Beej and Sherry:

I am thinking Steve will be buying us all diamonds when we finish :)

He is likely scouring Mexico for them as we speak :)

Thats really funny but the heck with diamonds..I'm hoping he remembers to send me some coffee.

We are so on the same page - I would be delighted with Mexican chocolate and/or oregano - am not familiar with mexican coffee, but sounds good . . .

Presents for everyone!

I did want to mention before my friend Whitaker shows up in the middle of the night my time that I was by no means criticizing his approach. In fact I believe that right here some days back I advocated skimming parts of the novel rather than giving up on it. That is exactly what I did years ago with Constance Garnett's translation.

Moreover, I am convinced now that the great story of Andrei, Pierre, Natasha, et al.--the novel-like part of the book--is nothing more than a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down, the medicine being Tolstoy's philosophy of history.

How could I, a person who has spent a lifetime taking the sugar and avoiding the medicine, in good conscience criticize someone else for doing the same thing?

So Steve does this mean I'll need to dust off my copy to read Part II of the Epilogue to get a diamond? Hmmm... not sure it's worth it unless it's something the size of the Koor-i-noor. LOL!

I agree with the classification difficulty though and I will be most interested in reading what people make of it and the non-novelistic parts.

Oh, bizarre, Whitaker! We were posting simultaneously. Please see mine above yours.

You do not have to return to Part Two of the Epilogue to get your present. It is not going to be a diamond though.

*GRIN*

I was about to cite Daniel Pennac's The Rights of the Reader. :-)

For everyone's reading pleasure, though, I set it out below:
1. The right to read.
2. The right to skip.
3. The right not to finish a book.
4. The right to read it again.
5. The right to read anything.
6. The right to mistake a book for real life.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to dip in.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to be quiet and not discuss the book with anyone.

I like Daniel Pennac's rights. Great.
As for a pressie from Uncle Steve upon finishing --- I'd prefer the diamonds to the tattoo or extra ear piercing. I've taken to buying 2 pairs of earrings as I always lose one - heaven knows what extra expense an extra piercing would mean. And a tattoo.....no, don't think so. A bit of Mexican sunshine might be nice also.

Ah, yes, Mexican sunshine for me, too. Although today looks like I'll have some NC sunshine of my own.

Alas, my copy of W&P somehow got left out of the bag of books I brought up here to the cabin. I wonder how that could have happened.

Ricki, just wear nonmatching earrings when you lose one. That's what I do. It's fun.

Ruth, I've been wearing non-matching earrings forever it seems but there are times when it just won't do. You'll just have to get your energy up for your return to W and P.

I'm fond of fake tattoos. Suited to my committment capacity.

Fake tattoos are a brilliant idea! Do we have anyone in attendance who has some design capabilities?

Arggh! I was hoping hard that the library would produce a copy of the new translation in time for me to dip into it at least a LITTLE prior to the discussion. I read W&P over 10 years ago and never intended to read it again, but the combo of the improved translation & discussion here had me dreaming of at least a PARTIAL re-read. It appears that it is not to be. But I will lurk in the discussion, a bit envious!

Mary Ellen

I went to another reading group today (one that meets in my local area). I Told one of the members that we were reading war and peace. She told me that she read it when she was young and skipped all the war bits.

I'm sort of amazed so many people want to skip the war bits - granted I am only 400 pages in, but I find the war stuff great - granted no one has ever written as well about dinner parties, but I think the war stuff is on par with the best of them.

I'd be curious if others have ever read Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma - that is the only other book I can think of that is war and homefront stuff so well - although all the war is in the beginning mostly in that one.

We read The Chartehouse of Parma for CC one year. I don't remember a thing about it. But here is the discussion: http://web.archive.org/web/2007090204041...

I really like the war parts much better with this reading. I don't know if that is a factor of the translation or of my age. But as I said before, the two parts seem much more integrated than I remember.