Les Misérables, Victor Hugo--did you know he used to write naked?
The rightmost shelf in my bedroom. Notice the latest addition next to the whale. Isn't it beautiful? Books also present here are my collections from my two AP classes: World History + English Literature & Composition. Basically, this is my shelf of ~srs~ literature.
At long last, I've finally finished reading this beautiful and terrifying book. It is by far the most tedious, most grueling reading experience I have ever had; much of my routine involved going back and forth between pages, reading the book in grade 7, having to look up a plethora of words every time I moved a page, eventually putting it down at Cosette, and never ever again picking it up until this summer, 5-6 illiterate years later.
After a violent tug-o-war of trying to read and giving up, my copy of Les Misérables is now far, far away from that negligent corner where it's been collecting dust and finally on my shelf where it rightfully belongs! See, dad? I told you I could do it. I CAN READ ANYTHING NOW LOL jk
I'm actually not that pressured to read and complete a bucket-list full of classics, though there are a few lucky ones. Among the ones I've read, Les Misérables. But I'm not going to lie. I had a really hard time with it as a child. The unabridged version I think is said to be at least 1500 pages while the one I had was an enriched classic worth 595 pages of text -- but it was still lengthy. Not only because the pages themselves were plenty, but also because the flowery, verbose style gives the impression of being one huge pioneering testament of the Romantic movement. The powerful makes it seem longer than it is. A lot of powerful descriptions and events were being told that my 13 year-old self could not keep up with. But years later, I found that my 18 year-old self could.
Here's a picture I took of Les Misérables in Queen's Theatre, London West End:
I might do a separate post about the play and the upcoming movie. Watch out for me during the release of the one by Tom Hooper. Not too many people I know have actually read the book or watched the play -- I've done both, the latter in West End, heck I've watched the Liam Neeson movie -- but in the inevitable event that musical posers begin flooding in, claiming to know everything about it just by the film, I will be out for blood. I am warning you guys ahead. I have an elitist streak. I'll be one of those purist bookworms who'll despise incoming fans silently from afar. But I guess this is how it feels to fall in love.