One Day…

I work in a library…and yet, finding time to read is nearly impossible.  What’s up with that?

Anyway, I’ve been working on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  It’s such a short book that I didn’t expect to have a problem finishing it, but finding the time to read (when I’m not completely exhausted) has been a challenge lately.  Even my days off are filled with to-do lists and expectations.  The fact that I feel like I have to read every week makes it feel more like a chore than a joy and I feel like I’m back in school.  The combination of the two means that I’m doing less reading now than ever before.

I have set the 2015 Book Challenge for myself, and so I will find a way to accomplish it.  But next year, I’m not going to worry about how much I read.  Instead, I’m going to focus on enjoying every minute of it.

In the meantime, I am still working on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  Here are my thoughts on it so far.

  • I realize it’s a short book, but I HATE when there are no chapter breaks at all.  I just need a little something to break it into chunks for easier reading.
  • Showing us the main character’s life in prison before telling us what he is in there for was genius.  I was already feeling sympathy for him, and now I’m angry at the system.
  • There are a lot of details, but they’re so vivid and fascinating that I never feel like Solzhenitsyn is oversharing.
  • I still can’t pronounce either Denisovich or Solzhenitsyn to my satisfaction.
  • But every time I read the word “gulag” I think about Tina Fey and the Muppets.
  • The structure of the prison community is interesting to consider, because the “higher-ups” obviously designed it for easy control, but it also promotes camaraderie, which probably wasn’t the goal.

Anyway.  Trying to do better.  But I’ve been so busy…

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