“I am never starting the new year with classic Russian literature again.”
~Liza in 2018 after starting the year with Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and spending the entire freaking semester reading it.
Fast forward 1 year…
I started the year with Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky – in conclusion, I am an idiot.
Pages read in February: 354
Pages read weekly: 89
Pages read daily: 13 (yikes)
“Book(s)” read in February:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pages: 300/551
Rating: ♥♥♥♥ (life-changing)
I can’t really give this book a full review since I haven’t finished reading it. I’ve decided to give it a 4/5 rating mostly because Russian Literature is that good, and I personally enjoy reading anything that comes out of the 18th century. When I first picked up Crime and Punishment, I wasn’t really thinking of how long it would take to get through due to the heaviness of its material.It’s about murder, and not the suspenseful, blood and gore, Stephan King murder- no. It is about how murder can kill you from the inside out. How crime affects the physique and attempts to answer the ancient question: are humans inherently good or bad? I find this topic to be incredibly interesting and I appreciate the distinct and specific nature of Dostoevsky. However , I sometimes feel that the plot of the book lags and is interrupted by an intense stream of consciousness. I expected it to be a lot more like Anna Karenina, but it wasn’t and that through me off big time. It is definitely the most challenging book I’ve tackled in a while and I know that I have to keep pushing through it since I’m going to see it again in my Honors in English and Creative Writing future. I plan to have this book done by my March Reading Ladder.
“Dreamspyre” by Sara Graefe
Pages: 56
Rating: ♥♥♥♥ (life-changing)
“Dreamspyre” is the play I’ve been given by Orchard and Hunni for One Act and so far I’m pretty sure I’ve read it 50 times over. It’s one of those pieces that needs constant re-reading since it follows two plot lines: Hypatia in 410 AD Egypt and Mary in 1989 Montreal. As I read this piece, I was concerned about how I was going to move it rom page to stage due to this and the writing is substantial to understand. The main theme of the play is ill treatment of women in scientific fields as well as normalized violence against women. “Dreamspyre” is a cry to stop this abuse and inform people on how this issue is just as relevant as it was in 410 AD. I’m super excited to experiment with this piece and honour the women murdered in the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal and Hypatia.
reflections:
I’m not happy at all with my reading rate this month but it’s a truth I’m going to have to accept and transcend. I may need to find a better balance with my reading so I can get through a lot more pages, but honestly, quality over quantity. The books I enjoy reading are challenging which means they take longer to get through, although I should still seek variety. My March goal after Crime and Punishment is to read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kaftka and Boy Erased by Garrand Conley.
