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Literature
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 04:07 pmI was vaguely sure that I’d mentioned this before, but checking back a couple of months’ worth of entries, it appears otherwise.1
Having watched it on DVD recently, I looked up the Wikipedia entry on John Galsworthy’s magnum opus, The Forsyte Saga and discovered that he’d received a Nobel Prize for it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Nobel Prise winning piece of well, anything actually, so I downloaded it onto my Kindle for a good read.
I have grumbled about classics before. It’s no secret that I am no fan of the Victorian novel for instance, but since having the Kindle and with many classics being completely free or at least very cheap in that format, I have deliberately been downloading many of the titles that I previously eschewed. Apart from Northanger Abbey and Tom Sawyer, I haven’t actually read them yet, but they are there awaiting my attention. It’s slow work, improving yourself against your will.
Anyway, I digress.
Having decided that it is probably a worthy thing to read and as it counts as early 20th century literature rather than Victorian, despite being set in the Victorian era, at least initially, I downloaded The Forsyte Saga for less than a quid and have started reading it.
And that means that I have discovered a minor problem with the Kindle. It is not immediately apparent just how long any particular publication might be, when you read it from a Kindle. Had I bought it as a book, or series of books, I should have been able to get a feel for the size of the task I was embarking upon and mentally girded myself accordingly.
It has sunk in slowly just what a tome The Forsyte Saga is. I have read quite a few pages and the Kindle tells me that I have touched barely one per cent of the text. I think I may be in for the long haul. I think I may have to intersperse my reading of then tale with something considerably shorter and probably lighter. Though quite what at this stage, I am unable to say.
1I’m not sure whether I should be worried about this: I am quite used to forgetting things; I’ve done it all my life. Also, as I’ve got older, I find myself from time to time losing nouns whilst talking – you know, suddenly realising that you can’t find a common word, invariably a noun, and just stammering and petering out while your brain scrambles around looking for it. It’s all part of getting older. But now it seems that I am beginning to remember things I haven’t done…
Having watched it on DVD recently, I looked up the Wikipedia entry on John Galsworthy’s magnum opus, The Forsyte Saga and discovered that he’d received a Nobel Prize for it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Nobel Prise winning piece of well, anything actually, so I downloaded it onto my Kindle for a good read.
I have grumbled about classics before. It’s no secret that I am no fan of the Victorian novel for instance, but since having the Kindle and with many classics being completely free or at least very cheap in that format, I have deliberately been downloading many of the titles that I previously eschewed. Apart from Northanger Abbey and Tom Sawyer, I haven’t actually read them yet, but they are there awaiting my attention. It’s slow work, improving yourself against your will.
Anyway, I digress.
Having decided that it is probably a worthy thing to read and as it counts as early 20th century literature rather than Victorian, despite being set in the Victorian era, at least initially, I downloaded The Forsyte Saga for less than a quid and have started reading it.
And that means that I have discovered a minor problem with the Kindle. It is not immediately apparent just how long any particular publication might be, when you read it from a Kindle. Had I bought it as a book, or series of books, I should have been able to get a feel for the size of the task I was embarking upon and mentally girded myself accordingly.
It has sunk in slowly just what a tome The Forsyte Saga is. I have read quite a few pages and the Kindle tells me that I have touched barely one per cent of the text. I think I may be in for the long haul. I think I may have to intersperse my reading of then tale with something considerably shorter and probably lighter. Though quite what at this stage, I am unable to say.
1I’m not sure whether I should be worried about this: I am quite used to forgetting things; I’ve done it all my life. Also, as I’ve got older, I find myself from time to time losing nouns whilst talking – you know, suddenly realising that you can’t find a common word, invariably a noun, and just stammering and petering out while your brain scrambles around looking for it. It’s all part of getting older. But now it seems that I am beginning to remember things I haven’t done…