it doesn’t have to be your favorite book or anything. It can be any book that you find yourself thinking of with a sense of pride for having read it.
Personally, I am really proud of myself for not DNFing A Little Life and pushing forward. I read a very good chunk of that book with tears running down my face–mind you, I was reading it on my phone during lectures for the entirety of my first semester last year–and I was always on the verge of putting it down just because of the horrible content. Also, it was pretty long; too long, actually. So when I was done, I was simultaneously Heartbroken, broken (just like in general), and relieved. It was truly a feat.
An honorable mention is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, because I swear to God I did not understand a single thing about it even 10 chapters in. Charles Dickens is too much.
Ulysses by James Joyce. I read it and loved it, but did I understand it? Absolutely not. I need to reread it now that I’m older but it’s a hard book to want to read.
You have to read each chapter with the study guide. It’s an effort but as you know, really worth it.
Is the study guide something you bought or did it come with one?
I bought one. The one I used was “The New Bloomsday Book” by Harry Blamires.
I had a copy that a girl had annotated while studying the book in college in the 1960s. This was fine and helpful. I still kind of started skimming after the brothel scene. WTF
I was lucky enough to take a full semester-long class on reading Ulysses in college. There’s no way I would’ve 1) finished it and 2) understood much of anything without that.
Same here. Many readers can relate to it. I don’t understand a single thing! But James Joyce is really the best writer! But her work is a little complicated. She takes so much time to write her work, very difficult to understand in one read!
what did you not understand?
How can you love something if you don’t understand it? I genuinely don’t know how that is possible.
I thought the writing was beautiful, I got the main gist of the plot and I enjoyed that. The final page is one of my favorite pieces of writing ever. That being said, it’s a very dense book with a lot of allusions and a unique structure that makes fully understanding the book difficult. I understood the surface level well enough, and I loved the surface of the book.