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.
That’s totally fair and I get that. What I’ll add is that “the slog” is well-written and interesting, it’s just that none of it appears cohesive for a long time. You find yourself thinking, “What does any of this have to do with a larger narrative?” It does have a larger narrative, but my memory is that it takes approximately 300 pages for you to get it.
Agree wholeheartedly - it may be a slog from a perspective of understanding how everything is connected, but the writing is electric the whole way through