Soporific

[jethrien]

I'm trying to read Tristram Shandy. This book is magic. I get three or four pages in, I'm entertained, and then I wake up. I try again, get another few pages, and suddenly realize that I've misread the same sentence four times because despite the fact my eyes are open and moving, I am in fact asleep. I wake up. Repeat.

Now, I have a certain stubborness about finishing books. I've read Les Mis and War and Peace. I got through Foucault's Pendulum and actually rather loved it. I survived The Autumn of the Patriarch, despite the fact that I think Marquez used exactly one period, at the end. I absolutely despised Gravity's Rainbow, but I finished it, goddamn it.

I don't know if I can make it through this one. Not out of a lack of desire, but just because I cannot seem to keep my brain online long enough to make any headway. Arrgh. Maybe I can alternate (I'm reading it on my Nook) - ten pages of Shandy and then a couple chapters of Jeeves and Wooster or something.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I loved Tristram Shandy! Granted, I was reading it for a class (have you gotten to the blank chapter yet? That reading assignment was like a gift from god). We only read half the book, though, and I've never managed to read the rest.

I should also point out that I was pass/failing this class and was still the only one who did the readings. Oh, and our teacher once shattered a window trying to demonstrate what happens when you let a window without a counterweight drop (as poor Tristram experienced).

It is awfully old, though, and the prose are deliberately dense, so I don't blame you. I have the cliff notes somewhere if you want those.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should like it--I like it on a sentence-by-sentence level. It's not like I'm bored or my mind's wandering. It's just that I'm reading and I'm reading and I'm rea-unconcious. Over and over again. And each time, I wake up and re-read the paragraph and think "that wasn't so bad, I can do this, I'll stay awake now" and then three minutes later, I'm out again.

I'm doing better on crowded trains where I can't sit. Maybe I just have to read this book standing.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

At the moment I am reading the Bhagavad Gita on the subway. I keep having to reread things. Cause if my mind wanders even a little I completely lose the train of thought. And if I put it down, I forget what all the sanskrit words mean and have to flip back through to find their definitions.

For example: Rishis who are sinless and pure attain to Brahmanirvana. Rishis of what description? Those whose doubts have vanished, who hold their Atman a prisoner and who rejoice in the good of all creatures.

Light reading, eh?

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I've had that problem with Robinson Crusoe. Never have been able to read it...I just keep falling asleep.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I actually loved Robinson Crusoe. Partially because I'm a sucker for "ingenuity on a desert island" narratives. Partially because a copy was lent to me in third grade by a teacher who noticed how much time I spent staring into space waiting for the rest of the class to finish the assignment and catch up to me. She gave it to me to keep in my desk and read whenever I finished early. The idea of being able to read instead of waste time waiting was such a relief.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I still don't know why it's so soporific for me. I made it through - and ENJOYED - Anna Karenina at the age of 10. And yet I've never made it through RC.