Friday, March 25, 2016

THAT BOOK



Putting the book down for months, yea, even years at the time, I found it so boring. Yet curiosity spurred me on time and time again. I would pick it up, read a chapter or two, then leave it for months on end again. The greatest American novel they proclaimed. I HAD to find out why.


Some say they will not read a book if the first chapter doesn't grab their attention. Some will devote only a paragraph to their decision. Others will give the author only a sentence of a chance. I find those that grab and keep one's attention so easily are rarely more substantial than an evening's television show, mere fluff and twaddle. It doesn't grab you deep down, sit in your soul, and give you profound ponderance.

Yet I have found that my favorite books are books that I persevered through, determined to find out what made it such a classic. One of my favorites is A Tale of Two Cities, during which I was quite confused as to who was who and what exactly was going on, especially all that knitting. But by the end, as everything began to tie up neatly, and began to really make sense, it ranked higher and higher on my list of favorites.

Of course, A Tale of Two Cities has the most famous first paragraph aswell as the most famous ending paragraph. Neither could be considered uninteresting. But nowadays, to our poorly educated minds, that first paragraph is rather daunting. 

The books that stick with you, that add something to your heart and your life, that still mean something to you years later, those are the books that are worth persevering through that first sentence, paragraph, and chapter, even if it seems too difficult, too boring, or too anything. These are the books worthy to be called classics.

And so, Moby-Dick, so boring in the middle hundred or so chapters, finally grabs my attention in the last thirty chapters and now isn't boring at all, rather it is quite meaningful and profound. I will definitely call it a classic and a favorite.

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