while also allowing for other leisure, work, or academic reading requirements to be met while attending to the general pacing of our lives.
4. No snobbish approaches or reproaches to the read, just honest reactions by way of posts and moderated comments (cranky or oppressive 'bookies' need not apply)
5. And, if we feel compelled, we will call on one another for support to get through, one transliterated sentence at a time.
6. Any thoughts of turning the experience of this blog into another 'year-of' movie, gets permission from all the authorized members of the blog first, who will share joyously and equally in any profits realized.

So, there we have it, and we embark on a year of War and Peace. Now, for the experience . . .

Chris