Saturday, May 14, 2011

Summer Reading

Yes, it's so close I can feel it.
The heat, that is.
The long hot summer is bearing down.
For moi, it begins in about a week and half when school finishes up.
Oh yeah baby!
School's out for summer!
The good thing about this year was that I had some time to read a few interesting books, mostly following topics from history class.
There was that book on US foreign policy that I didn't quite get through and Free At Last? a book on the civil rights movement that gave me a good insight to what went on in that era.
There were also those books on Japanese internment that opened my eyeballs to what really happened back then.
Well, I'm hoping to carry all this reading on during the summer so I stocked up on a book.
That's right.
A book:



That's right very large tome fans!
The gigantictus humungasaurus unabridgedicus version of The Count of Monte Cristo!
I read The Three Musketeers and enjoyed it and I wanted to read something else by Alexandre Dumas.
Seeing as how I'm part French.
Okay, not really.
About the French part.
As for The Count of Monte Cristo, I sort of knew what I was getting into when I ordered it, seeing as how I looked specifically for the unabridged version.
There are also a couple of different translations, I went with the one by Robin Buss.
I didn't really know what I was getting into until it arrived in the mail.
As in I didn't remember ordering a telephone book.
The book is huge, like wide, like many many pages wide.
Just how wide is it?




That's almost 2 1/4 inches of classic French literature!
A very large bundle of pure joyness!
Dumas(1802-1870) was a prolific writer who wrote tons of stuff!
Mostly to help pay off his bills.
As far as I can tell, the original story was written in 1844-45 and was serialized in a newspaper and then collected into a novel.
Thus, some older versions can be found in multiple volumes, not all in one fantastically long book.
Just how long is it?



Lemme see.
My vacation is about sixty days long so that means, well, I'll have to read like twenty pages a day!
That's twenty pages a day of action, adventure, romance and archaic French witticisms!
Boy, I'm not sure I can take it!
I may have to wear my heart rate monitor!
I hope my head doesn't explode.

10 comments:

Rat Trap Press said...

What a coincidence! I'm about halfway through the Count of Monte Cristo. It's excellent. I've got it on my Kindle. I've been reading at night and on my breaks at work. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

limom said...

Cool!
Are you reading the long or short version?

Rat Trap Press said...

I'm not sure. I've got the free version for the Kindle. One commenter on Amazon says that the free version seems to match up with the unabridged book.

limom said...

Free?
You got it free?
As in absolutely free?
The unabridged version is supposed to have some interesting stuff in it compared to the abridged versions. Like you, I read the Amazon comments.
Okay, don't tell me how it ends.

John Romeo Alpha said...

I'm a big fan of monte christo sandwiches. They make great fuel for reading huge whopping tomes.

Steve A said...

Next - Limon in "The Man in the Iron Mask?" Bon chance...

Rat Trap Press said...

The free classics collection is one of the things that sold me on the Kindle. Sorry, I don't know how to do the short URL thing.

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_355831402_5?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=1QKP81XEH664SJR7PCEB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1297102482&pf_rd_i=1286228011

limom said...

JRA, I'm partial to pastrami myself.

Steve A., I've always meant to read the sequels, maybe after I finish this I'll go back and try to read all three.

RTP, I'll look into the Kindle again, especially now that the price came down.

indigo_ink said...

Haha! So I'm not the only one planning to do some serious reading during the summer ... is that a paperback? A while back I ordered another voluminous classic in paperback format, ended up rubberbanding it together. Paperback binding just couldn't hold up. :(

limom said...

Yes a paperback!
I humungasoid paperback!
Not sure whether or not the spine will take my abuse.
It's so hefty, not sure my girly arms can support it for any amount of time.
I may have to cut it in half.