Read: Jan 12th - The Postmistress/Anna Karenina

I bought a book, I do believe I mentioned doing so yesterday, since it happened yesterday.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (who is apparently married to the poet Josh Weiner, I shall have to Google him later and read some of his work).

This morning as I sat on my bus to work I decided to begin reading.

Now the first chapter wasn't really a chapter and it instantly reminded me of some blogs I read of late relating to 'Prologues' and how they are useless, pointless additions to stories that nobody really wants, nor reads. Well I'm sorry, whoever said that, you're wrong.

Some may dislike prologues, but I actually love them. I didn't find this specific prologue useless, or pointless. It made sense and quite frankly it set the story up nicely for me.

I'm not quite sure what I make of the book just yet but it is early days - I'm on page 17 of 326, so exceptionally early days.

However, in this book I was met with a rather unusual section about a Leo Tolstoy book. With The Postmistress bring set during the Second World War, is it any surprise that a young woman would be shocked at the use of the words "Vronsky was making love to Anna"?!

Said line made me curious and when I get curious I have to do a little research. My curiosity was not about the line itself, but more about exactly how 'proper' and 'classic' is Anna Karenina, I assume that to be the book in question as Anna was mentioned. I often find classics quite, well, difficult. I prefer a story where I don't have to hold a dictionary beside me whilst reading. I found Wuthering Heights particularly difficult to read in college. So my curiosity was there and I remembered the wonderful invention of the iBooks app on my iPod. Within that application there are a large number of free books - all of which are classics.

And so I spent a short time (about 15 minutes probably) reading the first chapter of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

Read: Jan 11th - The Perfect Holiday (3)

I've finally finished this 'short read' and I'm now wondering the point. I can sit and read 4000 words about Skins and the story actually be wonderful, purposeful but this story just seemed odd.

It's all very well spending three chapters introducing three different sets of characters then another three or so chapters with all characters featured, but what was the point if the story? I suppose you could say the message of living life to the fullest is a good one, but per-lease, tired of it.

Overall, I actually enjoyed reading the book. I look forward to starting something new tomorrow! :)