100 Years of Solitude
A few years ago I was in a class, a class that was so moving that I don't remember the subject any longer. I would like to say it was Modern Literature, but that does not seems right, all I know is that the professor assigned all books that were originally written in different languages or, by authors who lived outside of the United States. Obviously, I was not that moved or motivated by the class since I can remember nothing of it other than a) the professor was a dick, b) it was early in the morning on the opposite end of campus and I was always late and/or sleeping through and c)I still have the majority of books because I remember them being vaguely interesting and they seemed like a worthy addition to my bookshelf, and hey, I might even give them another shot someday.
One of the first, if not the first book that we were assigned to read was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was a lost cause for me. I remember that all the characters had the same name and that it was a very difficult and time consuming read. I think we had something like a week and 1/2 to read the novel. I think I may have gotten through the first 100 pages...maybe. I do remember writing an essay about "magic realism" which I jotted notes down from Spark Notes to pull off. I passed the class and never thought about the book again.
For some reason, in the past couple of years I found myself referencing the book in casual conversation or among friends when talking about certain character types. I more recently realized that I wanted to give the book a fair shake, because something that kept occurring had to mean that it was noteworthy on some level.
I picked up the book again for the second time three weeks ago. Now, three weeks is an extremely long time to take for me to read a book, I read very quickly and devour books often during the two train trips between work and home everyday. Not this book though. I found that, unlike most books, I could not read this book while listening to music, or after I had smoked...It was too difficult. I needed to give this book all of my attention. And, I did, eargerly. I even used the family tree in the beginning of the book to refrence characters when I got confused as to which Arulenio which was being refrenced.. I can honestly say, I got 2/3 through the book before I started to loose my grasp, but I made sure not to be disheartened and continued on.
I finished it last night. All 453 pages of it. And all I can say that it's one of the most amazing works of literature I have ever read. I am so happy that I decided to go back and read it again because I can honestly saw that I've never read anything like it before. Sometimes, there are just things that are worth giving another try.
Now that everyone know I am total nerd because I just wrote an entire journal entry about one book. GAH.
One of the first, if not the first book that we were assigned to read was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was a lost cause for me. I remember that all the characters had the same name and that it was a very difficult and time consuming read. I think we had something like a week and 1/2 to read the novel. I think I may have gotten through the first 100 pages...maybe. I do remember writing an essay about "magic realism" which I jotted notes down from Spark Notes to pull off. I passed the class and never thought about the book again.
For some reason, in the past couple of years I found myself referencing the book in casual conversation or among friends when talking about certain character types. I more recently realized that I wanted to give the book a fair shake, because something that kept occurring had to mean that it was noteworthy on some level.
I picked up the book again for the second time three weeks ago. Now, three weeks is an extremely long time to take for me to read a book, I read very quickly and devour books often during the two train trips between work and home everyday. Not this book though. I found that, unlike most books, I could not read this book while listening to music, or after I had smoked...It was too difficult. I needed to give this book all of my attention. And, I did, eargerly. I even used the family tree in the beginning of the book to refrence characters when I got confused as to which Arulenio which was being refrenced.. I can honestly say, I got 2/3 through the book before I started to loose my grasp, but I made sure not to be disheartened and continued on.
I finished it last night. All 453 pages of it. And all I can say that it's one of the most amazing works of literature I have ever read. I am so happy that I decided to go back and read it again because I can honestly saw that I've never read anything like it before. Sometimes, there are just things that are worth giving another try.
Now that everyone know I am total nerd because I just wrote an entire journal entry about one book. GAH.